Winboard and analysis variations

Hi 

i'm working with winboard to analyze my games but one thing i miss is the ability to branch from the game lines to the analysis lines and then come back to game lines.

is it possible ? would you recommend different tool for analysis ?

thanks

Shlomi

Yea, I think that's not a strength of WinBoard.

Sometimes I will copy the current position to the Clipboard (Ctrl-Shift-C) and then branch off and examine another line.  Then, when I want to go back to the main position, it's in the clipboard and I just have to paste it back.

Fritz 12 (and surely version 13, which I don't have yet) is probaly better for that.  When examing a game, when you deviate from the main line, a little window pops up and ask you if you want to overwrite the move or start a new variation.  When you start a new variation, the variation moves are then listed in brackets, in a different colored font, I believe.  You can then always go back to the main line simply by clicking on the main move, in the PGN window.

"Scid Vs. PC" a free database program I've recently become very very fond of, also appears to do what Fritz does, and create variations.  Download that program (http://scidvspc.sourceforge.net/) and play around with it for an couple of hours and see if that program fits your needs.

thanks very much , 

i wonder what program is used by those who posts game analysis in Youtube for example kingcrasher , maybe those cost some money 

Kingscrusher's videos are great.

When he plays on ICC, he's using that Blitzin interface, I believe.

When he is going over a previously played game, it looks like he is using Fritz.

thanks

i have used Scid for several days now and i love it  , takes some times to learn the windows and options but i'm getting there , the annotated games is a killer feature.

i wonder why the engine (Toga) is showing different depth than Houdini in winboard , in winboard i get to the 20th level very fast while in Toga with Scid it take some time to get the 15th. and the lines are also different .

how do you work with Scid , is there a recommended configuration ?

is it possible to work with houdini ?

thanks

Shlomi

hey guys 

anyone knows if its possible to work with Houdini or get more depth with Toga in Scid vs PC ?

thanks

Shlomi

Yes, Houdini works fine with Scid vs PC.  I use that engine with that GUI all the time.

You could try playing around with Toga's hash settings in Scid vs PC, to see how that affects the depth.

Thanks

can you send me any reference to how to set houdini in Scid ?

could not find anything in documentation.

thanks

Hmmmm, not sure I fully understand.   You set it just like any other engine:

First, you need to add the engine. 

TOOLS - ANALYSIS ENGINES and then click the NEW Button.  When you do you see the Configure Engine screen:

Here is where you tell Scid vs PC where the engine exe file is, the name you want to give to the engine (Houdini 2 or Houdini 1.5a or whatever), command-line paramenters, if any, what type of engine it is (UCI or xboard), etc., etc.

After clicking OK, then you can click on the CONFIGURATION TOOLS icon to set certain parameters specific to this engine:

 
When you do, this screen will come up:

As you can see, here you tell Houdini where your tablebases are, how much hash to give it, the number of threads you want to use, the number of PVs you want to see when it analyzes a position, etc., etc.

thank you for this, but this is exactly the parameters which i dont know

what to set , for example i believe houdini is an xboard protocol but i'm not sure. also i tried it with the 1.5a version (which comes with winboard)

and my CPU just jump 100% without giving any lines in the output.

well i got it to work - i just used the 32 version instead of the 64 bit 

thanks again

No, Houdini uses the UCI protocol, not xboard.  Most all of the stronger and newer engines are using UCI, from what I've seen.  I have a dozen or two engines, and I think Crafty is the only engine not using UCI.

I don't believe WinBoard is distributed with any version of Houdini, but I suppose that point is irrelevant.

I think all of these Houdini paraments are explained in the readme.txt file that comes with Houdini.

Note:  The houdini readme.txt file mentions Houdini is UCI.

If you're interested, here's an OLD article on the UCI / xboard debate:

http://www.horizonchess.com/FAQ/Winboard/uciwinboard.html

Yes i forgot to mention that i have also changed to UCI.

BTW - my readme file contain only license info without anything on parameters. ( i have the 1.5a free version)

It looks like Scid vs PC can do what you want.  (See another thread I've posted in just recently that explain a few other features."

I just loaded a pgn file, of all of my tournament games.  (Be sure to drag the pgn file to the clipbase first.)  I then opened a game at random and, using the forward arrow keys, paged through the game.  Several moves into the game I then, I clicked "+V" arrow which is the "add a new variation" icon.  I then made a few other moves that didn't occur (but could have) in the game.  Then, when I was through looking at this possible line, I went back and clicked on the "left arrow V" icon, to return to the main line.

You can continue this throughout the entire pgn game.

While you are doing this I recommend having your PGN window open, so you can see where you are in the game.  The variations appear a different color, and in parenthesis, to the main line.

Is that what you are looking for?