1. General

1.1. Introduction

The basic material for this FAQ are the most asked questions (and answers) of the Rebel users to the Rebel team and the Rebel related discussions at the RebelBoard, in the Computer-Chess Club and the rec.games.chess.computer newsgroup.

To solve any questions/problems in using Rebel Century, follow the following lookup strategy:

1. Read the manual (see the Rebel menu START).
   You can also drag a selected menu item with the mouse button to the question mark box (upper left corner of the screen), to get a context help for this menu item.
2. Read the README file (see the Rebel menu START)
3. Read this FAQ
4. Look at the Rebel home page for further information. Especially useful are the "Tip of the Week" sections, devided in a Expert and a Novice section
5. Visit the RebelBoard. This is a forum to ask your questions and lookup other questions and answers to this questions.
6. Mail me or Schröder BV for further help

1.2. Schröder BV

Rebel Century is a product of Schröder BV (headed by Ed Schröder)

    Schröder BV
    Software Development
    Postbus 6365 7401 JJ
    Deventer, The Netherlands
    Email: info@rebel.nl
    WWW:   http://www.rebel.nl/

1.3. System Requirements

• CPU 80386 or higher
• Internal memory at least 8 Mb
• Free harddisk space of 10 Mb
• Cdrom player

The following platforms are supported by Rebel Century:

• MS-DOS 5.0 or higher
• Windows V3.x
• Windows 95/98

There is no official OS/2 or MacOS support. Rebel Century may or may not run under Windows NT for unknown reasons.

The maximum of supported RAM (max. hashtable size) is 120 Mb.

1.4. What's new in Rebel Century 1.2 ?

This version can be downloaded by registered Rebel Century users from the Rebel Century internet subscription area. Read the Rebel Century Internet Subscription page about how to register.

Added are the following new features:

• A stronger chess engine especially for comp-comp lovers
• 3 times faster than Rebel Century on short times controls
• On longer time controls version 1.2 typically hits 1.5-2 plies more than Rebel Century.
• Option FAST EVALUATION (makes Rebel 25% faster)
• Option FAST SEARCH (this makes Rebel 20% faster)
• Pressing SHIFT-F8 will turn off/on the log-file
• Bugfix STRONGEST SETTINGS (reset default Personality)
• Longer main variations

1.5. How to use both Rebel Century versions ?

Before installing the update, make a backup copy of the following files:

• REBEL.CFG
• REBEL.EXE
• REBEL.TRL

After installing the Rebel Century 1.2 update, start the new version and save a configuration, that suits your needs. Than make also a backup copy of the new files (same as mentioned above). Now you can switch between the new and the old version, by simply copying the proper backuped files into your Rebel Century installation directory.

You can also use our simple DOS batch file RCSEL.BAT for doing this automatically. Please read the added file RCSEL.TXT for further details before using this DOS batch file.

1.5. Rebel Calling Parameters

REBEL A	no double games check in autoplay (AUTO232) mode
REBEL B	aggressive book learning (see README.TXT)
REBEL L1	use logfile with name STANDARD.LOG (append mode)
REBEL L2	use logfile with name yy_mm_dd.001 (append mode) Rebel will create a new logfile with every program start.
REBEL L3	don't write a logfile
REBEL S	don't show the Rebel Century startup screen.
REBEL V	bypasses the VESA mode (in case of problems with VESA VGA cards)
REBEL W	limit the hash table to 256 kb
REBEL W1	limit the hash table to 512 kb
REBEL W2	limit the hash table to 1 Mb
REBEL W3	limit the hash table to 2 Mb
REBEL W4	limit the hash table to 4 Mb
REBEL W5	limit the hash table to 13 Mb
REBEL W6	limit the hash table to 28 Mb
REBEL W7	limit the hash table to 40 Mb
REBEL W8	limit the hash table to 60 Mb
REBEL W9	limit the hash table to 100 Mb
EPD filename	analyse the position, contained in the EPD file. The Rebel Century startup screen will be skipped
PGN filename	direct load of the PGN file. The Rebel Century startup screen will be skipped

The hash table limitations are added to avoid swap delays in a Windows Environment.

1.6. Rebel Century Internet Subscription

All customers of Rebel Century (new or update) with internet access can register for the Rebel Century subscription area. All members have access to free updates of Rebel Century, the REBELBASE, part of the Rebel Century Cdrom and much more.
Read the Rebel Century subscription description for further details.

1.7. Rebel Add-Ons

Schröder BV offers the following add-ons for Rebel Century:

Rebel Encyclopedia of Chess CD

Encyclopedia of Chess (or simply EOC) is a SUPER chess tree with multiple functions. It will help you to make the right moves based on the statistics of Grandmasters and the chess history of 150 years. If you need help in a position just ask the EOC of 60,000,000 (spelled as sixty million!) unique positions and then make up your mind which move to play. EOC is an unique reference for opening preparation because all the major games of the last 150 years are in the EOC database.

Read the EOC description at the Schröder BV web area for further details.

Rebel Gold
Opening books, containing 12 million book moves, in Rebel format (.MVS).

Have a look at the Schröder BV web area to find out more about this products.

1.8. Free PGN game material

You can find a lot of game material in PGN format at the University of Pittburgh Chess Club's FTP server under the PGN directory. In the subdirectory Events you can find tournaments, sorted by year and event, and in the subdirectory Players you can find games of famous players, sorted by name. You can get a complete index of all available data (PGN, CA, CBF, ...) by downloading the file allindex.zip.

• Back to top of page
• Back to Rebel Century FAQ Index
• Schröder BV Rebel Homepage