Rebel 8 FAQ

- Rebel 8.0 FAQ -

Rebel 9 FAQ

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Index

Topics marked with NEW are new or updated since last release (22-FEB-1997).

1. General

1.1. Introduction

The basic material for this FAQ are the questions (and answers) of the rec.games.chess.computer newsgroup discussions. Some aspects of playing with/against Rebel 8.0 are also described in this FAQ. For a more detailed description of playing Rebel 8.0 see the Rebel 8.0 menu description.

1.2. Schröder BV

Rebel 8.0 is a product of Schröder BV (headed by Ed Schröder) 

    Schröder BV
    Software Development
    Postbus 6365 7401 JJ
    Deventer, The Netherlands
    Email: rebchess@xs4all.nl
    WWW:   http://www.rebel.nl/
and available since September 1996.

1.3. Chess Engine Improvements

The main chess engine improvements are:

  • better move selection (selective search)
  • improved hash table algorithm
  • evaluation function improvements
  • better endgame knowledge

1.4. Rebel Calling Parameters

REBEL A no double games check in autoplay (AUTO232) mode
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

The hash table limitations are added due to swap problems in a Windows environment.

1.5. Rebel Add-Ons

Schröder BV offers the following add-ons for Rebel 8.0:

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

Rebel Million Database
More than 1 million games in Rebel database format.

Rebel Database Utility (dbutil.exe)
This utility program is needed for extended Rebel database operations. The options of dbutil.exe are:

    Delete Player
    Delete all games with the given player's name from database.
    Extended Delete
    Replace a Players ELO
    Rename a specific Player
    Export a Rebel Database
    Export games, selected by certain criteria (name, ELO, ...), from a Rebel database into another Rebel database.
    Import a Rebel Database
    Append a Rebel database to another one.
    Remove double games
    Remove all doubles from a database.
    Compress a Database
    Delete all games, marked as deleted in a database.
    Same as "Reorganisation db" in menu DAT.
    Reorganize Names
    Reorganize ELO
    Reorganize Names and ELO
    Reorganize names and ELO values in one step.

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

1.6. 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.

2. Problems in Running Rebel

2.1. Running Rebel in a Windows Environment

Part of the Rebel distribution are the following PIF files:

REBEL8.PIF Windows V3.1, Windows for Workgroups V3.11
REBELDOS.PIF Windows 95 (runs Rebel in DOS mode)
REBELWIN.PIF Windows 95 (runs Rebel in Windows 95 mode)

The intention of REBEL8.PIF and REBELWIN.PIF is to run Rebel 8.0 directly under Windows (without rebooting in DOS mode). You shouldn't try to switch tasks while running Rebel 8.0.

2.2. Display Problems

There are known problems with Matrox and Cirrus Logic (CL-GD5434) graphical adapters. Both cards doesn't support a font of Rebel, therefore the Rebel menu isn't displayed correct.

Solution:

  • press "F6" (CFG menu)
  • press "ARROW UP" 4 times
  • press "ENTER"
  • press "ALT_X" (exit program) plus save changes
The menu is okay from next start on.

Matrox Millenium
There are reported problems with a flickering display, running Rebel in DOS mode, using a Matrox Millenium card. In this case you should download the Vbe utility from the Matrox WWW site.

2.3. Mouse Problems

If you can't use the mouse with Rebel, you must distinguish two cases:

No mouse driver loaded
You must add the mouse driver loading to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file.

Mouse support switched off in Rebel
Press F6 (menu CFG), position with the cursor key "ARROW DOWN" to the menu entry "Mouse" and press ENTER. Than position with the cursor key "ARROW DOWN" to the menu entry "Save configuration" and press ENTER again. After pressing ESC, the drop down menu vanishes.

"Illegal Operation" Error
On some machines you get an "Illegal Operation" error in running Rebel 8.0 on Win 3.1 or Win95. This error might be related to the mouse driver in use. As a workaround try one of the following points:

  • disable the mouse in the menu CFG
  • select another mouse driver (probably best hint)
  • use REBELDOS.PIF
  • Win95 only: boot your machine in DOS mode

3. Playing Rebel

3.1. How to Quit (Power) Analyse Mode

You can stop the (power) analyze mode of Rebel by simply changing the playing level (e.g. menu "LEV/Time/2 seconds").

3.2. Play as Black Against Rebel

Choose menu "POS/New game" and click on the REBEL icon. Generally: each time you press the REBEL icon in a game, Rebel switch sides.

3.3. ELO Playing Level

The ELO playing level (menu "OPT/ELO-rating ...") can be used, to scale down the Rebel playing strength to your own playing level. You must be aware, that the ELO values are no absolute values, but representing a relative playing strength. I.e. you have to experiment, to find the right Rebel ELO value for your playing strength.

4. Rebel Opening Books

4.1. Two Types of Rebel Opening Books

Rebel 8.0 knows two types of opening books: books in Rebel book format (.MVS), a binary format, and books in Rebel user book format (.RBM), user editable ASCII files. The Rebel 8.0 integrated opening book editor handles the Rebel user book format only.

4.2. Rebel Books

Schröder BV offers a large number of Rebel books (see Rebel Gold). Also opening books in Genius 3/4/5, Fritz 3/4, or ChessMaster 4000/5000 format can be imported into the Rebel book format directly by Rebel 8.0. Genius .BOK opening books can also be imported in renaming them to .CGS. Several small Rebel books can be joined into one bigger Rebel book in Rebel 8.0 ("Join opening book"). See the description of the Rebel 8.0 menu MVS for more details.

4.3. Rebel User Books

A large number of (unedited) opening books in Rebel user book format can be downloaded from the Schröder BV download page.

Own Rebel user books can either be created from scratch ("New user book") or from a Rebel database ("Make userbook from DB"). See the description of the Rebel 8.0 menu MVS for more details.

Rebel user books are plain ASCII files. Several Rebel user books can therefore simply be joined by concatenating the files.

4.4. Converting Rebel User Books to Rebel Books

Rebel user books can be converted into Rebel books by the freeware utility program rbmtomvs.exe.

5. Rebel Database

5.1. Rebel Database Format

The Rebel database format is published by Schröder BV to help programmers writting tools for handling Rebel database.

5.2. Importing ChessBase Files into a Rebel Database

There exists at least two ways of importing ChessBase files into a Rebel database:

Export to PGN in ChessBase
You can create in ChessBase a new database in PGN format and copy your ChessBase (.CBF) database to this PGN database. Rebel can directly import this PGN file into a Rebel database (option "PGN into database" in menu PGN).
This will also work with the new ChessBase 6 version (.CBH files).

Using Rebel's TB.EXE utility
After installing Rebel 8.0, you will find the utility program TB.EXE in the directory REBEL8\TOOLS. With this utility you can directly import a ChessBase .CBF file into a Rebel database: copy your .CBF and .CBI files into the directory REBEL8\TOOLS, change to this directory and call TB.EXE with two parameters: the ChessBase file name (without extention .CBF) and the Rebel database name (without the extention .DAT).
TB.EXE can't convert the new ChessBase 6 .CBH format.

5.3. Joining Rebel Databases

Rebel databases can be joined (append a Rebel database to another one) with the freeware utility program import.exe.

5.4. Remove Doubles from a Rebel Database

Doubles can be removed with dbutil.exe.

5.5. Rebuilding the Rebel Database Index Files

In case the Rebel database index files (.IX1, .IX2) get corrupted or even lost, you can rebuild the files with the freeware utility rdbindex.exe (ca 21 kB). rdbindex.exe is a DOS program. Call it with option -h to get usage information.

5.6. Marco Aspes' Rebel Database Utilities

Marco Aspes (vaspes@libero.it) wrote a set of Rebel database access utilities (reb_util.zip ca. 66 kb):

    REBELSRT
    This utility lets you order a Rebel database by any key you want. You can also define secondary keys to use when the primary key is not useful. At the end of the processing, you have a new *.IX1 file ordered according your wishes. The *.IX2 file is not modified.
    REBELXTR
    This utility lets you extract games from a Rebel database creating a new Rebel database. You can extract the games that match all the patterns you have defined or the games that match at least one of them. You can also extract the games that don't match the patterns.
    REBELEPD
    This utility lets you convert EPD positions into a new Rebel database.
    REBELIST
    This utility lets you list a Rebel database using the *.IX1 index file. In this way you have the same order that you find in the menu DAT "Load" option in Rebel.
    REBELVW
    This utility lets you view the contents of a Rebel database without using any index file.

6. Rebel Extras

6.1. Using the BT2450 and BT2630 Rebel Databases

Part of the Rebel 8.0 release are the Rebel databases BT2450 and BT2630. This databases contain the positions of the BT2450 and BT2630 test suites. This test suites are designed by Hubert Bednorz and Fred Toennissen for measuring the tactical capabilities of chess engines. BT2630 is the predecessor of BT2450.

Each test suite contain 30 positions. Select each position and let Rebel think for 15 minutes (900 seconds). If a position is solved, write down its solution time in seconds. It doesn't count as a solution if Rebel finds, the move and then changes its mind. If after finding a move, then changing its mind, then finding it again, you should use the last time found. Any solution that is not found, score as 900 seconds. Add up all the times, divide by 30 and subtract the result from either 2630 or 2450. The final figure is Rebel's (BT-) ELO rating.

Be cautious in interpreting the BT results. The BT values are only indicators for the tactical strenght of a chess engine. You can't measure the positional strength of a chess engine with this test suites.

Last updated: Saturday, 8. March 1997
marochess@geocities.com
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