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REBEL 10.0 Playing Strength
REBEL10 STRONGER THAN EVER
The Rebel chess engine has been modified in many ways. First, the search algorithm is rewritten from scratch resulting in better tactics. A second and main improvement is that the new chess engine is less selective than Rebel9 which also gives better results.
REBEL10 comp-comp tournament victory
REBEL10 (in Germany) recently won the strongest computer-computer event held ever. In 14 games REBEL10 scored 10 points without losing one single game.
All participants were in agreement, that REBEL10 played the best chess and won well-earned. The tournament was played as a seven-round-swiss system tournament with three hours each side for the wohle game.
For a full report of the event by Karsten Bauermeister CLICK HERE
Final Ranking
1. Rebel 10 10/14 2. Fritz 5.32 9,5 3. Hiarcs 7 8,5 4. Nimzo 3.5 / 99 8 5. Chessmaster 7,5 6. Zarkov 4.3 7 7. M-Chess Pro 8 7 8. Virtual Chess 7 9. Junior 5 7 10. Shredder 3 6,5 11. Chess System Tal 6,5 12. Genius 5 6,5 13. Kallisto II 6 14. Gandalf 3 5,5 15. Tasc R30 Vers.2,5 2,5
REBEL10 prolongs its title in the SAMANEL cup
4ta. COPA SAMANEL 1998
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 REBEL 10 400MHZ 128RAM 2555 * 1 ½ ½ 1 1 1 1 ½ 1 7.5
2 CM6000 450MHZ 128RAM 2545 0 * 1 1 ½ ½ 1 1 1 1 7.0
3 HIARCS 6.0 350MHZ 128RAM 2550 ½ 0 * ½ 1 1 1 1 1 1 7.0
4 FM JOSE ML. DOMINGUEZ 2340 ½ 0 ½ * 0 1 1 1 1 1 6.0
5 IM NELSON PINAL 2325 0 ½ 0 1 * 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ 4.5
6 NM NELSON ALVARADO 2180 0 ½ 0 0 0 * 1 1 1 1 4.5
7 IM RAMON MATEO 2470 0 0 0 0 ½ 0 * ½ 1 1 3.0
8 FM MARINO FERNANDEZ 2225 0 0 0 0 ½ 0 ½ * 1 1 3.0
9 ALEXIS MONTES DE OCA 2130 ½ 0 0 0 ½ 0 0 0 * 1 2.0
10 NM JUAN ML. JAQUEZ 2205 0 0 0 0 ½ 0 0 0 0 * 0.5
Abbreviations: FM FIDE Master
IM International Master
NM National Master
As last year REBEL10 did not lose one single game. In 9 rounds REBEL10 scored 7½ points.
In the comp-comp confrontation REBEL10 beat ChessMaster 6000 and draw against Hiarcs 6.0.
CLICK HERE for full story.
anti-GM
A special piece of software has been added to the chess engine of Rebel10. It's a new development which we have called anti-GM (anti grandmaster play) which has as main purpose to avoid games which we consider as bad for Rebel when facing strong grandmasters.
anti-GM will try to enter positions which we consider to be good for Rebel or in other words try to enter positions where Rebel's evaluation is very accurate. Also anti-GM is about to keep the initiative.
Rebel10 anti-GM had its baptism of fire against world's second best chess player Vishy Anand in Italy (July 1998) where Rebel10 won the 8 game match with 5-3. In MOST games Rebel10 was able to keep the initiative and to set the rules of the games which we believe was the base of the victory against Anand.
TACTICS
A special tactical search has been added to Rebel10's chess engine. These days (instead of playing normal games) solving difficult tactical positions with the help of a chess program becomes more and more popular. Rebel10's special tactical search will find key-moves up to 10 times faster.
HASH TABLES
The maximum hash table size has been extended from 60 to 120 Mb. We believe this will make Rebel10 a bit stronger.
The new engine under the microscope
- Hash Tables
- Problem Solving
- Bug Fixes
- Anti Grandmaster Play
- Anti Grandmaster (more examples)
- Summary
Playing strength (hash tables)
The hash table sizes have been improved to today's standards. With Rebel10 you can use up to 120 Mb hash tables (was 60 Mb). Further, more attention is spent to avoid swapping of the Win95 swap-file when using big hash tables.
As in Rebel9 also within Rebel10 you can specify the hash table size according to your own wishes. From the pull-down menu you have 16 choices. These 16 choices are upgraded to today's standards. The flexible hash table size for Rebel10 looks as follows:
0 Kb 512 Kb 1 Mb 2 Mb 4 Mb 6 Mb 8 Mb 10 Mb 13 Mb 20 Mb 28 Mb 40 Mb 60 Mb 80 Mb 100 Mb 120 MbAlso the command-line parameters are updated, the table for Rebel10 looks as follows:
REBEL W1 512 Kb REBEL W2 1 Mb REBEL W3 2 Mb best value for the use of a 4 Mb Pc REBEL W4 4 Mb best value for the use of a 8 Mb Pc REBEL W5 13 Mb best value for the use of a 16 Mb Pc REBEL W6 28 Mb best value for the use of a 32 Mb Pc REBEL W7 40 Mb best value for the use of a 48 Mb Pc REBEL W8 60 Mb best value for the use of a 64 Mb Pc REBEL W9 100 Mb best value for the use of a 128 Mb Pc (or higher)We expect these changes will make Rebel10 even more stronger.
Playing strength (problem solving)
Because many people (besides playing games and analysis) also use a chess program for solving difficult chess positions Rebel10's chess engine has been improved on several points resulting in incredible improved solution times.
Rebel10 when analysing a position (automatically) will activate a special search algorithm that is fully tactical based and will find key moves up to 500-1000% faster. The average performance of finding key moves faster is estimated at 250-300%.
If you don't like this special tactical search while analysing a position you can turn this option off in the OPTION menu COMBINATION=OFF as the default is COMBINATIOM=ON. The special tactical search is only active for finding the key move of the position (the first move of the position).
To give you an impression about the performance of this new tactical search for positions you can compare the solution times for Rebel 9.0 versus Rebel 10.0 valid for the following 10 examples.
Playing strength (bug fixes)
- When a clear better move is found (Rebel shows the + sign) Rebel10 will immediately display this move in the main variation. This will increase the solution times for problem solving between 25-50%.
- Fixed Rebel 9.0's display bug in cases when a very deep mate combination is found. Rebel10
now will show now the correct mate line, see the following example:
00:00:00 2.01 Mate in 30 moves Ne3-g4+ Ke5-f5 Ng4-h6+ Kf5-e5 Nh6-f7+ Ke5-f5
Please note that the complete mate is found in less than one second!
ANTI Grandmaster play
This new piece of chess knowledge for Rebel 10.0 has been especially developed for the upcoming match REBEL vs ANAND.
The anti-GM software serves multiple purposes. Since we expect Vishy Anand will prepare on Rebel 9.0 (this due Rebel 9.0 is general available which we estimate as a huge disadvantage for this match) the anti-GM software will try to play a much different style of chess than Rebel 9.0, this without the loss of playing strength.
Next the anti-GM experiment will try to provoke strong grandmasters like Vishy Anand to enter types of positions which are good for computers, in other words Rebel will try to create positions where it will play on its best (positions Rebel usually is very accurate) and avoid positions which we consider as a disadvantage for Rebel.
The last months a lot of development time has been spent on this anti-GM option. The opinion about this experimental anti-GM software has been asked on several people who returned satisfying answers.
The anti-GM software is available from the pulldown menu and has 4 options.
- OFF Rebel will keep its usual positional style.
- ACTIVE The anti-GM chess knowledge is activated but its use is a bit careful.
- STRONG The anti-GM algorithm in its full glory.
- SMART Rebel10's default setting. Rebel10 will use the anti-GM chess knowledge in a smart way depending on the current position (game). Depending on the status of the game (type of the position) Rebel10 will decide what to use (OFF, ACTIVE or STRONG).
Position after Ra8-c8- Normally it takes Rebel 2:15 and 8 plies to find the sacrifice Rxe6! the score going
from -0.84 to 0.09
- Using anti-GM is ACTIVE Rebel will find the sacrifice in 0:03 on ply-5 with a score of
-0.64
- anti-GM set to STRONG does an even better job, Rxe6! is also found in 3 seconds on the
fifth ply but the score is -0.42 now.
In other words Rebel (using anti-GM) does not need to know the sacrifice is 100% correct for this position, Rebel smells the chance of an attack and goes for it!
ANTI Grandmaster play (more examples)
- Anand - Leko 18.c5! Wijk aan Zee 1996.
- Deep Blue - Kasparov Qe3! The re-match of 1997.
- Hiarcs - Genius WCM 1993 in Munich.
- Jongsma - Rebel Aegon Man vs Computer 1990.
SUMMARY
Rebel is famous for its playing strength but especially for its deep positional understanding. Therefore the quality of the returned analysis is simply high and mostly very reliable what makes Rebel not only play good against humans but also against other computer opponents.
In the period of 1991 till 1998 Rebel participated in the following main events:
| Year | Event | Place | Result | 1991 | World Micro Championship | Vancouver | World Champion | 1992 | World Championship All Classes | Madrid | World Champion | 1993 | World Micro Championship | Munich | 5th place | 1994 | None | --- | --- | 1995 | World Championship All Classes | Hong Kong | 6th place | 1996 | None | --- | --- | 1997 | Rebel9 versus Arthur Yusupov | Italy | 10½ - 6½ | 1998 | Rebel10 versus Vishy Anand | Italy | 5 - 3 | 1991-1997 | AEGON Man versus Machine | The Hague | Strongest computer | 1991-1998 | SSDF (computer vs computer) | Sweden | Many first places |
We can't mention another chess program (with the exception of Deep Blue) that comes even close to the results of Rebel and especially not in respect to Rebel's performance against strong human chess players like Arthur Yusupov and world's second best chess player Vishy Anand.
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