Chessmaster 11 - Add Stockfish or other UCI engines

Yep. Thanks.

Why do you say that? In my experience the difference between using XBoard protocol and UCI is as large as flying the space Shuttle and riding a bicycle (without brakes). In UCI even the most elementary things, such as resigning and offering/accepting draws are not possible. There is no decent error handling in UCI, and engines just crash when you do something they don't like (e.g. setting up a position with ore Knights than the engine can handle).

Apparently, there are slight InitString differences in the Wb2Uci.eng file between CM10 and CM11. One InitString difference is possibly significant: the "sel" variable has changed from 10 to 14. So for the 64-bit version of the engine using 128 MB hash table, the contents of the CM11 Wb2Uci.eng file would be something like this:

 

[ENGINE]
Name=Chessmaster 11
Author=Johan de Koning
Filename=Wb2Uci.exe

[OPTIONS]
Program=theking350_64.exe
InitString=cm_parm default\cm_parm opk=XXXXXX opp=100 opn=100 opb=100 opr=100 opq=100 myp=100 myn=100 myb=100 myr=100 myq=100 mycc=100 mymob=100 myks=100 mypp=100 mypw=100 opcc=100 opmob=100 opks=100 oppp=100 oppw=100 cfd=0 sop=100 avd=0 rnd=0 sel=14 md=99
HashCommand=cm_parm tts=134217728 ttu=9
MateScore=10000
InitTime=4
Ponder=false
Logfile=false
Edit=edit
UseSAN=false
logfile=false
ownbook=false
Priority=normal
AddHintMove=false
Protocol=1
LevelExtend=Progressive
computer=true
Analyze=true
UseUndo=true
Visible=Ponder,Hash

 

(Of course, if the engine doesn't have the "disable OPK" patch applied, you'll have to replace the XXXXXX value with the current session 6-digit OPK code.)

I've tried to follow this but without success. I'm using Chessmaster grandmaster edition on windows 10. chessmaster accepts it as a valid personality but when t plays it blitzs the first few moves and then stops thinking. it's as if it is only playing as far as book and there is no engine thinking at all. what could I be doing wrong??

Yeah, it sounds like the engine's dead and not working when the opening book ends. I don't know for sure what the problem is, but let me ask a question: Are you installing a 64-bit engine? I could be wrong, but I seem to remember that CM (at least CM10, anyway) can only import a UCI engine via polyglot if it is a 32-bit engine.

Try installing a 32-bit engine and see if it works.

I tried the 64 bit engine first which didn't work. I then tried the 32-bit engine and the same thing happened. When the computer starts playing from the book a window pops up opening the file where the engine and polyglot files are saved as if to ask me to open one of them. If I select the Polyglot GUI exe nothing happens. if I select the engine it then opens up the Polyglot GUI with the configuration settings as if I'm creating the Polyglot.ini file again. I can only think there is some kind of problem with my polyglot.ini creation or perhaps because I'm on windows 10 or using Stockfish 8? Thanks for replying - I was up half the night trying to make it work to no avail, so your help is much appreciated.

Chessmaster 9000 got me from 100 to 1300. Just playing and learning on the program really helped.

This is very strange - When the game starts, you shouldn't be getting any window popping up and opening the file where the engine and polyglot files are saved. I would double-check that the CM personality configuration is showing that the "Winboard Engine Filename" is "polyglot.exe" and NOT "Polyglot_GUI.exe", and that the "Command Line Parameters" is "Polyglot.ini".

Also verify that the engine folder contains at least three files: Polyglot.ini, polyglot.exe, and the 32-bit Stockfish executable.

I'll check this because I think it is showing as polyglot_gui.exe. I think I just clicked the browse button and selected it from the file so it populated the file location for me. I definitely have the three files (although the polyglot.exe is named polyglot_GUI.exe) and the polyglot.ini file is entered correctly.

No, polyglot_gui.exe is Guerrero's "Polyglot GUI" program (It's only used to create the polyglot.ini file), and this is not the same as polyglot.exe.

I see. I don't think I have the polyglot.exe file then.

Go to this link: http://www.geenvis.net/pg.html

and download the polyglot1.4w29.zip file. When you unzip the file, there will be a "polyglot1.4w.exe" file. Rename that file to "polyglot.exe", and you're in business.

Thanks so much. I'm going to try it later.

Thank you EscherehcsE. It worked after I did what you said to do. I now just need to decide on the personality configuration. I guess I'll need to play around with it but for now I've taken pondering off, I'm not using the CMX opening book (or any in fact) and I have 4 threads (I have a quad core so that should be OK, right?). In your experience is Stockfish less strong compared with other GUIs? Thanks again for your help.

Glad I could help.

I guess using 4 threads is OK, as long as overheating isn't a problem.

Obviously, the Stockfish engine will be much stronger than the CM engine, but I don't know how much weaker Stockfish will be compared to if it was installed into another GUI. A 32-bit engine will be a little weaker than a 64-bit engine. Also, going through a polyglot adapter will probably degrade performance a bit more.

Don't forget that if you want to play against a weaker Stockfish, you can change the skill level setting in the polyglot.ini file. (You could just open the polyglot.ini file with a text editor to make the change instead of going through the trouble of creating a new polyglot.ini file with Guerrero's Polyglot GUI program.)

 it doesn't work sorry

I got it working. Btw SF7 is quite old now. Can someone update the manual for SF9 please

It's cool to see someone still using Chessmaster. I'm not sure what the problem is with the old Stockfish version. Whenever you read "Stockfish 7", just mentally substitute "Stockfish 9". :)

The parameters has changed since v7 

 

The only purpose is for testing hourglass time control. My first impression is both engines play too fast in this TC mode. Is this caused by CM instruct both engines to play fast or is it that neither engines is optimized for this time control. 

I'm not sure I can help you much, as the hourglass TC is one I hadn't used until reading your post. On my CM10 with the fastest hourglass TC of 30 seconds, all the CM personalites play very fast, as you stated. I have two Stockfish versions and one Shredder version, and they all play just as quickly. I did import a version of Crafty (a straight Winboard engine), and it does play slightly slower, but not by much.

I did notice that when I increased the hourglass TC (that is, 5 min, 10 min, 15 min etc.), the engines took more time.