Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Rybka 3 Arrived, but...

My birthday gift to myself arrived...Deep Rybka 3 with the ChessBase interface. Unfortunately, one of the features I was most interested in--Monte Carlo analysis-- isn't working. Shortly after starting the analysis, the program crashes.

I just contacted ChessBase support. Hopefully the issue will be resolved in time for my birthday! I'm curous, though, if other readers have had a similar problem and know a solution.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

did you install the service pack? (is there a service pack for rybka at this point from cb?)

likesforests said...

Ouch. I have Deep Rybka 3 but went with the Aquarium interface. Hope you get it fixed and have a wonderful birthday. :)

From the patzer said...

Dont have Rybka but my friends do and they dont have problems with it.

I hope it get fixed before you blow the candles out of your birthday cake.

Grandpatzer said...

I checked both the ChessBase downloads section, and the live upgrade search from the PlayChess server...no updates.

We'll see how the tech support goes. In the past their tech support has been good, although the turnaround time can be slow since (I think) it's based in Europe.

Anonymous said...

Why would the turnaround time be slow just because tech support is "based in Europe" ?

I bought Rybka3 with Chess Assistant 10 and the turnaround time with Convekta has been within a day ( they missed some objcets to make backround anaylsis work, plus a few things for HTML publishing ).

On their forum they invariably answer questions inside a day as well.

Maybe your comment should be 'slow because its based in Germany'.

Europe is an entire continent with different cultural responses to support and customer satisfaction in each, rather than a single European outlook !

Grandpatzer said...

Anonymous: Whoa there, pardner. The only reason for slow turnaround is the difference in time zones between North America and Europe, and thus the end of the business day.

If my daytime response gets there after the end of their business day, then they get back to me the next day, my response to that may not get there till their next business day, etc.

Blue Devil Knight said...

Plus, Europeans suck at customer service compared to Americans, especially if they are Eastern European.

There, I've said it.

I just re-read your review of Daniel King's DVDs. I liked it at the time, but now I think I am really ready for such material. For noobs go read it it is very helpful.

transformation said...

this is fantastic! i very deeply wish to replace my old Fritz8 (less an issue for its capacity as its not optimal for this dual core here), but keep waiting till i get something with Vista--just for chess.

vista runs dual core processor optimized software much better than XP, much as the latter justly has a much better reputation.

that said, hope you have Visa?

no one upset by this, i hope, but i have experienced this, when i download the most recent version of chessBase lite, when out of state, on my sisters PC when on vacation back east. same CPU as here at home but much faster for chess analysis--gets to a much deeply ply, much, much faster.

dk

Grandpatzer said...

BDK: I eventually picked up the first Powerplay as well. It was also good, but not as jam-packed with revelations as 2 and 3.

dk: it runs Vista, and my dual-core laptop does seem to analyze a lot quicker than my desktop.

I'm still having trouble with Monte Carlo analysis causing the program to crash, and I'm still exchanging emails with ChessBase. I think I'll try installing it on the desktop soon and see if MC crashes there or not.

stalemate said...

I had the same problem but I have found the solution. The programme in fact works in 2 steps: In step 1 it creates a tree a nd in step 2 executes the tree (it plays a number of games according to this tree)Betwen these two steps it loads the UCI engine. The crash is caused by not finding the engine due to false directory where is looked for. It is enough to make a copy of directory c:\Program Files\Common Files\ChessBase\Engines.uci\ to directory c:\Documents and Settings\xxx\Local Settings\Temp\ where xxx is your user name.

Grandpatzer said...

stalemate: wow, I have to try that, thanks! I'll let you know how it turns out.

Grandpatzer said...

Stalemate: my laptop is Vista, and the directory hierarchy seems different. I can find the destination path you specified on my desktop, which runs XP but is single-core and doesn't have Rybka on it. I'll try and futz around on the laptop and find an appropriate destination.

Do you have any idea where it should go under Vista?

Grandpatzer said...

I think it works now!

The vista directory was users\xxx\AppData\Local\Temp (thanks, Google!). You have to turn on "see hidden folders". Also, I first just copied the folder into the directory, but actually I had to copy the folder's contents (engines) directly into the Temp folder. As I type this it seems to be merrily chugging away, and has played 600 games for its analysis (the stats for my gambit aren't looking so great at the moment!).

When I've verified all is hunky-dory, I'll post an article and also email ChessBase tech support.