Hello, I would like to get some user cases related to Book building. This topic has been recently touched upon very, very briefly, so I take this opportunity to ask some questions I am set to answer, when will come the time to write the sequel of **Getting Along with Scid**, a sequel that would deal with database management.
So here they are : 1. Can I use Scid to build opening books that can use chess engines ? >From what I gather, there is no standard way to represent opening books. I know that GNUchess uses a simple .pgn file. That seems to imply building an opening database, i.e. a collection of game fragments representing a more or less complete repertoire. Does anyone tried to build an opening database like that ? If yes, how did you proceed and what are the most important errors not to make ? Building a .pgn book with Scid is a bit unintuitive, since PGN databases are read-only. But that's the most expedient way, to my knowledge. Is there a speedier way ? 2. How to use .bin books, and how to make one using Polyglot ? This possibility may be a sad necessity, sad because Scid could very well be used to build opening books. Most of OTB players use databases for that : why not use these efforts to build up books ? It's sad, but not so bad : Polyglot does not seem that tough to master for someone who prefers to build books than buy some. Anyway, does anybody know how to use Polyglot ? I found out some basic explanation here for setting up the chess engines : http://www.hoeppenstein.net/chess/chesstutor/chess.html (Look below the header "Using UCI-engines in SCID via Polyglot".) Also, reading this discussion : http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforum/topic_show.pl?tid=2846 it seems that a .bin book is simply a .pgn file compiled by Polyglot. Is this source good enough ? Can some experimented user explain the process of building a .bin book in a simple manner ? (At the very least, the reference to the Polyglot documentation in the help files under Book Window is quite opaque.) 3. How one can build a good opening book by looking at a well-chosen database ? I can understand how to do that. In fact, that should be the first thing to do : build a complete repertoire in Scid, then port it to .pgn, then to .bin. And maybe the only one, for those who do not care about testing the repertoire on an engine. But what would be a well-chosen database for you ? I plan to study chess more thoroughly, but I can't decide how to organize my chess databases. Can you provide me with some user cases ? (What means locking a database and selecting a fixed font ?) 4. Why not use the repertoire editor ? It seems to me that this window was meant for this. At least, when it comes to search incoming game files, e.g. TWIC. But it also seems very underused. Does anyone use this editor ? If yes, how, and if not, why ? *** I admit that I have some idea about what I am asking. Nonetheless, I don't master the subject well enough to describe the processes easily. Besides, I am still gathering all the games I had in a previous life. Thank you very much in advance for your help, Benoit ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This SF.net email is sponsored by: SourcForge Community SourceForge wants to tell your story. http://p.sf.net/sfu/sf-spreadtheword _______________________________________________ Scid-users mailing list Scid-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/scid-users
