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
14 polyglot [configfile] [-noini] [-ec engine] [-ed enginedirectory] [-en
15 enginename] [-log] [-lf logfile] [-hash value] [-bk book] [-pg
16 <name>=<value>]* [-uci <name>=<value>]*
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 dump-book [-bin inputfile] -color color [-out outputfile]
28 polyglot [configfile] epd-test [engineoptions] [-epd inputfile]
29 [-min-depth depth] [-max-depth depth] [-max-time time] [-depth-delta
32 polyglot perft [-fen fen] [-max-depth depth]
35 PolyGlot as adapter and book engine
37 PolyGlot is a "UCI adapter". It connects a GUI interface (such as
38 XBoard, Winboard, Arena or Chessbase) to a UCI chess engine.
40 By specifying an opening book (in PolyGlot book format) chess engines
41 can transparently use such books.
43 PolyGlot understands the two main GUI protocols: UCI and xboard. Nor-
44 mally the protocol will be auto detected but this can be overridden in
45 the configuration file.
47 In xboard mode PolyGlot fully translates between the xboard and UCI
48 protocols. In addition it tries to solve known problems with other
49 adapters. For instance, it detects and reports draws by fifty-move
50 rule, repetition, etc ... It also supports Chess960.
52 When in UCI mode PolyGlot mostly passes commands from the GUI to the
53 engine and vice versa, except that it will play book moves on behalf of
54 the engine when the occasion arises.
56 The engine options are exported as UCI options in UCI mode and as "fea-
57 ture option=" commands in xboard mode. The latter form an extension of
58 the xboard protocol as defined by H.G. Muller.
60 Options which normally appear in the [PolyGlot] section of the config
61 file (see below) are exported as options with their name prefixed by
62 "Polyglot". This makes it easy to filter them in the GUI.
64 NOTE: Not all options are exported, only those that make sense in the
69 PolyGlot supports the "PolyGlot opening book format". This is the
70 defacto standard non-proprietary opening book format. It is fully docu-
73 http://alpha.uhasselt.be/Research/Algebra/Toga/book_format.html
75 Roughly speaking a PolyGlot opening book is a collection of triples
76 (position, move, weight). A "position" is represented by a 64-bit
77 Zobrist hash key. The weight is proportional to the probability the
78 move should be played.
80 Other opening book formats such as ChessBase's .ctg format and Arena's
81 .abk format are undocumented and proprietary. They can only be used by
84 PolyGlot can compile a pgn file into a binary PolyGlot book and fur-
85 thermore it can merge two such binary books into a third one.
87 PolyGlot can also extract some useful information from PolyGlot books.
88 The utility "dump-book" dumps the "lines" in a book for a given color.
89 By definition a line is a sequence of moves (from the starting posi-
90 tion) in which the given color makes only book moves and the other
91 color makes arbitrary moves (i.e. not necessarily book moves).
93 Since a PolyGlot book is built up from positions and not lines there
94 may be (and there usually are) many positions in the book that are not
95 on a "line" as defined in the previous paragraph. It is convenient to
96 call such positions "isolated" positions. The utility "info-book"
97 counts such isolated positions.
99 Some of the isolated positions are provably unreachable and they could
100 in principle be deleted from the book. For example if a book contains
101 only the move "e4" in the starting position but also the position after
102 "d4 d5" then this last position is provably unreachable since it
103 requires white to make a non-book move when a book move is available.
104 Such situations arise frequently from the priority rules in merging
107 Unfortunately not all isolated positions are provably unreachable and
108 it is difficult to identify the latter. If invoked with "-exact" the
109 utility info-book will attempt to count the isolated positions which
110 require a player to make a non-book move when a book move is available.
111 Due to the possibility of transpositions this is not a fool proof
116 In epd test mode, PolyGlot will search positions in an epd file and
117 record the number of times the right best move was found. The argu-
118 ments specify when to stop the search in any given position.
122 A perft count is the number of legal move sequence in a given position
123 up to a given depth. PolyGlot can perform such perft counts. It is how-
124 ever much slower than other more dedicated programs.
127 When PolyGlot is invoked as an adapter of in epd-test mode it gets its
128 options from a config file and then from the command line. The default
129 config file is "polyglot.ini" but an alternative one may be optionally
130 included as first argument. The config file format is described below.
132 The following engine options may be specified on the command line.
135 Do not use a config file, even if one was specified on the command
138 -pg The argument is a string of the form <name>=<value>. This option
139 will set the Polyglot option <name> to <value>.
142 The argument is a string of the form <name>=<value>. This option
143 will set the engine option <name> to <value>.
145 -ec This is an alias for -pg "EngineCommand=<value>".
147 -ed This is an alias for -pg "EngineDir=<value>".
149 -en This is an alias for -pg "EngineName=<value>"
152 This is an alias for -uci "Hash=<value>".
155 This is an alias for -pg "Log=true".
157 -lf (default: "polyglot.log")
158 This is an alias for -pg "LogFile=<value>".
160 -bk This is an alias for -pg "Book=true" -pg "BookFile=<value>".
166 PolyGlot supports the following options
168 -pgn (default: "book.pgn")
169 Input file in pgn format.
171 -bin (default: "book.bin")
172 Output file in PolyGlot format.
174 -max-ply (default: 1024)
175 Specifies the maximum ply-depth of lines included in the book.
177 -min-game (default: 3)
178 Specifies the minimum number of games that have to contain this
179 move for it to be included in the book.
181 -min-score (default: 0.0)
182 Specifies the minimum score (or weight) this move should have
183 received for it to be included in the book. The score is
184 2*(wins)+(draws), globally scaled to fit into 16 bits.
187 Include only moves for white in the book.
190 Include only moves for black in the book.
193 Set all weights to 1. In other words, all moves will be selected
194 with equal probability.
200 PolyGlot supports the following options
203 First input file (in PolyGlot book format).
206 Second input file (in PolyGlot book format).
208 -out (default: out.bin)
209 Output file (in PolyGlot book format).
211 Input files are not symmetrical, "in1" has priority over "in2". In
212 other words when a position occurs both in "in1" and "in2" only the
213 moves and weights from "in1" will be retained in "out".
219 PolyGlot supports the following options
221 -bin (default: book.bin)
222 Input file in PolyGlot book format.
225 The color for whom to generate the lines.
227 -out (default: book_<color>.txt)
228 The name of the output file.
234 PolyGlot supports the following options
236 -bin (default: book.bin)
237 Input file in PolyGlot book format.
240 Attempt to count the provably unreachable positions among the iso-
241 lated ones. Note that this takes a very long time.
247 (possibly with a config file as first argument) PolyGlot supports
248 besides the generic options described above the following additional
251 -max-depth (default: 63)
252 Unconditionally stop the search when this depth has been reached.
254 -max-time (default: 5.0)
255 Unconditionally stop the seach after this amount of time.
257 -depth-delta (default: 3)
258 Stop the search if the solution as been found and the best move has
259 been constant for this many depths, on condition that the mininal
260 depth and minimal time have been reached.
262 -min-depth (default: 8)
263 Minimal search depth when the search is stopped using
266 -min-time (default: 1.0)
267 Minimal search time when the search is stopped using
274 PolyGlot supports the following options
276 -fen (default: starting position)
277 Fen at which to start searching.
279 -max-depth (default: 1)
280 Maximum depth to search.
283 There should be a different config file for each engine.
285 The config file is in the traditional INI format.
294 The characters "#" and ";" serve as comment characters.
296 By default initial and final white space is stripped from option val-
297 ues. If you want to avoid this, or if you want use one of the comment
298 characters # or ; in option values (such as for NalimovPath), enclose
303 This section is used by PolyGlot only. The engine is unaware of these
304 options. The list of available options is detailed below.
306 EngineName (default: UCI name)
307 This is the name that will appear in the GUI. It is cosmetic only.
308 You can use different names for tweaked versions of the same
311 EngineDir (default: ".")
312 Full path of the directory where the engine is installed. You can
313 use "." (without the quotes) if you know that PolyGlot will be
314 launched in the engine directory or the engine is in the "path" and
315 does not need any data file.
318 Put here the name of the engine executable file. You can also add
319 command-line arguments. Path searching is used and the current
320 directory will be "EngineDir".
323 Whether PolyGlot should log all transactions with the interface and
324 the engine. This should be necessary only to locate problems.
326 LogFile (default: polyglot.log)
327 The name of the log file. Note that it is put where PolyGlot was
328 launched from, not into the engine directory.
330 WARNING: Log files are not cleared between sessions, and can become
331 very large. It is safe to remove them though.
333 Resign (default: false)
334 Set this to "true" if you want PolyGlot to resign on behalf of the
337 NOTE: Some engines display buggy scores from time to time although
338 the best move is correct. Use this option only if you know what
339 you are doing (e.g. you always check the final position of games).
341 ResignMoves (default: 3)
342 Number of consecutive moves with "resign" score (see below) before
343 PolyGlot resigns for the engine. Positions with only one legal
346 ResignScore (default: 600)
347 This is the score in centipawns that will trigger resign "count-
350 ShowPonder (default: true)
351 Show search information during engine pondering. Turning this off
352 might be better for interactive use in some interfaces.
354 ScoreWhite (default: true)
355 Report score from white's point of view in xboard mode.
357 KibitzMove (default: false)
358 Whether to kibitz when playing a move.
360 KibitzPV (default: false)
361 Whether to kibitz when the PV is changed (new iteration or new best
364 KibitzCommand (default: "tellall")
365 xboard command to use for kibitzing, normally "tellall" for kibitz-
366 ing or "tellothers" for whispering.
368 KibitzDelay (default: 5)
369 How many seconds to wait before starting kibitzing. This has an
370 effect only if "KibitzPV" is selected, move kibitzes are always
371 sent regardless of the delay.
373 KibitzInterval (default: 0)
374 This is another form of throttling. PolyGlot will usually wait this
375 many seconds before doing the next kibitz.
378 If true PolyGlot will not understand xboard commands.
380 MateScore (default: 10000)
381 Mate score reported to GUI when in xboard mode.
383 Book (default: false)
384 Indicates whether a PolyGlot book should be used. This has no
385 effect on the engine own book (which can be controlled with the UCI
386 option "OwnBook" in the [Engine] section). In particular, it is
387 possible to use both a PolyGlot book and an engine book. In that
388 case, the engine book will be used whenever PolyGlot is out of
389 book. Remember that PolyGlot is unaware of whether the engine is
390 itself using a book or not.
392 BookFile (default: book.bin)
393 The name of the (binary) book file. Note that PolyGlot will look
394 for it in the directory it was launched from, not in the engine
395 directory. Of course, full path can be used in which case the cur-
396 rent directory does not matter.
398 BookRandom (default: true)
399 Select moves according to their weights in the book. If false the
400 move with the highest weight is selected.
402 BookRandom (default: true)
403 Select moves according to their weights in the book. If false the
404 move with the highest weight is selected.
406 BookDepth (default: 256)
407 Stop using the book after this number of moves.
409 BookTreshold (default: 5)
410 Do not play moves with a weight (probability) lower than this (in
413 UseNice (default: false)
414 Run the engine at nice level 5, or "NiceValue" if it set. On some
415 operating systems it may be necessary to run the engine at lower
416 priority for it to be responsive to commands from PolyGlot while
419 NiceValue (default: 5)
420 Nice levels go from -20 to 20 with 20 being the lowest priority.
421 On Unix only root can set negative nice levels. On Windows the
422 standard Win32 priority levels are mapped in a sensible way to Unix
425 Affinity (default: -1)
426 This a bit vector in which each bit represents the processors that
427 a process is allowed to run on. This option works only on Windows.
429 SaveSettingsOnExit (default: true)
430 If true then PolyGlot will implement persistence by loading options
431 from an additional INI file which is specified by the option "Save-
432 File". At exit PolyGlot will also save its options to this INI
435 SaveFile (default: PG_<EngineName>.ini)
436 The name of the file from which to take the additional options.
437 You can safely edit this file.
441 Work arounds are identical to options except that they should be used
442 only when necessary. Their purpose is to try to hide problems with
443 various software (not just engines).
445 IMPORTANT: Any of these work arounds might be removed in future ver-
446 sions of PolyGlot. You are strongly recommended to contact the author
447 of faulty software and truly fix the problem.
449 PolyGlot supports the following work arounds:
451 UCIVersion (default: 2)
452 The default value of 2 corresponds to UCI+. Use 1 to select plain
453 UCI for engines that have problems with UCI+.
455 CanPonder (default: false)
456 PolyGlot now conforms to the documented UCI behaviour: the engine
457 will be allowed to ponder only if it (the engine) declares the
458 "Ponder" UCI option. However some engines which can actually pon-
459 der do not declare the option. This work around lets PolyGlot know
460 that they can ponder.
462 SyncStop (default: false)
463 When a ponder miss occurs, Polyglot interrupts the engine and IMME-
464 DIATELY launches a new search. While there should be no problem
465 with this, some engines seem confused and corrupt their search
466 board. "SyncStop" forces PolyGlot to wait for the (now useless)
467 ponder search to finish before launching the new search.
469 PromoteWorkAround (default: false)
470 Some engines do not specify a promotion piece, e.g. they send
471 "e7e8" instead of the correct "e7e8q". This work around enables
472 the incorrect form (and of course promotes into a queen).
474 RepeatPV (default: true)
475 When true, PolyGlot repeats the last pv string (which also contains
476 score,depth and time usage) it got from the engine. Some engines
477 however do not send a new pv string just before sending the move.
478 In that case the output of PolyGlot would be inconsistent. When
479 RepeatPV is false PolyGlot does not repeat the last pv string. Due
480 to the way kibitzing is implemented, KibitzMove is disabled in that
483 WbWorkArounds (default: true)
484 The intention of these options is to provide work arounds for
485 xboard/winboard bugs should they arise. This one decapitalizes the
486 word Draw in options that contain this word. Some versions of
487 xboard/winboard contain a bug which causes such options to be
488 interpreted as draw claims by the engine.
490 Engines that send options with "Draw" in their name are Rybka and
493 WbWorkArounds2 (default: false)
494 Old version of Winboard clear the engine output window at depth 1.
495 With this work around PG will send info lines at depth >=2. This
496 may or may not improve the display.
500 This section contains engine UCI options. PolyGlot does not understand
501 them, but sends the information to the engine at startup (converted to
502 UCI form). You can add any UCI option that makes sense to the engine
503 (not just the common options about hash-table size and tablebases).
505 NOTE: use INI syntax, not UCI. For example "OwnBook = true" is cor-
506 rect. It will be replaced by PolyGlot with "setoption name OwnBook
507 value true" at engine startup.
509 Standard UCI options are
516 Hidden options like "Ponder" or "UCI_xxx" are automatic and should not
517 be put in an INI file.
519 The other options are engine-specific. Check their name using a UCI
520 GUI or launch the engine in a console and type "uci".
523 Compile "games.pgn" into a book "book.bin" retaining all lines of at
526 polyglot make-book -pgn games.pgn -bin book.bin -max-ply 30
528 Merge books "w1.bin" and "w2.bin" into a book "w.bin".
530 polyglot merge-book -in1 w1.bin -in2 w2.bin -out w.bin
532 Inspect lines for white in "w.bin"
534 polyglot dump-book -bin w.bin -color white -out w_white.txt
536 Test epd file "test.epd" with a (maximum) search time of 7 minutes per
539 polyglot epd-test -epd test.epd -max-time 420
541 The command line for using the UCI engine "fruit" with 128M hash in
542 xboard with logging enabled.
544 xboard -fcp "polyglot -noini -log -ec fruit -hash 128"
546 The equivalent config file would be:
549 EngineCommand = fruit
555 PolyGlot always returns 0 on exit.
558 Main author: Fabien Letouzey<fabien_letouzey(at)hotmail.com>
560 Native Windows port: Huang Chen<webmaster@elephantbase.net> ("Morning
563 Various enhancements: Fonzy Bleumers<match(at)geenvis.net>
565 UCI port: Michel Van den Bergh <michel.vandenbergh(at)uhasselt.be>
572 2009-08-31 POLYGLOT(6)