Links
REBEL-TIGER the story
It is proven now: Chess Tiger is the strongest of all!
Since November 27, 1999 Chess Tiger tops the famous computer-computer SSDF list!
THE SSDF RATING LIST 1999-11-26 69727 games played by 202 computers Rating + - Games Won Oppo ------ --- --- ----- --- ---- 1 Chess Tiger 12.0 DOS 128MB K6-2 450 MHz 2696 44 -40 317 72% 2533 2 Fritz 5.32 128MB K6-2 450 MHz 2671 45 -41 297 72% 2506 3 Nimzo 7.32 128MB K6-2 450 MHz 2663 37 -35 409 69% 2526 4 Nimzo 99 128MB K6-2 450 MHz 2644 52 -48 214 67% 2520 5 Hiarcs 7.32 128MB K6-2 450 MHz 2636 42 -39 320 67% 2509 6 Junior 5.0 128MB K6-2 450 MHz 2619 54 -50 190 65% 2508
The good result for Chess Tiger 11.8 on P90 made us very curious about what Christophe Therons latest program could achieve on faster hardware. Now we know!
After 317 tournament games Chess Tiger 12.0 DOS K6-2 450 MHz has taken the first place on the rating list! It's rating is 2696, which is 25 points more than Fritz 5.32 has on the same hardware! Very impressing!
As can be seen SSDF has played with a DOS-version of Chess Tiger. Will the final commercial Windows-version Rebel-Tiger be slower and therefore weaker? No, surprisingly the opposite seems to be the case! Windows does slow the program down with 2-3%, but since the Windows compiler is better than the DOS-compiler, the net effect is a speed advantage for the Windows version. Our preliminary tests with a beta-version indicates that the Windows version is about 8-10% faster at three minutes per move.
About the SSDF
SSDF is an independent organization with many volunteers all over the world and is free from every commercial interest.
One of the main goals of SSDF is to test commercial available chess programs against each other on tournament level (40/120) and produce a sorted list concerning their playing strength. The SSDF list is updated 6-8 times a year and is freely downloadable from the Internet.
SSDF is founded in 1984 and has been since then the general accepted computer rating list for chess magazines and computer chess lovers all over the world. The SSDF received this credit by their excellent work concerning honest an decent testing methods.
If you want to know more about SSDF or watch and download their current rating list we suggest you to visit the SSDF home page
The long road of REBEL-TIGER
June 1998: Two leading chess programmers REBEL programmer Ed Schröder and CHESS-TIGER programmer Christophe Théron joined forces.
The idea was to combine 17 and 16 years individual chess programming ideas in both REBEL and CHESS-TIGER. The expectations were high, estimated at at least 100-150 elo points progress.
November 1998: Official announcement of the new approach after it became clear to Ed and Christophe the idea was going to work.
During the period June '98 - September '99 Christophe Théron constantly was able to improve his Tiger tremendously as every new version scored better and better than the previous one and already in September '99 it became crystal clear to Rebel Company Chess Tiger is the strongest program available on PC.
October 1999: Time to commercialize the Tiger as REBEL-TIGER. Chess Tiger was ported to Windows and went in BETA test by 25 people.
The exact version of CHESS TIGER now topping the SSDF list will be available next month (December 1999) in a nice Win95/98/NT outlook.
Rebel Company itself is astonished at the effect of their own idea to combine 33 years of individual chess programming ideas as it has NEVER have happened before an unknown chess program (like Chess Tiger was) could hit the first place on SSDF coming from nowhere!
Rebel Company wonders where the progress will end as the TO_DO list of Ed Schröder and Christophe Théron is still very long and maybe Ed & Christophe are just too pessimistic about their initial estimated 100-150 elo points progress. Time will surely tell!
But one thing for sure: The Ed & Christophe approach works and Tiger's first place on SSDF (coming from nowhere) is the final proof!