Open tissatussa opened 10 months ago
Hey!
Sorry for the inconvenience but Union right now isn't a NNUE engine yet. It's still in WIP and it uses very very basic HCE evaluation. So it's expected below 2000.
..Union right now isn't a NNUE engine yet..
OK, then you can correct your README ? btw. its playing style is rather unique, i like it .. 2000 seems too high though .. maybe 1600 is a better estimation. What is your opinion of its strength ?
..it uses very very basic HCE evaluation..
although i respect your ideas on writing a HCE, i want to bring your attention to the evaluation calculations as stated many years ago by Alan Turing. I found the article https://en.chessbase.com/post/reconstructing-turing-s-paper-machine which tells the story of the TuroChamp chess engine and reveals its formulas. Some programmers implemented these "rules" into a simple HCE. Best i found is the 'Morlock' engine(s) -- see its (GO) code and also the recent github Issue i started at https://github.com/herohde/morlock/issues/2 which can give you valuable info. In CuteChess the TuroChamp version 0.89.3 runs fine, although it doesn't reach high depths : dp 7 is a max .. Your Union engine also seems to reach only depth about 7-9 when playing a (eg. 5 min) game, maybe a little higher then the GO TuroChamp version .. in this stage of your development, it might be an idea to somehow implement the TuroChamp rules, using your (faster?) pruning ? It has a human like playing style, logical, far from materialistic .. i'm a (club) player for years, and i think those "rules" closely seem to resemble the way chess should be played!
r1bqk2r/pp1n2bp/2p3p1/4pp2/2P5/2N1PNP1/PPQ2PP1/2KR1B1R w kq - 0 12 recently i use this position to test several (also weak) engines. According to SF and other very strong engines there's only 1 bestmove here : g4 ! but not many engines are capable of finding it ..
I believe Union right now is material + mobility eval, so it is not expected to find hard moves.
i successfully compiled your Union engine on Linux (bmi2) and it runs fine in CuteChess and SCID .. i let it play some games against other (simple) engines and i guess its rating is just below 2000.
now i wonder : does Union really use some NNUE ? My file size is only 132 Kb and in the few source files i find no string 'nnue' or any reference to a network .. can you explain ?