Engine Updates

Bouquet 1.5 (UCI)
Win32/64; Ippolit derivative
- silent update, no version change
- recompile of Win32/64 versions to prevent crashing on some older cpus
https://sites.google.com/site/chessbouquet/

Butterfly 0.5 (UCI)
C++ source; Win32/64, Linux32/64; Mac32/64
- silent update, no version change
- new Mac builds added
http://code.google.com/p/butterfly-chess-engine/downloads/list

Capivara LK 0.08b04 (UCI)
Win32/64; TSCP derivative; requires VC runtimes unless using alternative version
- "The three versions of the chess engine Capivara republished on 28.09.2012 were recompiled to show their lines of analysis"
http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=auto&tl=en&a...

Crafty 23.5 (WB)
C++ source; mp; limit strength; Win32/64
- slight modification to source code for clean MSVC 32-bit builds
http://www.kikrtech.com/

Jim Ablett Win/Linux builds
Crafty 23.5 JA (WB)
C++ source; Win32/64, Linux32/64, Android; mp; limit strength
- code cleanup (for readability & speed) in several places
- using specific sizes of int where necessary for cross-platform compatibility
- forward pruning less likely to throw away advanced passed pawn moves
- new display command options: 'display everything' & 'display nothing'
http://jimablett.net63.net/

Delphil 2.9g (UCI)
Win32; mp
http://delphil.perso.neuf.fr/English/index_e.htm

Robbolito 0.21Q (UCI)
C source; mp; Win32/64, Linux32/64, Android; own tablebases; this is an 'official' IPPOLIT fork directly derived from IPPOLIT and added tablebase support and mp
- this release will run on Win32/64 only
- much evaluation code added: pins, queen, rook, pawn, and endgame
- Q optimizations (Quocvuong82)
- agressive hash prefetching
- Windows large page support
- search parameter optimization
- 64 bit Intel intrinsics
- 10% speed increase (0.20Q) plus 2-4% speed increase (0.21Q)
- display of distance-to-mate fixed
http://ippolit.wikispaces.com/RobboLito (homepage)
http://www.chesslogik.com/robbolito.htm (download)

Rodin 5.1 (WB)
Win32
- bugfix: no more crashes on AMD cpus
https://sites.google.com/site/clonfsp/rodin-chess-engine

Deep Saros 3.1 (UCI)
C source; mp (12 cpus); Win32/64; this is an IvanHoe derivative
this seems to be a downgrade from 3.2 "Capa"
- new experimental evaluation functions
- new time manager
- correct some bugs
- some code optimizations
http://deepsaros.jimdo.com/

Stockfish 2.3.1 JA (UCI)
C++ source; own GUI, mp; Win32/64, Linux32/64, Mac, Android; can use Gaviota ebtbs
- separate downloads for each operating system
- fixes a FRC bug
http://www.stockfishchess.com/

Jim Ablett Win/Linux builds
Stockfish 2.3.1 JA (UCI)
C++ source; own GUI, mp; Win32/64, Linux32/64, Mac, Android; can use Gaviota ebtbs
- bugfix for 64 bit Windows versions
- single download with versions for all operating systems
http://jimablett.net63.net/

New Crafty ftp location:
http://www.cis.uab.edu/hyatt/crafty

Chess News

Bopo 1.0
calculates relative ratings based on results by Daniel Shawul
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/55295461/Bopo.zip (direct link)

ChessX 0.9.0 GUI (WB/UCI)
PGN database program for Windows, Mac & Linux w/ analysis only (not for playing)
http://sourceforge.net/projects/chessx/
http://chessx.sourceforge.net/

Kvetka 3.16 Chess GUI (UCI)
designed for game viewing and analysis; several plug-ins available; available in a portable version
- new plugin: 'PGN handling' added
http://kvetka.org/en/

Lucas Chess 7.0 dev 2
"play chess against the computer with increasing levels of difficulty and with a limited number of hints that are given by a chess tutor"
Open source (Python); Win32
- this is a *developmental* (beta) release
https://code.google.com/p/lucaschess/ (homepage)
https://code.google.com/p/lucaschess/downloads/list (download)

Numbit 1.0
new chess engine by Nuvit Bayurgil
Win32; own GUI
- VB-based engine
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/50057407/NumBit-B00.exe (direct linkl)

Olivier Deville's PGN collection
also a Polyglot book based on all the PGN games
Olivier updates this collection monthly
"Games from 2001 to 2012"
- minimum Elo = 2530
- only long time control games
- no annotations
- no computer games
- no games under 20 moves
http://www.open-aurec.com/chesswar/download.html

Ordo 0.6
calculates relative ratings based on results by Miguel A Ballicora
- a table of expectancies can be obtained from a switch, to illustrate what the rating points mean
- players who won all, or lost all, have a special treatment after the general rating calculation
- connections or lack thereof between different groups are reported, so the user could make an informed decision
- simulations use an empirical formula that fits real draw data, improving the accuracy of the error margins
- the confidence level for error margins now could be set with a switch (-F); before it was fixed to 68% (~one standard deviation), now the default is 95% (~two standard deviations) since most people are accustomed to using that
- the names in the .csv files have been removed from spaces (bug fixed)
- 3 new switches are available:
---T display winning expectancy table
---g <file> output file with groups connected
---F <value> confidence (%) to estimate error margins; default is 95.0
https://sites.google.com/site/gaviotachessengine/ordo

Polyglot 1.4.70b
Michel Van den Bergh's Linux and Windows builds based on Fonzy Bluemers modification
of Fabien Letouzey's Polyglot with original work and bugfixes
- merge-book did not work correctly on Windows
http://hardy.uhasselt.be/Toga/polyglot-release/ (rpm, tar.gz, & exe)

Winboard/Xboard 4.6 Beta (WB)
HG Muller is at it again!
this is an upgrade from version 4.6.2
- excluding moves during analysis
- the ability to analyze with two engines simultaneously
- annotating all games in a multi-game file with analysis scores and PVs
- starting WinBoard through drag & drop
http://hgm.nubati.net/news.html (news page)
ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/xboard/xboard-master-20120930.tar.gz (Xboard)
http://hgm.nubati.net/WinBoard-Portable.zip (Winboard)

Down/Problem Chess Websites

Aristarch homepage down today (no response in 60 seconds)
Dann Corbit homepage down for 464 days
FirstChess homepage down for 22 days (not found)
GreKo homepage down today (a 110mb.com site)
Igor Gorelikov Tools homepage down today (a 110mb.com site)
Mizar homepage down for 44 days ("domain has expired")
PolarChess homepage down for 29 days
Pyotr homepage down today (no response in 60 seconds)
Tornado homepage down for 43 days (programmer has purposely removed his page)

The Computer-Chess Wiki site was down for a day due to a hard drive failure

Wiki Changes

Chess Engine List
update by Norbert Raimund Leisner
- Butterfly: version update
- Capivara: version update
- ChessNovice: added a comment
- Crafty: updated a link, added a comment
- Nimzo: expanded comment
- Stockfish: version update
http://computer-chess.org/doku.php?id=computer_chess:wiki:lists:chess_engine_list

GUI Protocol List
update by Norbert Raimund Leisner
- updated Chess Academy comments
- ChessBase: added some more links
- ChessGenius Classic: added some more links
- Chess Partner: added some more links
- WinBoard/XBoard: added another link
http://computer-chess.org/doku.php?id=computer_chess:wiki:lists:gui_protocol_support_list

Macintosh Engine List
update by Norbert Raimund Leisner
- added Butterfly Chess
http://computer-chess.org/doku.php?id=computer_chess:wiki:lists:macintosh_engine_list

Online Databases / Game Collections List
update by Norbert Raimund Leisner
- updated link for The Week In Chess Magazine by Mark Crowther
http://computer-chess.org/doku.php?id=computer_chess:wiki:lists:online_databases_game_collections_list