Just down loaded the version of firebird 1.2 engine.it works except that it doesn't load the tablebases or triplebases to program.It pops up a technical message telling me to please wait while their loading.which thet never do.Does anyone know how to resolve this problem?Thank you.

Hi!

I'm not really sure if tablebase or triplebases are really needed for v1.2. The reason why I think so is because I have a game Firebird 1.2x64 vs Rybka 3x64, which although drawn, showed Firebird's valuation to be more accurate than Rybka's.

The game reached a B+PP+K vs B+PP+K, the BB on opposing colors. Rybka's K was in a very active position compared to Firebird's, at first glance I thought Rybka was winning. At that point Rybka's valuation is +5.00 while Firebird's valuation is 0.00! I must add that Rybka doesn't have tablebases either.

Guess what, Firebird sacrificed the B for a P, Rybka gobbled a P, afterwards Firebird sacrificed the last P, reaching a K+B+P for Rybka against Firebird's lone K. While all of this was taking place, Rybka's valuation remained at +5.00 while Firebird 0.00.

Actually Rybka's P was in the h-file, the queening square not the same color as the B, so basically Firebird did the g7-h8 dance, while Rybka can do nothing to stop it. The funny thing is that although its a clear draw, both engines (on separate machines) don't want to stop whenever I try to offer a draw! I have no choice but to adjudicate.

The above game is one of 9 games played between these engines, all the time using their own separate hardware.  Firebird was using the weaker Intel SU7300+2GB RAM. Rybka on the stronger Intel E450+2GB RAM. To cut the long story short Rybka has not won any game while Firebird scored +3.

I'm doing these in the evenings after work, maybe I'll continue until 20 games. Both rigs use Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit and Fritz 12. Shutdwon after each game. 10 minutes per game (I add 5 minutes for the "human player" on each machine, as I have to manually transfer the moves because I haven't configured auto232 yet)