1 POLYGLOT(6) POLYGLOT(6)
6 PolyGlot - Winboard protocol to UCI protocol adapter
7 - book engine for Polyglot books
8 - a collection of utilities for creating and analyzing open-
10 - a utility for analyzing epd files
18 polyglot make-book [-pgn inputfile] [-bin outputfile] [-max-ply ply]
19 [-min-game games] [-min-score score] [-only-white] [-only-black] [-uni-
22 polyglot merge-book -in1 inputfile1 -in2 inputfile2 [-out outputfile]
24 polyglot info-book [-bin inputfile] [-exact]
26 polyglot dumb-book [-bin inputfile] -color color [-out outputfile]
28 polyglot [configfile] epd-test [-epd inputfile] [-min-depth depth]
29 [-max-depth depth] [-max-time time] [-depth-delta delta]
31 polyglot perft [-fen fen] [-max-depth depth]
34 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.
39 By specifying an opening book (in PolyGlot book format) chess engines
40 can transparently use such books.
42 PolyGlot understands the two main GUI protocols: UCI and xboard. Nor-
43 mally the protocol will be auto detected but this can be overridden in
44 the configuration file.
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.
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.
55 The engine options are exported as UCI options in UCI mode and as "fea-
56 ture option=" commands in xboard mode. The latter form an extension of
57 the xboard protocol as defined by H.G. Muller.
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.
63 NOTE: Not all options are exported, only those that make sense in the
68 PolyGlot supports the "PolyGlot opening book format". This is the
69 defacto standard non-proprietary opening book format. It is fully docu-
72 http://alpha.uhasselt.be/Research/Algebra/Toga/book_format.html
74 Roughly speaking a PolyGlot opening book is a collection of triples
75 (position, move, weight). A "position" is represented by a 64-bit
76 Zobrist hash key. The weight is proportional to the probability the
77 move should be played.
79 Other opening book formats such as ChessBase's .ctg format and Arena's
80 .abk format are undocumented and proprietary. They can only be used by
83 PolyGlot can compile a pgn file into a binary PolyGlot book and fur-
84 thermore it can merge two such binary books into a third one.
86 PolyGlot can also extract some useful information from PolyGlot books.
87 The utility "dump-book" dumps the "lines" in a book for a given color.
88 By definition a line is a sequence of moves (from the starting posi-
89 tion) in which the given color makes only book moves and the other
90 color makes arbitrary moves (i.e. not necessarily book moves).
92 Since a PolyGlot book is built up from positions and not lines there
93 may be (and there usually are) many positions in the book that are not
94 on a "line" as defined in the previous paragraph. It is convenient to
95 call such positions "isolated" positions. The utility "info-book"
96 counts such isolated positions.
98 Some of the isolated positions are provably unreachable and they could
99 in principle be deleted from the book. For example if a book contains
100 only the move "e4" in the starting position but also the position after
101 "d4 d5" then this last position is provably unreachable since it
102 requires white to make a non-book move when a book move is available.
103 Such situations arise frequently from the priority rules in merging
106 Unfortunately not all isolated positions are provably unreachable and
107 it is difficult to identify the latter. If invoked with "-exact" the
108 utility info-book will attempt to count the isolated positions which
109 require a player to make a non-book move when a book move is available.
110 Due to the possibility of transpositions this is not a fool proof
115 In epd test mode, PolyGlot will search positions in an epd file and
116 record the number of times the right best move was found. The argu-
117 ments specify when to stop the search in any given position.
121 A perft count is the number of legal move sequence in a given position
122 up to a given depth. PolyGlot can perform such perft counts. It is how-
123 ever much slower than other more dedicated programs.
126 When invoked without options or with a config file as argument PolyGlot
127 acts as an adapter. The config file format is documented below. The
128 default config file is "polyglot.ini".
134 PolyGlot simply starts "engine" and acts as an adapter. No config file
135 is used and thus it is expected that all properties will be set by the
142 PolyGlot supports the following options
144 -pgn (default: "book.pgn")
145 Input file in pgn format.
147 -bin (default: "book.bin")
148 Output file in PolyGlot format.
150 -max-ply (default: 1024)
151 Specifies the maximum ply-depth of lines included in the book.
153 -min-game (default: 3)
154 Specifies the minimum number of games that have to contain this
155 move for it to be included in the book.
157 -min-score (default: 0.0)
158 Specifies the minimum score (or weight) this move should have
159 received for it to be included in the book. The score is
160 2*(wins)+(draws), globally scaled to fit into 16 bits.
163 Include only moves for white in the book.
166 Include only moves for black in the book.
169 Set all weights to 1. In other words, all moves will be selected
170 with equal probability.
176 PolyGlot supports the following options
179 First input file (in PolyGlot book format).
182 Second input file (in PolyGlot book format).
184 -out (default: out.bin)
185 Output file (in PolyGlot book format).
187 Input files are not symmetrical, "in1" has priority over "in2". In
188 other words when a position occurs both in "in1" and "in2" only the
189 moves and weights from "in1" will be retained in "out".
195 PolyGlot supports the following options
197 -bin (default: book.bin)
198 Input file in PolyGlot book format.
201 The color for whom to generate the lines.
203 -out (default: book_<color>.txt)
204 The name of the output file.
210 PolyGlot supports the following options
212 -bin (default: book.bin)
213 Input file in PolyGlot book format.
216 Attempt to count the provably unreachable positions among the iso-
217 lated ones. Note that this takes a very long time.
223 (possibly with a config file as first argument) PolyGlot supports the
226 -max-depth (default: 63)
227 Unconditionally stop the search when this depth has been reached.
229 -max-time (default: 5.0)
230 Unconditionally stop the seach after this amount of time.
232 -depth-delta (default: 3)
233 Stop the search if the solution as been found and the best move has
234 been constant for this many depths, on condition that the mininal
235 depth and minimal time have been reached.
237 -min-depth (default: 8)
238 Minimal search depth when the search is stopped using
241 -min-time (default: 1.0)
242 Minimal search time when the search is stopped using
249 PolyGlot supports the following options
251 -fen (default: starting position)
252 Fen at which to start searching.
254 -max-depth (default: 1)
255 Maximum depth to search.
258 There should be a different config file for each engine.
260 The config file is in the traditional INI format.
269 The characters "#" and ";" serve as comment characters.
271 NOTE: There can be spaces in option names or values. Do not use
272 quotes. Boolean values are written as "true" or "false".
276 This section is used by PolyGlot only. The engine is unaware of these
277 options. The list of available options is detailed below.
279 EngineName (default: UCI name)
280 This is the name that will appear in the GUI. It is cosmetic only.
281 You can use different names for tweaked versions of the same
284 EngineDir (default: ".")
285 Full path of the directory where the engine is installed. You can
286 use "." (without the quotes) if you know that PolyGlot will be
287 launched in the engine directory or the engine is in the "path" and
288 does not need any data file.
291 Put here the name of the engine executable file. You can also add
292 command-line arguments. Path searching is used and the current
293 directory will be "EngineDir".
296 Whether PolyGlot should log all transactions with the interface and
297 the engine. This should be necessary only to locate problems.
299 LogFile (default: polyglot.log)
300 The name of the log file. Note that it is put where PolyGlot was
301 launched from, not into the engine directory.
303 WARNING: Log files are not cleared between sessions, and can become
304 very large. It is safe to remove them though.
306 Resign (default: false)
307 Set this to "true" if you want PolyGlot to resign on behalf of the
310 NOTE: Some engines display buggy scores from time to time although
311 the best move is correct. Use this option only if you know what
312 you are doing (e.g. you always check the final position of games).
314 ResignMoves (default: 3)
315 Number of consecutive moves with "resign" score (see below) before
316 PolyGlot resigns for the engine. Positions with only one legal
319 ResignScore (default: 600)
320 This is the score in centipawns that will trigger resign "count-
323 ShowPonder (default: true)
324 Show search information during engine pondering. Turning this off
325 might be better for interactive use in some interfaces.
327 KibitzMove (default: false)
328 Whether to kibitz when playing a move.
330 KibitzPV (default: false)
331 Whether to kibitz when the PV is changed (new iteration or new best
334 KibitzCommand (default: "tellall")
335 xboard command to use for kibitzing, normally "tellall" for kibitz-
336 ing or "tellothers" for whispering.
338 KibitzDelay (default: 5)
339 How many seconds to wait before starting kibitzing. This has an
340 effect only if "KibitzPV" is selected, move kibitzes are always
341 sent regardless of the delay.
344 If true PolyGlot will not understand xboard commands.
346 Chess960 (default: false)
347 Play Chess960 (also called Fischer Random Chess or FRC),
349 MateScore (default: 10000)
350 Mate score reported to GUI when in xboard mode.
352 Book (default: false)
353 Indicates whether a PolyGlot book should be used. This has no
354 effect on the engine own book (which can be controlled with the UCI
355 option "OwnBook" in the [Engine] section). In particular, it is
356 possible to use both a PolyGlot book and an engine book. In that
357 case, the engine book will be used whenever PolyGlot is out of
358 book. Remember that PolyGlot is unaware of whether the engine is
359 itself using a book or not.
361 BookFile (default: book.bin)
362 The name of the (binary) book file. Note that PolyGlot will look
363 for it in the directory it was launched from, not in the engine
364 directory. Of course, full path can be used in which case the cur-
365 rent directory does not matter.
367 BookRandom (default: true)
368 Select moves according to their weights in the book. If false the
369 move with the highest weight is selected.
371 BookLearn (default: false)
372 Record learning information in the opening book. Naturally this
373 requires the opening book to be writable.
375 UseNice (default: false)
376 Run the engine at nice level 5, or "NiceValue" if it set. On some
377 operating systems it may be necessary to run the engine at lower
378 priority for it to be responsive to commands from PolyGlot while
381 NiceValue (default: 5)
382 Nice levels go from -20 to 20 with 20 being the lowest priority.
383 On Unix only root can set negative nice levels. On Windows the
384 standard Win32 priority levels are mapped in a sensible way to Unix
387 Affinity (default: -1)
388 This a bit vector in which each bit represents the processors that
389 a process is allowed to run on. This option works only on Windows.
393 Work arounds are identical to options except that they should be used
394 only when necessary. Their purpose is to try to hide problems with
395 various software (not just engines). The default value is always cor-
396 rect for bug-free software.
398 IMPORTANT: Any of these work arounds might be removed in future ver-
399 sions of PolyGlot. You are strongly recommended to contact the author
400 of faulty software and truly fix the problem.
402 PolyGlot supports the following work arounds:
404 UCIVersion (default: 2)
405 The default value of 2 corresponds to UCI+. Use 1 to select plain
406 UCI for engines that have problems with UCI+.
408 CanPonder (default: false)
409 PolyGlot now conforms to the documented UCI behaviour: the engine
410 will be allowed to ponder only if it (the engine) declares the
411 "Ponder" UCI option. However some engines which can actually pon-
412 der do not declare the option. This work around lets PolyGlot know
413 that they can ponder.
415 SyncStop (default: false)
416 When a ponder miss occurs, Polyglot interrupts the engine and IMME-
417 DIATELY launches a new search. While there should be no problem
418 with this, some engines seem confused and corrupt their search
419 board. "SyncStop" forces PolyGlot to wait for the (now useless)
420 ponder search to finish before launching the new search.
422 PromoteWorkAround (default: false)
423 Some engines do not specify a promotion piece, e.g. they send
424 "e7e8" instead of the correct "e7e8q". This work around enables
425 the incorrect form (and of course promotes into a queen).
427 RepeatPV (default: true)
428 When true, PolyGlot repeats the last pv string (which also contains
429 score,depth and time usage) it got from the engine. Some engines
430 however do not send a new pv string just before sending the move.
431 In that case the output of PolyGlot would be inconsistent. When
432 RepeatPV is false PolyGlot does not repeat the last pv string. Due
433 to the way kibitzing is implemented, KibitzMove is disabled in that
438 This section contains engine UCI options. PolyGlot does not understand
439 them, but sends the information to the engine at startup (converted to
440 UCI form). You can add any UCI option that makes sense to the engine
441 (not just the common options about hash-table size and tablebases).
443 NOTE: use INI syntax, not UCI. For example "OwnBook = true" is cor-
444 rect. It will be replaced by PolyGlot with "setoption name OwnBook
445 value true" at engine startup.
447 Standard UCI options are
454 Hidden options like "Ponder" or "UCI_xxx" are automatic and should not
455 be put in an INI file.
457 The other options are engine-specific. Check their name using a UCI
458 GUI or launch the engine in a console and type "uci".
461 Compile "games.pgn" into a book "book.bin" retaining all lines of at
464 polyglot make-book -pgn games.pgn -bin book.bin -max-ply 30
466 Merge books "w1.bin" and "w2.bin" into a book "w.bin".
468 polyglot merge-book -in1 w1.bin -in2 w2.bin -out w.bin
470 Inspect lines for white in "w.bin"
472 polyglot dump-book -bin w.bin -color white -out w_white.txt
474 Test epd file "test.epd" with a (maximum) search time of 7 minutes per
477 polyglot epd-test -epd test.epd -max-time 420
479 The command line for using the UCI engine "fruit" in a GUI which uses
484 The equivalent config file:
487 EngineCommand = fruit
491 PolyGlot always returns 0 on exit.
494 Main author: Fabien Letouzey<fabien_letouzey(at)hotmail.com>
496 Native Windows port: Huang Chen<webmaster@elephantbase.net> ("Morning
499 Various enhancements: Fonzy Bleumers<match(at)geenvis.net>
501 UCI port: Michel Van den Bergh <michel.vandenbergh(at)uhasselt.be>
508 2009-07-20 POLYGLOT(6)