Manual de Fritz 15 2015 | Page 257

Reference

257

With the amount of effort going into the production of optimised openings books,
and with the advent of learning books, the measurement of the playing strength of the
chess engine itself has been pushed into the background. A large number of computer
vs computer games are decided by the openings book.
It is possible to improve the results of one program against a competitor by simply
“booking” the opponent (i.e., including lines in the books that are aimed at a specific
program). Such “killer openings” appear repeatedly on the boards of testers and
drastically improve the score of a program, without need for improvement in the
playing strength of its engine.
It is important to define a fixed set of games that should be played in a test,
rather than to use a random set of games, where there is a danger of selective
reporting. A Nunn match is only valid if exactly twenty games are submitted. It is
entirely reproducible and transparent to everyone. This is even more true if the precise
hardware configuration is known, and the thinking times and evaluation of each move
recorded, which the program does automatically.

3.8.11 Engine tournaments (with humans)
M e nu E ngine

To urna m e nt

Matches between two engines have a disadvantage: program A might win easily
against program B but have problems against program C, even though program C can
beat program B. This is less probable among human players. To accurately measure a
program’s strength it has to play against a wide variety of opponents. The easiest way
to do this is round robin tournaments.
The program does this automatically. You invite engines to a tournament with their
opening books, specify a time control and leave the program to itself. If you need to
use the computer in the meantime you can interrupt the tournament and resume it
later.
You can use the menu Engine
tournament.

T ourna m e nt to invite engines to an engine

You must choose the name of a tournament (with the extension .cbtourn) which will
contain the data of the engines that are participating.

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