Engine Updates

Nothing new today

Chess News

Popeye 4.63
open source chess problem solving with support for variant play
http://sourceforge.net/projects/popeye-chess/

SCID 4.5.1 development
cross-platform, open source PGN database program for creating opening books, also a Chess GUI
- development version, available as zipped source file only
http://sourceforge.net/projects/scid (project page)
http://scid.sourceforge.net/index.html (homepage)
http://scid.sourceforge.net/download.html (download)

WinBoard 4.7.1 Chess GUI (WB/UCI)
open source Chess GUI maintained and improved by HG Muller
- autosaving games in batch analysis with Analyze Game mode
- a very ancient bug in reading back scores from annotated PGN (flipping the sign of all scores between -1 and 0)
- quoting of the opening-book filename in the tourney file (so it can contain spaces)
- an ICS mode opening a chatbox for a channel now automatically subscribes to that channel
- a spurious error popup at the end of batch-mode analysis
- a buffer overflow with engines that played too many variants
- handling of unknown multi-line options in a settings file
- better compatibility with engines written for the Alien Edition
- accept first engine's setup command even when legality testing on when board width non-standard
- Xiangqi and Shogi sessions now remember the WinBoard settings in separate files (ICS usage already had such a dedicated settings file)
http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/xboard/ (Linux)
http://www.open-aurec.com/wbforum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=51528 (Windows)

Down/Problem Chess Websites

Armageddon homepage down for 11 days (403 error: forbidden)
Belofte homepage down for 56 days ("this site has been suspended")
ChessMind homepage down for 2 days (not found)
Dolphin homepage down for 54 days (not found)
Elf homepage down for 8 days ("domain name expired")
InmiChess homepage down for 51 days (no response in 60 seconds)
JavaRival homepage down for 18 days (no response in 60 seconds)
Pyotr homepage down for 51 days (not found)
Wing homepage down for 3 days (not found)

Wiki Changes

Engine GUI List
update by Norbert Raimund Leisner
-Smirf: removed dead link, replaced it with a good one
http://computer-chess.org/doku.php?id=computer_chess:wiki:lists:engine_gui_list

Mobile Chess List
update by Norbert Raimund Leisner
- added Chess Emire section
- minor layout changes
http://computer-chess.org/doku.php?id=computer_chess:wiki:lists:mobile_chess_list

Oldies Collection List
update by Norbert Raimund Leisner
- added 'Dann Corbit´s Crafty Compiles New Approach'
- added 'Michael Jeschke´s site about compiling Crafty with gcc under Windows'
http://computer-chess.org/doku.php?id=computer_chess:wiki:lists:oldies_collection_list

Online Databases / Game Collections List
update by Norbert Raimund Leisner
- added FEN Database by Mathieu Pagé
http://computer-chess.org/doku.php?id=computer_chess:wiki:lists:online_databases_game_collections_list

PGN Reader/Viewer/Writer List
update by Norbert Raimund Leisner
- added link for PGN2FEN - converter
http://computer-chess.org/doku.php?id=computer_chess:wiki:lists:pgn_reader_viewer_writer_list

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

aptosid 2013-01
Debian (unstable) rolling-release Linux distro; KDE or Xfce desktop; #75 in popularity
http://aptosid.com/

Avant Browser 2013, Build 107
free Windows web browser designed to expand Internet Explorer features
http://www.avantbrowser.com/

GCC 4.7.4 Win
MinGW-w64 builds by 'rubenvb' for Win32/64, Cygwin & Linux64
http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw-w64/files/Toolchains%20targetting%20Win64/Personal%20Builds/rubenvb/gcc-4.7-release/

Notepad++ 6.3.3
open source programmer's editor (Windows only)
http://notepad-plus-plus.org/

Meaning of Colors

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

Engine List: http://computer-chess.org/doku.php?id=computer_chess:wiki:lists:chess_engine_list
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.
ron _at_ computer-chess _dot_ org