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A rich source of free Xiangqi engines is the Elephantbase website. (All links starting with UCCI. Don't let the Chinese deter you!) This is another forum where Xiangi engine authors often post their latest versions. Results of the XiangQi Clash 2010 engine tournament can be found here. |
A large number of engines using UCCI protocol can be obtained from the elephantbase website. (Beware, it is in Chines, and crashes my MS Internet Explorer, although I can view it fine with FireFox.)
The following is the list of engines I could download. BugChess, 3DChess, Kou and Binghewusi currently seem the strongest. Coony and Jiaolong seem amongst the weakest (from those that play without trouble). Some I could not get running, they seem non-compliant with the UCCI standard, and hard-wired to play at one particular time control, which makes them forfeit without worry on any faster time control. Some do understand time contol, but are just a ittle bit too slow, and lose on time a lot (XQ Spirit, Elephant Eye). Perhaps the extra delay due to the adapter is the cause of this.
translated name engine behavior under WinBoard + UCCI2WB
3DChess 3DChess OK
Anita Anita OK
Soldiers River 54 Binghewusi OK
Rationale governing Ch BitStronger seems to ignore clock, is ~2x too slow at 40/1
???? Blcx OK
Coony Coony OK
EyChessU EyChessU newer versions are OK
Hice Hice OK
Jiaolong OK, but leaves an inactive process in 40% of cases
Jupiter Jupiter OK (score in mP)
King of Chess King moves instantly if movestogo > 7
Cloud as Kou OK
Lily Lily Seems to use no CPU time (swapping?)
Mars Mars Fruit clone, but seems completely dead at UCCI level
Dream ?? Egg mrsd is the Ki11egg Qianghong plugin with QH2UCCI adapter
Miao Qi NymphChess OK
Chess Star QStar seems to ignore clock, is ~2x too slow at 40/1 (does not print PV)
16 people Sixteener uses msec without saying so, ignores movestogo (assumes 40 + increment)
Chess Swallow Swallow OK
Thought THT OK
?? abstruse TLXJ OK
Battle Chess UFX OK (score in mP)
Chess Cyclone XQ Cyclone OK
Wizard Chess XQ Spirit OK
Si fate drinking water Yssy OK
Lately I acquired some newer versions of some of these engines on the xqbase.com and rsjy.net forums. Not all of these are without problems either:
ElephantEye 0.21 Included in the XQ Wizzard package EleEyeX 1.0.0.1 Loses on almost all games on time at 40/1. X2011 0.50.2 Incompliant: needs "setoption usemillisec true". Uses 1.2 CPU Kou 1.0.1.8 Uses 1.3 CPU.
There is only a hand full of Qianhong plugins, but some of them are quite interesting if you like to have a chance at beating the computer. The Qianhong plugins can all be downloaded from here, and can be played under WinBoard through the QH2WB adapter. They currently use unpredictable time; perhaps in a future version of QH2WB I will let do the adapter the time accounting, and let it set the plugins for the highest level, and interrupt them (by sending a TIMEOUT command, which is the QH equivalent of the WinBoard 'move now' command) when the calculated time is up. This would still put them at a disadvantage to engines with proper time control, as interrupting a search in progress usually causes a lot of time to be wasted.
The main thing that is important to know about the Qianhong plugins is the levels they can run at. In principle you can figure this out by starting their executables from the command line, with a '-info' argument. They then print out everything that is to know about them. But just to save you some work:
Qianhong levels 1-3 VSCCP levels 2-9 Ki11egg levels 5-14 Elephant Eye levels 1-6
Note the latter is actually the UCCI engine running under UCC2QH, so running it as a QH plugin under WinBoard is needlessly complicated, using 2 adapters; it would be much better to run it directly through UCCI2WB.
To get a rough impression of the relative strength of the various engine, I conducted a round-robin of bullet games (40/1) early 2011, where every engine played every other engine 10 times. The tourney was conducted with WinBoard 4.5.1, applying strict perpetual-chase rules, and declaring draw after 30 non-reversible moves (not counting checks and evasions). This produced the following ranking:
name perc. pnt games Buchh S-B
1. Cyclone 2009 (UCI) com 89% 284.5 /320 (49955.0, 43604.3)
2. BugCChess 2010.05.23 86% 275.0 /320 (50050.0, 41458.3)
3. Binghewusi 2.44 76% 242.5 /320 (50375.0, 36190.0)
4. Kou 0.1.3 69% 222.0 /320 (50580.0, 32947.5)
5. 3DChess * 63% 201.5 /320 (50785.0, 29308.0)
6. 3Dchess 0.92 63% 201.0 /320 (50790.0, 28735.3)
7. Binghewusi * 61% 194.5 /320 (50855.0, 28099.3)
8. BugChess 0.1d5 60% 191.0 /320 (50890.0, 27888.3)
9. Ultimate Fight 2010.11.11 # 59% 190.0 /320 (50900.0, 28130.3)
10. EyChessU 1.889m # 57% 184.0 /320 (50960.0, 26908.8)
11. Yssy * 55% 176.0 /320 (51040.0, 25509.3)
12. X2011 0.50.2 # 53% 168.5 /320 (51115.0, 24314.3)
13. Thought 1.1 * 52% 166.0 /320 (51140.0, 23435.5)
14. Kou 0.0.3 * 51% 164.5 /320 (51155.0, 23287.8)
15. Swallow 0.9.1 * 50% 160.5 /320 (51195.0, 23166.8)
16. Elephant Eye 3.21 48% 155.0 /320 (51250.0, 21946.5)
17. Cyclone 0.55 * 48% 154.5 /320 (51255.0, 21543.8)
18. NymphChess 0.159 * 47% 152.0 /320 (51280.0, 22163.0)
19. XQ Spirit 2010.5.13 47% 151.0 /320 (51290.0, 21379.5)
20. Ultimate Fight 0.26.22 46% 147.5 /320 (51325.0, 20759.8)
21. HaQiKi D 1.7d h2 (WB) 46% 147.0 /320 (51330.0, 20830.3)
22. Elephant Eye 3.15 45% 142.5 /320 (51375.0, 19875.5)
23. XQ Spirit 0.3.11 * 42% 136.0 /320 (51440.0, 19615.3)
24. Jupiter 0.91 * 40% 128.0 /320 (51520.0, 18109.0)
25. HaQiKi D 0.8c (WB) 40% 127.5 /320 (51525.0, 18081.8)
26. Tlxj 0.3 * 39% 126.0 /320 (51540.0, 17839.8)
27. HIce 0.7.5 * 38% 122.0 /320 (51580.0, 17467.0)
28. Blcx 0.56 * 38% 122.0 /320 (51580.0, 17158.8)
29. EyChessU 1.866 34% 108.5 /320 (51715.0, 15333.5)
30. Anita 0.2 * 31% 100.0 /320 (51800.0, 14255.0)
31. Coony 1.05 * 31% 99.0 /320 (51810.0, 13827.3)
32. Ultimate Fight 0.21.5 * 29% 94.0 /320 (51860.0, 13406.3)
33. Jiaolong 1.0 * 14% 46.0 /320 (52340.0, 6577.0)
* = from xqbase.net, # = from rsjy.net forum, com = commercial
According to BayesElo (with an offset of 2500, for no specific reason) this produces the following rating list
Rank Name Elo + - games score oppo. draws 1 Cyclone 2009 2869 50 45 320 89% 2488 10% 2 BugCChess 2010.05.23 2827 46 42 320 86% 2490 11% 3 Binghewusi 2.44 2698 37 36 320 76% 2494 22% 4 Kou 0.1.3 2648 36 35 320 69% 2495 19% 5 3DChess 2596 35 34 320 63% 2497 20% 6 3Dchess 0.92 2595 34 33 320 63% 2497 23% 7 Binghewusi 2574 33 33 320 61% 2498 27% 8 Ultimate Fight 2010.11.11 2573 34 34 320 59% 2498 20% 9 BugChess 0.1d5 2565 33 33 320 60% 2498 29% 10 EyChessU 1.889m 2560 35 34 320 58% 2498 17% 11 Yssy 2542 35 35 320 55% 2499 14% 12 X2011 0.50.2 2515 32 32 320 53% 2500 30% 13 Thought 1.1 2512 33 33 320 52% 2500 26% 14 Kou 0.0.3 2508 33 33 320 51% 2500 25% 15 Swallow 0.9.1 2498 34 34 320 50% 2500 20% 16 Elephant Eye 3.21 2488 33 33 320 48% 2500 26% 17 Cyclone 0.55 2484 34 34 320 48% 2501 15% 18 XQ Spirit 2010.5.13 2480 33 33 320 47% 2501 25% 19 NymphChess 0.159 2479 35 35 320 48% 2501 13% 20 Ultimate Fight 0.26.22 2470 33 33 320 46% 2501 27% 21 HaQiKi D 1.7d h2 2468 34 34 320 46% 2501 19% 22 Elephant Eye 3.15 2460 33 33 320 45% 2501 23% 23 XQ Spirit 0.3.11 2449 33 34 320 43% 2502 23% 24 HaQiKi D 0.8c 2420 34 35 320 40% 2502 16% 25 Jupiter 0.91 2418 34 35 320 40% 2503 17% 26 Tlxj 0.3 2416 34 34 320 39% 2503 21% 27 HIce 0.7.5 2409 34 34 320 38% 2503 20% 28 Blcx 0.56 2407 34 34 320 38% 2503 21% 29 EyChessU 1.866 2371 35 36 320 34% 2504 13% 30 Anita 0.2 2351 35 35 320 31% 2505 20% 31 Coony 1.05 2348 35 36 320 31% 2505 18% 32 Ultimate Fight 0.21.5 2330 36 37 320 29% 2505 14% 33 Jiaolong 1.0 2175 42 46 320 14% 2510 10%
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