Engine Updates

Bobcat 2.75
C source; Win32/64
- bug fixes in search, evaluation and SEE
- better time usage in fast time controls, especially in Fischer time controls
- added piece square tables for pawns, knights, bishops, rooks, queens
- modernized and tuned values of the existing piece square tables
- changed passed pawn evaluation; the bonus points for advancing a passed pawn one rank now increases with higher ranks
- a couple more situations are recognized as a draw
- the search no longer continues (does not deepen the search tree further) when evaluation recognized a draw in a position (in a search node)
- default number of threads is 1 (was 2)
- write more information to log file, when log file is enabled (default is to not create a log file)
- new version numbering scheme. This is version 2.75 because the program exists by now for two years and nine months
- tidied up code
https://github.com/Bobcat

Danasah 4.66 (WB/UCI)
C source (Spanish language comments); Linux; FRC; uses Scorpio bitbases and ProDeo opening book
- now root search
- changed time management
- no strength tested
- changes in the search
- similar strength to version 4.24
http://sites.google.com/site/danasah/

Jim Ablett Win/Linux builds
GreKo 8.1.1 JA (WB/UCI)
Win32/64, Linux32/64, Android
http://jimablett.hostwebs.com/

Rodin 4.0 (WB)
Win32
- changes in internal data structures
- tapered eval
- more chess knowledge added to eval function
- improvements in extensions and reductions
- opening book based on polyglot file format; own book
- speed optimizations
http://sites.google.com/site/clonfsp/rodin-chess-engine

Chess News

ChessPad 2.0.2 (WB/UCI) GUI
PGN game viewer, editor, annotator, diagrammer, opening book database, or play chess engines
- PosBase also updated
http://www.wmlsoftware.com/chesspad2.html

ChessZone Magazine
free monthly chess magazine of annotated GM games
- # 7, 2011
http://www.chesszone.org/magazine/magazine.html

Lantern Chess 4.08 (WB/UCI)
Chess GUI by Mike Adams supporting WB & UCI for ICC online play/chat for Linux, Windows and Mac
http://www.lanternchess.com/ (homepage)
http://www.adammr.com/lanternhelp/lantern-help.html (help)

Norm Pollock site
PGN & EPD Utility Suites and Opening Book PGN Databases
- new: GrandQ-R.pgn is joined files GrandQ.pgn and GrandR.pgn
- new: PosBook.epd is a neutral "epd opening positon book" of 2544 positions that occurred exactly after the 10th move (20th ply) in high quality games
http://www.hoflink.com/~npollock/chess.html

Winglet tutorial
A step-by-step guide for writing and improving your own bitboard chess engine by Stef Luijten
- Stef continues writing his C++ tutorial
http://www.sluijten.com/winglet/

Down/Problem Chess Websites

Anaconda/Gromit homepage down today
Armageddon homepage down today
BabyChess homepage down for 93 days (404: page not found)
Dann Corbit homepage down for 15 days (broken computer!)
Frenzee homepage down for 326 days (purposely down until new engine release)
Matacz homepage down for 5 days (no response in 60 seconds)
Superchessengine homepage down for 29 days (Bibi, Fruit, GambitFruit, Movei, Naum, Patzer, Smash & Toga II)
Bubble homepage back up

Wiki Changes
Nothing new today

Bonus Notifications (recent releases of free stuff)

Warnings:

- do not install unwanted toolbars, etc.
- alpha releases have new features; crashes and bugs are to be expected
- beta releases have new features; they may contain bugs or crash
- release candidate software may contain minor bugs; crashes are rare

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 2011 (build 1390)
Free anti-virus, anti-spyware program with excellent protection for Win32/64
http://free.avg.com/us-en/download-avg-anti-virus-free (homepage)
http://free.avg.com/us-en/download.prd-afh (download)

Calibre 0.8.9
cross-platform open source ebook manager for all popular ebook readers with format conversion,
news feeds, and integrated e-book viewer
http://calibre-ebook.com/

Digital Mars D Compiler 1.069 & 2.054
free compiler for Win32, Linux32, FreeBSD32 & Mac; an interesting OO language
http://www.digitalmars.com/d/download.html

Feng Office 1.7.5
free web-based open source collaboration platform
management of: project tasks, billing, documents, communication, scheduling, electronic information, etc.
http://www.fengoffice.com/web/

Firefox 6.0 Beta
popular, free, open source browser; recommended!
- this is a *beta* release
http://www.mozilla.com/ (homepage)
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-beta.html (beta page)

Komodo Edit 6.1.2
free cross-platform programmer's editor for JavaScript, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby and Tcl
http://www.activestate.com/komodo-edit/downloads

Process Hacker 2.18
open source; examine & manipulate running Windows processes & services
http://processhacker.sourceforge.net/

Python 3.2.1
popular open source scripting language
http://www.python.org/ (homepage)
http://www.python.org/download/releases/3.2.1/ (more info)

Python Tools for Visual Studio RC 1
free, open source Python IDE plugin supporting CPython and IronPython; NumPy & SciPy;
parallel & clustering support; debugging; profiling; more
- this is a *release candidate*
http://pytools.codeplex.com/

µTorrent 3.0 (build 25440)
open source BitTorrent client
http://www.utorrent.com/ (homepage)
http://forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?id=98500 (3.0 forum thread)

Meaning of Colors

Red = New or Warning
Green = Updated
Gray = Info Only

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Chess News: http://computer-chess.org/doku.php?id=computer_chess:wiki:lists:chess_news_list

NOTE: If you want me to track a website for you, please email me and I will add it.
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