Analysis Presets in Rybka Aquarium

This month we’ll examine infinite analysis presets in Rybka Aquarium. Presets allow you to store and quickly access your favorite analysis settings so you don’t have to configure them manually every time you want to use them. A single preset can hold advanced analysis configurations consisting of multiple engines and analysis panels. I assume that the reader is familiar with the basics of infinite analysis in Rybka Aquarium, which was discussed in my July 2008 column.

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Article – Jeroen’s New Opening Book for Rybka Aquarium

The first professional opening book for Rybka Aquarium has been released. The author is non other than Jeroen Noomen, a very experienced and highly regarded opening book author. Jeroen is a member of the Rybka team and the author of the Rybka’s private opening book which is used in its most important competitions, including the World Computer Chess Championship.

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Highlights from the Rybka Aquarium book

Sicilian Najdorf: 6. Bg5 running out of favour?

In 2007 the sharp 6. Bg5 in the Sicilian Najdorf featured a nice comeback. White players delivered some heavy blows at the very popular Poisoned Pawn variation, black’s most respected line against 6. Bg5. Two years later black has been able to come up with 3 reliable answers against white’s most dangerous plan: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 e6 7.f4 Qb6 8.Qd2 Qxb2 9.Rb1 Qa3 10.e5 h6 11.Bh4 dxe5 12.fxe5 Read the rest of this entry »

Large-scale Analysis with Rybka Aquarium

The average chess game consists of around eighty different positions. A fairly thorough game commentary may contain a couple of hundred additional positions. All of this fits neatly into the traditional game notation format. However, with Rybka Aquarium’s large-scale analyzing capabilities, the notation has lost its status as the place to store all your analysis. Large-scale analysis results in thousands of analyzed positions for a single game or even a single position in a game. All the analyzed positions are stored permanently and are easily accessible along with their evaluations.

Large-scale analysis is not practical unless there is an automatic method that is capable of generating most of the analysis. The main purpose of large-scale analysis is increased productivity – something that the next generation of serious chess players will need in order to stay competitive.

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Find Blunders with Rybka Aquarium

Last month we learned about Game Analysis, which is based on an advanced analysis algorithm. This month we’ll examine Find Blunders, which is a different approach to automatic game analysis in Rybka Aquarium. About Aquarium’s Find Blunders Find Blunders is intended as a quick search for critical blunders in a game.

Compared to Game Analysis, the main difference is that Find Blunders only does what the name indicates and skips all other types of annotations. Additionally, because of its narrower focus, the analysis algorithm itself is not as refined as the one used by Game Analysis.

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Game Analysis with Rybka Aquarium

Rybka Aquarium offers new analysis methods as well as improvements to older methods. In previous ChessOK Cafe columns we examined Interactive Deep Analysis (IDeA) and Infinite Analysis . This month we take a look at Game Analysis.

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Creating Tree Configurations

Last month’s column was an introduction to tree configurations in Rybka Aquarium. This month we’ll have a closer look at how tree configurations are created.

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Introduction to Tree Configurations

Many chess software users are familiar with electronic opening books. Chess players use them to study openings and build their repertoire, freestyle players use them for a similar purpose, and engine testers use them to ensure balanced positions out of the opening, etc. Opening books are one application of chess trees, but Aquarium uses trees for many other purposes and takes this concept to a new level with its tree configurations.

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