Monday, May 31, 2010

where would you go, firebird



Nigel Bryant - Elizabeth Vicary
black to move
where would you go??


In other news, there's a new free open source chess engine, firebird, that beat Rybka in Greg's unofficial home match 44-16.

8 comments:

  1. Which version of Rybka?
    Which version of Firebird?
    Contenders for strongest engine: TobyTal; Firebird 1.2 MP; Rybka4 MP; Hiarcs13.1MP.

    ReplyDelete
  2. spoilers below this point ;)

    ...bd4 with the idea of for example
    bd4 nf4
    qd2 qd4
    qd4 ne2

    ReplyDelete
  3. If firebird is so good, why doesn't it participate in official engine tournaments (won recently by Rybka) instead of playing in Greg's home?

    Kapalik

    ReplyDelete
  4. The IPPOLIT engines, Firebird included, are Rybka clones. They basically play like Rybka "2.5" with some additional endgame features. They are stronger in fast time controls as they have most of the positional analysis algorithms from Rybka 3 stripped out so they reach greater depths of ply faster.

    Deep Rybka 4 is stronger than them in all time controls.

    They are not allowed to compete in official engine tournaments as the author of the programs refuses to reveal himself and anonymous programs are not allowed.

    ReplyDelete
  5. because it likes to play poker at the same time in its underwear?

    everyone agree with jens then?

    ReplyDelete
  6. White has a defense against the Bxd4 idea:

    1...Bxd4
    2.Bxd4 Nf4
    3.Qe3 Qxd4
    4.Nf6+! gxf6
    5.Qg4+ Ng6
    6.Bxf6

    ReplyDelete
  7. Qa6 forks the queen and the a2 pawn. Though not at first obvious, black will actually have the better pawn structure for any endgame as well as the better minor piece or pieces.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I see there is some controversy over whether this new engine is open source. It makes me want to seek out an engine which virtually everyone agrees is open source.

    I also want to find a cool open source PGN program that will let me easily publish diagrammed position.
    When I wrote a book of chess poems a decade ago, I found one, but I can't remember which one I used.
    I like the board graphics on your site.

    My theory is that the d4 is always poisoned, when it looks so tempting.
    This could probably be stated in a theorem: Poison = 3([degree of beauty of apparent redeeming tactic] + [number of tactical shots available to the other side]/divided by the 1/the amount of time left on the clock])

    ReplyDelete