Valiant Mk3.2

Discussion about chess-playing software (engines, hosts, opening books, platforms, etc...)
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Enderjed
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Valiant Mk3.2

Post by Enderjed » Thu Mar 02, 2023 5:06 pm

Already posted my engine on Talkchess, so I thought it'd make sense to post it on OpenChess.

It's made in python, and it's (lack of) speed certainly shows, especially in the earlygame, although it does speed up as the piece count on the board declines (although 3.2 and it's "Archer" personality do run much faster than the older versions)
It is not entirely original code, I have used Disservin's python chess engine as most of the baseline, but I do hope that with further development it will be more independent of it's source, for I do not wish to create a mere clone.
Considering the fact it loses to LittleLeLouch and Chess.com's Nelson (and this is with unlimited time mind you), I don't expect it to be higher than 1100, but from it's performance I don't expect it to be lower than 900 either (although that's time dependent).
It generally plays offensively, but has an odd tendency to try and move it's king to the other side of the board.

The engine can be downloaded here precompiled along with previous versions
The source code of 3.2 and 3.1 is bundled in the zip with the respective executable, (do keep in mind I no longer have the source code of the mk2 original or tournament, or the source code of the failed mk3)

The code has only been fully tested on Windows 11 x64, with BanksiaGUI ver 0.56 beta.

Any help, criticism, feedback, discoveries, ect. would be greatly appreciated, because getting this thing working in the first place took embarrassingly long.

Enderjed
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Re: Valiant Mk3.2

Post by Enderjed » Mon Mar 06, 2023 4:43 pm

Mk4 has been released (existing dropbox link still works), with tapered piece tables (albeit lacking any sort of interpolation, making the strategic change quite sudden)
Unfortunately it does lose to Mk3.2 when playing as white, but generally does play stronger, especially as black.
It can still beat Mephisto I (a3), and can now obliterate Smith One Move Analyser, and can now consistently beat mildly harder opposition, such as LittleleLouch, Ax 0.8 and BBC 1.4 (With Stockfish NNUE)
As it still loses to some strategies however, I'd predict it's elo to be within the blunt estimate range of 1200-2000

Enderjed
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Re: Valiant Mk3.2

Post by Enderjed » Fri Mar 10, 2023 11:52 pm

MK V has finally been released. (along with source)
In terms of changes, the piece evaluation has been renovated, giving the engine a more discernible understanding of the start, mid, and endgame. This is alongside some cosmetic and auditory improvements.
It's strong enough to beat me now in a reasonable timeframe.
Within testing, it's win rate has become far more reliable. So I'd assume it's rating to be closer to 1600-2000.

Enderjed
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Re: Valiant Mk3.2

Post by Enderjed » Wed Mar 15, 2023 10:20 pm

Valiant Mk6 has been released to the dropbox
With some assistance from the Engine Programming discord, the engine now has a toggle to completely invert on how it evaluates the board, in a method that imitates Tom7's WorstFish. There is also a separate logo to denote the usage of this mode. This overall feature was added mostly for the sake of research, but could be seen as an act of humour.
The source of Mk6 is still included with the build; in the off chance you want to take a look at the code.

Enderjed
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Re: Valiant Mk3.2

Post by Enderjed » Thu Mar 16, 2023 4:41 pm

A severe crashing bug has been found in Mk6, this bug has been hotfixed, please download the revised Mk6 version.

Enderjed
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Re: Valiant Mk3.2

Post by Enderjed » Wed Mar 29, 2023 4:32 pm

Dropbox folder has been updated with failed sources to Mk7 and a Mk5 variant.
Don't expect anymore releases of Valiant, as python is too slow, and I'm too mentally dense to comprehend other languages.
Do what you will with the mess that I made.

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