1POLYGLOT(6) POLYGLOT(6) 2 3 4 5NAME 6 PolyGlot - Winboard protocol to UCI protocol adapter 7 - book engine for Polyglot books 8 - a collection of utilities for creating and analyzing 9 opening books 10 - a utility for analyzing epd files 11 - a perft counter 12 13SYNOPSIS 14 polyglot [configfile] [-noini] [-ec engine] [-ed enginedirectory] [-en 15 enginename] [-log true/false] [-lf logfile] [-pg <name>=<value>]* [-uci 16 <name>=<value>]* 17 18 polyglot make-book [-pgn inputfile] [-bin outputfile] [-max-ply ply] 19 [-min-game games] [-min-score score] [-only-white] [-only-black] 20 [-uniform] 21 22 polyglot merge-book -in1 inputfile1 -in2 inputfile2 [-out outputfile] 23 24 polyglot info-book [-bin inputfile] [-exact] 25 26 polyglot dump-book [-bin inputfile] -color color [-out outputfile] 27 28 polyglot [configfile] epd-test [engineoptions] [-epd inputfile] 29 [-min-depth depth] [-max-depth depth] [-max-time time] [-depth-delta 30 delta] 31 32 polyglot perft [-fen fen] [-max-depth depth] 33 34DESCRIPTION 35 PolyGlot as adapter and book engine 36 PolyGlot is a "UCI adapter". It connects a GUI interface (such as 37 XBoard, Winboard, Arena or Chessbase) to a UCI chess engine. 38 39 By specifying an opening book (in PolyGlot book format) chess engines 40 can transparently use such books. 41 42 PolyGlot understands the two main GUI protocols: UCI and xboard. 43 Normally the protocol will be auto detected but this can be overridden 44 in the configuration file. 45 46 In xboard mode PolyGlot fully translates between the xboard and UCI 47 protocols. In addition it tries to solve known problems with other 48 adapters. For instance, it detects and reports draws by fifty-move 49 rule, repetition, etc ... It also supports Chess960. 50 51 When in UCI mode PolyGlot mostly passes commands from the GUI to the 52 engine and vice versa, except that it will play book moves on behalf of 53 the engine when the occasion arises. 54 55 The engine options are exported as UCI options in UCI mode and as 56 "feature option=" commands in xboard mode. The latter form an extension 57 of the xboard protocol as defined by H.G. Muller. 58 59 Options which normally appear in the [PolyGlot] section of the config 60 file (see below) are exported as options with their name prefixed by 61 "Polyglot". This makes it easy to filter them in the GUI. 62 63 NOTE: Not all options are exported, only those that make sense in the 64 given mode. 65 66 Book making utilities 67 PolyGlot supports the "PolyGlot opening book format". This is the 68 defacto standard non-proprietary opening book format. It is fully 69 documented here 70 71 http://alpha.uhasselt.be/Research/Algebra/Toga/book_format.html 72 73 Roughly speaking a PolyGlot opening book is a collection of triples 74 (position, move, weight). A "position" is represented by a 64-bit 75 Zobrist hash key. The weight is proportional to the probability the 76 move should be played. 77 78 Other opening book formats such as ChessBase's .ctg format and Arena's 79 .abk format are undocumented and proprietary. They can only be used by 80 their own GUIs. 81 82 PolyGlot can compile a pgn file into a binary PolyGlot book and 83 furthermore it can merge two such binary books into a third one. 84 85 PolyGlot can also extract some useful information from PolyGlot books. 86 The utility "dump-book" dumps the "lines" in a book for a given color. 87 By definition a line is a sequence of moves (from the starting 88 position) in which the given color makes only book moves and the other 89 color makes arbitrary moves (i.e. not necessarily book moves). 90 91 Since a PolyGlot book is built up from positions and not lines there 92 may be (and there usually are) many positions in the book that are not 93 on a "line" as defined in the previous paragraph. It is convenient to 94 call such positions "isolated" positions. The utility "info-book" 95 counts such isolated positions. 96 97 Some of the isolated positions are provably unreachable and they could 98 in principle be deleted from the book. For example if a book contains 99 only the move "e4" in the starting position but also the position after 100 "d4 d5" then this last position is provably unreachable since it 101 requires white to make a non-book move when a book move is available. 102 Such situations arise frequently from the priority rules in merging 103 books. 104 105 Unfortunately not all isolated positions are provably unreachable and 106 it is difficult to identify the latter. If invoked with "-exact" the 107 utility info-book will attempt to count the isolated positions which 108 require a player to make a non-book move when a book move is available. 109 Due to the possibility of transpositions this is not a fool proof 110 method. 111 112 Epd test mode 113 In epd test mode, PolyGlot will search positions in an epd file and 114 record the number of times the right best move was found. The 115 arguments specify when to stop the search in any given position. 116 117 Perft counts 118 A perft count is the number of legal move sequence in a given position 119 up to a given depth. PolyGlot can perform such perft counts. It is 120 however much slower than other more dedicated programs. 121 122OPTIONS 123 When PolyGlot is invoked as an adapter of in epd-test mode it gets its 124 options from a config file and then from the command line. The default 125 config file is "polyglot.ini" but an alternative one may be optionally 126 included as first argument. The config file format is described below. 127 128 The following engine options may be specified on the command line. 129 130 -noini 131 Do not use a config file, even if one was specified on the command 132 line. 133 134 -pg The argument is a string of the form <name>=<value>. This option 135 will set the Polyglot option <name> to <value>. 136 137 -uci 138 The argument is a string of the form <name>=<value>. This option 139 will set the engine option <name> to <value>. 140 141 -ec This is an alias for -pg "EngineCommand=<value>" 142 143 -ed This is an alias for -pg "EngineDir=<value>" 144 145 -en This is an alias for -pg "EngineName=<value>" 146 147 -log (default: false) 148 This is an alias for -pg "Log=<value>" 149 150 -lf (default: "polyglot.log") 151 This is an alias for -pg "LogFile=<value>". 152 153 -wb (default: "true") 154 This is an alias for -pg "OnlyWbOptions=<value>". 155 156 When invoked as 157 158 polyglot make-book 159 PolyGlot supports the following options 160 161 -pgn (default: "book.pgn") 162 Input file in pgn format. 163 164 -bin (default: "book.bin") 165 Output file in PolyGlot format. 166 167 -max-ply (default: 1024) 168 Specifies the maximum ply-depth of lines included in the book. 169 170 -min-game (default: 3) 171 Specifies the minimum number of games that have to contain this 172 move for it to be included in the book. 173 174 -min-score (default: 0.0) 175 Specifies the minimum score (or weight) this move should have 176 received for it to be included in the book. The score is 177 2*(wins)+(draws), globally scaled to fit into 16 bits. 178 179 -only-white 180 Include only moves for white in the book. 181 182 -only-black 183 Include only moves for black in the book. 184 185 -uniform 186 Set all weights to 1. In other words, all moves will be selected 187 with equal probability. 188 189 When invoked as 190 191 polyglot merge-book 192 PolyGlot supports the following options 193 194 -in1 195 First input file (in PolyGlot book format). 196 197 -in2 198 Second input file (in PolyGlot book format). 199 200 -out (default: out.bin) 201 Output file (in PolyGlot book format). 202 203 Input files are not symmetrical, "in1" has priority over "in2". In 204 other words when a position occurs both in "in1" and "in2" only the 205 moves and weights from "in1" will be retained in "out". 206 207 When invoked as 208 209 polyglot dump-book 210 PolyGlot supports the following options 211 212 -bin (default: book.bin) 213 Input file in PolyGlot book format. 214 215 -color 216 The color for whom to generate the lines. 217 218 -out (default: book_<color>.txt) 219 The name of the output file. 220 221 When invoked as 222 223 polyglot info-book 224 PolyGlot supports the following options 225 226 -bin (default: book.bin) 227 Input file in PolyGlot book format. 228 229 -exact 230 Attempt to count the provably unreachable positions among the 231 isolated ones. Note that this takes a very long time. 232 233 When invoked as 234 235 polyglot epd-test 236 (possibly with a config file as first argument) PolyGlot supports 237 besides the generic options described above the following additional 238 options. 239 240 -max-depth (default: 63) 241 Unconditionally stop the search when this depth has been reached. 242 243 -max-time (default: 5.0) 244 Unconditionally stop the seach after this amount of time. 245 246 -depth-delta (default: 3) 247 Stop the search if the solution as been found and the best move has 248 been constant for this many depths, on condition that the mininal 249 depth and minimal time have been reached. 250 251 -min-depth (default: 8) 252 Minimal search depth when the search is stopped using 253 "-depth-delta". 254 255 -min-time (default: 1.0) 256 Minimal search time when the search is stopped using 257 "-depth-delta". 258 259 When invoked as 260 261 polyglot perft 262 PolyGlot supports the following options 263 264 -fen (default: starting position) 265 Fen at which to start searching. 266 267 -max-depth (default: 1) 268 Maximum depth to search. 269 270CONFIG FILE FORMAT 271 There should be a different config file for each engine. 272 273 The config file is in the traditional INI format. 274 275 [PolyGLot] 276 option = value 277 ... 278 [Engine] 279 option = value 280 ... 281 282 The characters "#" and ";" serve as comment characters. 283 284 Initial and final white space is stripped from option names and values. 285 If you need to use characters which have a special meaning to PolyGlot 286 (these are ';#[]=\') you should quote them by preceding them with '\'. 287 "Quoting" other characters in this way has no effect. In particular the 288 use of '\' as a path separator in windows should normally not affected. 289 290 [PolyGlot] section 291 This section is used by PolyGlot only. The engine is unaware of these 292 options. The list of available options is detailed below. 293 294 EngineName (default: UCI name) 295 This is the name that will appear in the GUI. It is cosmetic only. 296 You can use different names for tweaked versions of the same 297 engine. 298 299 EngineDir (default: ".") 300 Full path of the directory where the engine is installed. You can 301 use "." (without the quotes) if you know that PolyGlot will be 302 launched in the engine directory or the engine is in the "path" and 303 does not need any data file. 304 305 EngineCommand 306 Put here the name of the engine executable file. You can also add 307 command-line arguments. Path searching is used and the current 308 directory will be "EngineDir". On Linux the EngineCommand is passed 309 to wordexp so that shell quoting rules and expansions are applied. 310 On Windows the EngineCommand is simply passed to CreateProcess 311 which does its own shell like processing. 312 313 SettingsDir (default: $HOME/.polyglot on Linux; ".\_PG" on Windows) 314 The directory where ini files are stored for engines that are 315 started with -noini. Such ini files may be created by pushing the 316 "Save" button in the Engine settings dialog in WB/XB 4.4.0 and 317 higher. As a special exception (for WB/XB 4.4.0 compatibility) this 318 directory is also used in case PolyGlot is started with config 319 files named "polyglot_1st.ini" or "polyglot_2nd.ini". 320 321 Log (default: false) 322 Whether PolyGlot should log all transactions with the interface and 323 the engine. This should be necessary only to locate problems. 324 325 LogFile (default: polyglot.log) 326 The name of the log file. Note that it is put where PolyGlot was 327 launched from, not into the engine directory. 328 329 WARNING: Log files are not cleared between sessions, and can become 330 very large. It is safe to remove them though. 331 332 Resign (default: false) 333 Set this to "true" if you want PolyGlot to resign on behalf of the 334 engine. 335 336 NOTE: Some engines display buggy scores from time to time although 337 the best move is correct. Use this option only if you know what 338 you are doing (e.g. you always check the final position of games). 339 340 ResignMoves (default: 3) 341 Number of consecutive moves with "resign" score (see below) before 342 PolyGlot resigns for the engine. Positions with only one legal 343 move are ignored. 344 345 ResignScore (default: 600) 346 This is the score in centipawns that will trigger resign 347 "counting". 348 349 ShowPonder (default: true) 350 Show search information during engine pondering. Turning this off 351 might be better for interactive use in some interfaces. 352 353 ScoreWhite (default: true) 354 Report score from white's point of view in xboard mode. 355 356 KibitzMove (default: false) 357 Whether to kibitz when playing a move. 358 359 KibitzPV (default: false) 360 Whether to kibitz when the PV is changed (new iteration or new best 361 move). 362 363 KibitzCommand (default: "tellall") 364 xboard command to use for kibitzing, normally "tellall" for 365 kibitzing or "tellothers" for whispering. 366 367 KibitzDelay (default: 5) 368 How many seconds to wait before starting kibitzing. This has an 369 effect only if "KibitzPV" is selected, move kibitzes are always 370 sent regardless of the delay. 371 372 KibitzInterval (default: 0) 373 This is another form of throttling. PolyGlot will usually wait this 374 many seconds before doing the next kibitz. 375 376 UCI (default: false) 377 If true PolyGlot will not understand xboard commands. 378 379 MateScore (default: 10000) 380 Mate score reported to GUI when in xboard mode. 381 382 Book (default: false) 383 Indicates whether a PolyGlot book should be used. This has no 384 effect on the engine own book (which can be controlled with the UCI 385 option "OwnBook" in the [Engine] section). In particular, it is 386 possible to use both a PolyGlot book and an engine book. In that 387 case, the engine book will be used whenever PolyGlot is out of 388 book. Remember that PolyGlot is unaware of whether the engine is 389 itself using a book or not. 390 391 BookFile (default: book.bin) 392 The name of the (binary) book file. Note that PolyGlot will look 393 for it in the directory it was launched from, not in the engine 394 directory. Of course, full path can be used in which case the 395 current directory does not matter. 396 397 BookRandom (default: true) 398 Select moves according to their weights in the book. If false the 399 move with the highest weight is selected. 400 401 BookLearn (default: false) 402 This is a noop. 403 404 BookDepth (default: 256) 405 Stop using the book after this number of moves. 406 407 BookTreshold (default: 5) 408 Do not play moves with a weight (probability) lower than this (in 409 per mil). 410 411 UseNice (default: false) 412 Run the engine at nice level 5, or "NiceValue" if it set. On some 413 operating systems it may be necessary to run the engine at lower 414 priority for it to be responsive to commands from PolyGlot while 415 searching. 416 417 NiceValue (default: 5) 418 Nice levels go from -20 to 20 with 20 being the lowest priority. 419 On Unix only root can set negative nice levels. On Windows the 420 standard Win32 priority levels are mapped in a sensible way to Unix 421 nice levels. 422 423 Affinity (default: -1) 424 This a bit vector in which each bit represents the processors that 425 a process is allowed to run on. This option works only on Windows. 426 427 STFudge (default: 20) 428 PolyGlot will translate "st x" as "go movetime 1000*x-STFudge". 429 The rationale is that in the UCI specification the argument of 430 movetime is defined as the exact search time whereas the argument 431 of the st command is only an upperbound. 432 433 OnlyWbOptions (default: true) 434 If true then PolyGlot restricts the options it sends to those that 435 are potentially useful for WinBoard. 436 437 Work arounds 438 Work arounds are identical to options except that they should be used 439 only when necessary. Their purpose is to try to hide problems with 440 various software (not just engines). 441 442 IMPORTANT: Any of these work arounds might be removed in future 443 versions of PolyGlot. You are strongly recommended to contact the 444 author of faulty software and truly fix the problem. 445 446 PolyGlot supports the following work arounds: 447 448 UCIVersion (default: 2) 449 The default value of 2 corresponds to UCI+. Use 1 to select plain 450 UCI for engines that have problems with UCI+. 451 452 CanPonder (default: false) 453 PolyGlot now conforms to the documented UCI behaviour: the engine 454 will be allowed to ponder only if it (the engine) declares the 455 "Ponder" UCI option. However some engines which can actually 456 ponder do not declare the option. This work around lets PolyGlot 457 know that they can ponder. 458 459 SyncStop (default: false) 460 When a ponder miss occurs, Polyglot interrupts the engine and 461 IMMEDIATELY launches a new search. While there should be no 462 problem with this, some engines seem confused and corrupt their 463 search board. "SyncStop" forces PolyGlot to wait for the (now 464 useless) ponder search to finish before launching the new search. 465 466 PromoteWorkAround (default: false) 467 Some engines do not specify a promotion piece, e.g. they send 468 "e7e8" instead of the correct "e7e8q". This work around enables 469 the incorrect form (and of course promotes into a queen). 470 471 RepeatPV (default: true) 472 When true, PolyGlot repeats the last pv string (which also contains 473 score,depth and time usage) it got from the engine. Some engines 474 however do not send a new pv string just before sending the move. 475 In that case the output of PolyGlot would be inconsistent. When 476 RepeatPV is false PolyGlot does not repeat the last pv string. Due 477 to the way kibitzing is implemented, KibitzMove is disabled in that 478 case. 479 480 [Engine] section 481 This section contains engine UCI options. PolyGlot does not understand 482 them, but sends the information to the engine at startup (converted to 483 UCI form). You can add any UCI option that makes sense to the engine 484 (not just the common options about hash-table size and tablebases). 485 486 NOTE: use INI syntax, not UCI. For example "OwnBook = true" is 487 correct. It will be replaced by PolyGlot with "setoption name OwnBook 488 value true" at engine startup. 489 490 Standard UCI options are 491 492 Hash 493 NalimovPath 494 NalimovCache 495 OwnBook 496 497 Hidden options like "Ponder" or "UCI_xxx" are automatic and should not 498 be put in an INI file. 499 500 The other options are engine-specific. Check their name using a UCI 501 GUI or launch the engine in a console and type "uci". 502 503EXAMPLES 504 Running the UCI engine "fruit" under xboard 4.3.15 and later (this 505 invokes PolyGlot internally). 506 507 xboard -fcp fruit -fUCI 508 509 An explicit command line for using the UCI engine "fruit" with logging 510 enabled (this works also with older versions of xboard). 511 512 xboard -fcp "polyglot -noini -log true -ec fruit" 513 514 The equivalent config file would be: 515 516 [PolyGlot] 517 EngineCommand = fruit 518 Log = true 519 [Engine] 520 521 Compile "games.pgn" into a book "book.bin" retaining all lines of at 522 most 30 plies. 523 524 polyglot make-book -pgn games.pgn -bin book.bin -max-ply 30 525 526 Merge books "w1.bin" and "w2.bin" into a book "w.bin". 527 528 polyglot merge-book -in1 w1.bin -in2 w2.bin -out w.bin 529 530 Inspect lines for white in "w.bin" 531 532 polyglot dump-book -bin w.bin -color white -out w_white.txt 533 534 Test epd file "test.epd" with a (maximum) search time of 7 minutes per 535 position 536 537 polyglot epd-test -epd test.epd -max-time 420 538 539EXIT STATUS 540 PolyGlot always returns 0 on exit. 541 542AUTHORS 543 Main author: Fabien Letouzey<fabien_letouzey(at)hotmail.com> 544 545 Native Windows port: Huang Chen<webmaster@elephantbase.net> ("Morning 546 Yellow") 547 548 Various enhancements: Fonzy Bleumers<match(at)geenvis.net> 549 550 UCI port and implementation of new WB protocol: Michel Van den Bergh 551 <michel.vandenbergh(at)uhasselt.be> 552 553SEE ALSO 554 xboard(6) 555 556 557 558 2012-09-17 POLYGLOT(6) 559