Usually we only have time to test commercially available chess programs, using our standard hardware. But a possibility to use an old P90 for testing Christophe Thérons Chess Tiger 11.8 arised, and we took it.
After 178 games Chess Tiger 11.8 P90 has a rating of 2483, which is the highest rating so far on that hardware! But we must remember that several of the best programs haven't been tested on P90. On a P200 MMX I guess that Chess Tiger 11.8 would get a rating within 10-20 points from the top. Of course we look forward to play with the latest version of Chess Tiger on faster hardware.
Nowadays it seems difficult to further raise the playing strength, above that of the strongest programs, by making the program code more efficient. Using faster hardware appears to be much easier, in spite of fears of diminishing returns with increasing speed.
So far we have played 584 games with the new hardware K6-2 450 MHz using 128 MB RAM. The four programs tested have in average received 90 points more than on P200 MMX!
The number of games for each program is between 104 and 209 games, giving large margin of errors. It's too early to discuss the relative ratings on K6-2 450. More games are needed for that.
A very important question is whether the best programs using a K6-2 450 could achieve about 2660 when played against human chess players? Unfortunately too few such games are played, so it's not possible to give a reliable answer.
Our plans for the near future is to play more games with the four programs on K6-2 450 MHz, and to start testing Nimzo 7.32.
Next list is expected to appear in November.
| Thoralf Karlsson,
thoralf.karlsson@mailbox.swipnet.se Chairman of the SSDF |