Star Diamond as UCI Engine

Post by **Alain** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 5:49 am

Hello,

I have rewritten my UCI Driver for the Novag Star Diamond and it is now quite stable. THis is a program which makes the SD usable as an UCI Engine in PC programs such as Fritz or Arena (I did not test other GUIs).

This drivers has several usages :

1. when you play a game between two machines : it will remove the need to enter the moves on both machines + record them. Personnally, I often finish playing only on the machines and then to rely on the replay feature of one of them to save the game. I remember games played between Citrine and SD which I played with the first version of the drivver : it was very pleasant to play the game on the Citrine and just to enter moves in Fritz and get the answers from SD there.

2. when you want to play against the SD itself, you can configure the GUI in "demo" mode and it will simply record the game played on the dedicated machine

3. finally, if you want to do a series of tests such as BT2450, it is cool not to have to enter the position in the machine but simply to send the position

There is always space for improvement so I'll be very happy to get feedback

Other machines will follow...

Here is the link of the page where this driver can be downloaded

Best regards,
Alain

mclane · Post by **mclane** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 7:05 am

cool - thank you very much.

KarmaZen&Oliver · Post by **KarmaZen&Oliver** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 6:16 pm

Alain wrote:Hello,

I have rewritten my UCI Driver for the Novag Star Diamond and it is now quite stable. THis is a program which makes the SD usable as an UCI Engine in PC programs such as Fritz or Arena (I did not test other GUIs).

This drivers has several usages :
1. when you play a game between two machines : it will remove the need to enter the moves on both machines + record them. Personnally, I often finish playing only on the machines and then to rely on the replay feature of one of them to save the game. I remember games played between Citrine and SD which I played with the first version of the drivver : it was very pleasant to play the game on the Citrine and just to enter moves in Fritz and get the answers from SD there.

2. when you want to play against the SD itself, you can configure the GUI in "demo" mode and it will simply record the game played on the dedicated machine

3. finally, if you want to do a series of tests such as BT2450, it is cool not to have to enter the position in the machine but simply to send the position
There is always space for improvement so I'll be very happy to get feedback
Other machines will follow...

Here is the link of the page where this driver can be downloaded

Best regards,
Alain

very interesting ALAIN... SD have better support that citrine, and send a lot of info...

if I understand you correct... you can test CITRINE versus SD ?¡... that is very interesting too ¡¡ is it correct ?

bye. oliver since spain.

Edit: I´m say again more big... THAT driver is a FANTASTIC option for users of SD ¡¡¡

Post by **Alain** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 6:57 pm

Hi Oliver,

KarmaZen&Oliver wrote:very interesting ALAIN... SD have better support that citrine, and send a lot of info... if I understand you correct... you can test CITRINE versus SD ?¡... that is very interesting too ¡¡ is it correct ?

may be I was not clear : I did not make a full automatic game between Citrine and Star Diamond although I could (I also have a Citrine version of my driver and I will release it when finalized) but I was saying that when I played games between these two computers, it was very confortable to move only the pieces on the Citrine and then report its move in Fritz, which would send the move to the SD and then display its answer.
This way, I only had to move the pieces on one computer, and more important, I was sure to record all moves and not to forget some of them.

Best rergards,
Alain

Wardy · Post by **Wardy** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 9:27 pm

Hi Alain,

Any idea where I could get a suitable cable to connect my SD? Or indeed the specifications to make one?

Connectivity regards

Paul

Post by **Alain** » Wed Oct 31, 2007 9:35 pm

Hi Paul,

Wardy wrote:Hi Alain,

Any idea where I could get a suitable cable to connect my SD? Or indeed the specifications to make one?

Connectivity regards

Paul

here is a page with the description of the cable :
http://www.tervo.ca/chess/sapphire.htm

Best regards,
Alain

Post by **Alain** » Sat Nov 03, 2007 6:36 pm

A new version is on the site :
1) small corrections for Star Diamond
2) addition of Sapphire II and Diamiond

Best regards,
Alain

spacious_mind · Post by **spacious_mind** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 5:40 am

After playing with Novag Citrine's connection to Arena yesterday, today I tested Alain's UCI software for Novag Star Diamond and what a difference!!

http://www.zanchetta.net/echecs/default ... UCIDrivers

Here is a screenshot of the moves automatically shown in Arena while I am playing Star Diamond on it's board:

Same position pic on the Star Diamond:

But you have seen nothing yet!!

The above pic shows Star Diamond playing the chess engine WJChess in Arena automatically remotely. All I had to do is sit back and watch the game

This is awsome !!!

Thanks a lot Alain, the difference between using your software and using Citrines is amazing. I hope you have time to make a UCI for Citrine and many more dedicated computers!

[Event "Arena Dedicated vs Engine Match"]
[Site "Hoover, Alabama, USA"]
[Date "2007.11.05"]
[Round "1"]
[White "WJChess"]
[Black "Alainza.Uci.StarDiamond"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D02"]
[WhiteElo "2128"]
[BlackElo "2126"]
[PlyCount "72"]
[EventType "match"]
[EventRounds "4"]
[EventCountry "USA"]

1. Nf3 d5 2. d4 Nf6 3. Bf4 c5 4. dxc5 e6 5. b4 a5 6. c3 axb4 7. cxb4 b6 8. a4 bxc5 9. b5 Ne4 10. Nbd2 Qa5 11. Ng5 Nxg5 12. Bxg5 Nd7 13. e4 h6 14. Bf4 dxe4 15. Bc4 g5 16. Be3 Bg7 17. Ra2 Qc3 18. O-O Bb7 19. Qb1 O-O 20. a5 Rfd8 21. a6 Bd5 22. Rc1 Qe5 23. Bxd5 exd5 24. Bxc5 Nxc5 25. Rxc5 Bf8 26. Rc6 Bd6 27. g3 Rdc8 28. Rxc8+ Rxc8 29. Nf1 Bc5 30. b6 Qb8 31. Rc2 Kh7 32. b7 Bxf2+ 33. Rxf2 Rf8 34. Qb6 e3 35. Nxe3 Qe8 36. a7 d4 1-0

All the best

Post by **Alain** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 7:50 am

Hi Nick,

anyway, I am not sure to be able to do a better job with the Citrine than what is already done inside Arena : as far as I remember tests done for CEBoard, my Citrine (I don't remember its version) does not fully accept a double entry of moves : for example, if it receives e7e5 from the computer, it raises an error when you move manually the pawn from e7 to e5 on the board ! probably because it has no pawn anymore on e7 in its memory.

So, yes the Citrine is one target but there are many Novag computers to interface (and you already know that I will not stop with Novag

)

Best regards,
Alain

spacious_mind · Post by **spacious_mind** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 12:36 pm

Alain wrote:

So, yes the Citrine is one target but there are many Novag computers to interface (and you already know that I will not stop with Novag )

Best regards,
Alain

Keep them coming Alain!

KarmaZen&Oliver · Post by **KarmaZen&Oliver** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 9:42 pm

spacious_mind wrote:After playing with Novag Citrine's connection to Arena yesterday, today I tested Alain's UCI software for Novag Star Diamond and what a difference!!

http://www.zanchetta.net/echecs/default ... UCIDrivers

Here is a screenshot of the moves automatically shown in Arena while I am playing Star Diamond on it's board:

All the best

YEs. the Alain´s program is fantastic...

He try do somethting a few moth ago... but... there are some problemas... with the RARE program CITRINE...

I believe that it also passes in the other program. it is possible that it is question of using some trick. double send ... I don´t know.

Post by **Alain** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 8:49 am

spacious_mind wrote:Keep them coming Alain!

find me a Savant...

and then Steve will finally be interested too regards

Alain

Antonio Marques · Post by **Antonio Marques** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 9:04 pm

Hi Alain!

You goes also create one driver for sapphire I?
Or it can use the same of sapphire II?

[]s
Antonio Marques

Post by **Alain** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 9:09 pm

Hi Antonio,

Antonio Marques wrote:Hi Alain!

You goes also create one driver for sapphire I?
Or it can use the same of sapphire II?

[]s
Antonio Marques

the problem of the Sapphire is that it needs the Novag Super System Distributor to communicate with the PC : I think it receives the moves without it but the PC does not receive the answers...
unless it is a problem with my Sapphire ? In this case, it should work with the Diamond Driver or the Sapphire II (100% identical)

Best regards,
Alain

YvesLejeail · Post by **YvesLejeail** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 6:25 pm

Hi,
Alain great work as usual for you !
Unfortunately, it seems not to work with my SD and my PC

under Arena 1.99 Beta 4.
It seems not due to the serial connection, cause using the Novag Chessboard under Arena seems to work not that bad in referee mode (Arena send the move to SD which receive them, but it is not a perfect communication, I have to click on go manually to make SD start thinking)
There is an error message displayed saying (more or less) Timeout waiting for UCI SD ...
Any idea welcomed

Yves

HIARCS Chess Forums

Star Diamond as UCI Engine

Star Diamond as UCI Engine

Re: Star Diamond as UCI Engine

Re: Star Diamond as UCI Engine

Alain you are a genius !! Thanks........

Re: Alain you are a genius !! Thanks........

driver for sapphire I

Re: driver for sapphire I