Shredder 9.0
Shredder 9.0 UCI and Deep Shredder 9.0 UCI
Shredder 9.0 UCI renews Stefan Meyer-Kahlen's commitment to the Universal Chess Interface (UCI) standard that he first promulgated some years ago. This version promises to be stronger than previous ones, and is also widely compatible with a variety of chess playing graphical user interfaces such as Chess Assistant, Chessbase 9, Arena, and Fritz 8. This program, which is only available at ShredderChess.com includes both a rock-solid graphical user interface and a UCI version of the engine, which can be used with many other programs.
Rather than repeat everything else that I've said previously about Shredder, instead I will refer you to my previous review of Shredder Classic here, which pretty much describe the capabilities of this program (minus the new features, which I will discuss). People that e-mail me asking for engine advice will also tell you that I frequently recommend Shredder, and use it within Chess Assistant as my primary analysis engine.
What's New
As of this writing, there are no official SSDF results indicating how much stronger this version is over its predecessors. However, the engine testers at the Computer Chess Club (CCC) have been busy putting the engine through its paces. While we all await the results of this (long) process, I can refer you to the following links:
The above list represents a population of testers that I consider to be knowledgeable and experienced (however, just because a link is not on the list does not mean the opposite).
Obviously, the most important aspect of this version is a new engine and book. As usual, it is probably fair to say that Shredder 9.0 will be in the top three (if not the top slot) on the SSDF rating list. Indeed, as of this writing, Shredder 8 and Shredder 7.04 were #1 and #2, respectively. Add this to the WMCC victories that Shredder has chalked up, and you've got one strong engine.
The book is still constructed by Sandro Necchi, who always manages to come up with interesting openings for Shredder to play. In fact, I am continuously surprised at some of the off-beat lines that are chosen, and how at certain points, established theory is avoided altogether. Thus, I think Shredder comes with one of the more interesting books, and does not simply use a database dump for its repertoire.
There have been some cosmetic tweaks in this version, including a more configurable button bar, different icons, and additional piece sets and boards. But the basic graphical look and feel of the program remains much the same. Shredder has an extremely clean interface and look, and there is no arguing with success.
There are additional engine parameters which can be modified as well. Additionally, because of UCI and its .eng files, you are also able to change the engine personality parameters in other interfaces that support UCI.
As you may be aware, six piece tablebases are being compiled, and many of the newer commercial engines can use them. However, the issue is that these databases are slow to compile, and many people always want the very latest information that is available. So Shredder is the first program to add the ability to access online tablebases from within the playing GUI itself. This online database currently contains over 800GB of endgame tablebases. My testing indicates that the use of this feature requires very little bandwidth, and is not a problem over even slower connections. However, it can only be used when there are six or less pieces on the board.
Incidentally, since there is some controversy over the effect of disk speed access, some people feel that allowing tablebase probes during an chess engine's search process is not always the best course of action. Thus Shredder offers an engine parameter that controls how frequently this particular feature is employed. For instance, those with RAID or SATA drives may want to select the "Use tablebases Early" option, while those with slower hardware may opt for "normal" or "late" instead. Shredder does not use the internet tablebases in its engine's search algorithm, and only uses disk-based tablebase files.
Some Notes
At first glance, it seemed as though some buttons were missing on the button bar, that were present in previous versions. However, it turns out that this button bar is now user configurable. Simply right-click over it, and you can select which buttons will be visible.
You can find an article about installing the Shredder 9 UCI engine for use in Chess Assistant here.
Tips/Compatibility
Shredder 9 UCI is compatible with Chess Assistant, as well as Arena, Chessbase 9 and the Fritz 8 family. It is not however, compatible with Chessbase 8, which does not support UCI engines.
Move announcement sounds can be added if you have a previous version of Shredder that has a directory of WAV format sound files (just copy to the corresponding subdirectory in Shredder 9).
Conclusion
As I have said many times, if you can only have one engine, then this is it. While only time will tell if Shredder 9 is stronger than its predecessors, previous performances (and my subjective impressions) would seem to indicate that Stefan has another winner on his hands.
Copy Protection
Program is downloaded from www.shredderchess.com and then installed. Backups can be made, and all that is required is a registration code. There is no refueling, etc. required. A free demo of a version with a weaker engine is available at the Shredderchess website.
