Changelog

Series 4

Rustic 4.0.0 (TBA)

Currently in development.

Series Alpha 3

March 28, 2023 - Rustic Alpha 3.0.3

Maintenance upgrades. There is no functional difference to the previous versions. For normal playing and testing, the existing binaries can be used.

  • Update About banner layout
  • Upgrade 'rand_core' to 0.6.4
  • Upgrade 'clap' to 4.1.14
  • Upgrade 'crossbeam-channel' to 0.5.7
  • Upgrade 'crossbeam-utils' to 0.8.15

June 11, 2022 - Rustic Alpha 3.0.2

Maintenance upgrades. There is no functional difference to the previous versions. For normal playing and testing, the existing binaries can be used.

  • Upgrade to Rust Edition 2021
  • Upgrade 'rand' to 0.8.5
  • Upgrade 'rand_chacha' to 0.3.1
  • Upgrade 'if_chain' to 1.0.2
  • Upgrade 'clap' to 3.2.8
  • Upgrade 'crossbeam-channel' to 0.5.5
  • Upgrade 'crossbeam-utils' to 0.8.10 (security fix)
  • Upgrade 'rand_core' to 0.6.3 (security fix)

November 6, 2021 - Rustic Alpha 3.0.1

Bugfix upgrade. There is no functional difference to the previous version. For normal playing and testing, the binary of version 3.0.0 can be used.

  • Fixed a variable having the wrong type. This caused the "extra" module failing to compile.

June 18, 2021 - Rustic Alpha 3.0.0

  • New features:
    • Killer Moves
    • Principal Variation Search (PVS)
  • Changes:
    • Switch versioning scheme to SemVer. Versions are going to be in the form "a.b.c" from now on, with the following meaning:
      • Increment a: A new strength-gaining feature was added.
      • Increment b: A bug was fixed that gained strength.
      • Increment c: A feature was added or a bug was fixed that did not gain strength. It is not necessary to test this version for a rating change.
  • Misc:
    • Updated crossbeam-channel to version 0.5.1
    • A Makefile was added, so Rustic can be built using "GNU Make". When typing "make" (or "gmake" in MacOS), the Makefile will build all Rustic versions for the platform it's being compiled on.
    • Re-add showing the size of the TT and number of threads in About.
    • Fairly large update of the book on https://rustic-chess.org/.

Series Alpha 2

March 28, 2023 - Rustic Alpha 2.2

Maintenance upgrades. There is no functional difference to the previous versions. For normal playing and testing, the existing binaries can be used. (Unless you run the engine on the command-line and REALLY want to see the settings in the About banner. Then you will need to compile a new version.)

  • Update About banner with Hash and Threads settings
  • Upgrade 'rand_core' to 0.6.4
  • Upgrade 'clap' to 4.1.14
  • Upgrade 'crossbeam-channel' to 0.5.7
  • Upgrade 'crossbeam-utils' to 0.8.15

June 11, 2022 - Rustic Alpha 2.1

Maintenance upgrade. There is no functional difference to the previous version. For normal playing and testing, the existing binaries can be used.

  • Upgrade to Rust Edition 2021
  • Upgrade 'rand' to 0.8.5
  • Upgrade 'rand_chacha' to 0.3.1
  • Upgrade 'if_chain' to 1.0.2
  • Upgrade 'clap' to 3.2.8
  • Upgrade 'crossbeam-channel' to 0.5.5
  • Upgrade 'crossbeam-utils' to 0.8.10 (security fix)
  • Upgrade 'rand_core' to 0.6.3 (security fix)

March 17, 2021 - Rustic Alpha 2

  • New Features:
    • Transposition table for search and perft.
    • Ordering on transposition table move.
    • Set TT size through --hash option or UCI parameter.
  • Improvement:
    • Move check extension higher up in the search routine, to prevent quiescence search while in check.
  • Changes:
    • seldepth: report max ply reached during the search, instead of selective depth at last completed iteration.
    • Count all nodes visited, instead of only nodes which generated moves.
    • Change random number generator from SmallRng to ChaChaRng for reproducible behavior between platforms/OS's/architectures/versions.
  • Cleanup
    • Change Root PV handling to remove redundant code.
    • Miscellaneous small renames, refactors, and cleanups.
    • Add rand_chacha and remove SmallRng number generators.
    • Update Rand library to 0.8.3.

Series Alpha 1

March 28, 2023 - Rustic Alpha 1.3

Maintenance upgrades. There is no functional difference to the previous versions. For normal playing and testing, the existing binaries can be used.

  • Upgrade 'rand_core' to 0.6.4
  • Upgrade 'clap' to 4.1.14
  • Upgrade 'crossbeam-channel' to 0.5.7
  • Upgrade 'crossbeam-utils' to 0.8.15

June 11, 2021 - Rustic Alpha 1.2

Maintenance upgrades. There is no functional difference to the previous versions. For normal playing and testing, the existing binaries can be used.

  • Upgrade to Rust Edition 2021
  • Upgrade 'rand' to 0.8.5
  • Upgrade 'rand_chacha' to 0.3.1
  • Upgrade 'if_chain' to 1.0.2
  • Upgrade 'clap' to 3.2.8
  • Upgrade 'crossbeam-channel' to 0.5.5
  • Upgrade 'crossbeam-utils' to 0.8.10 (security fix)
  • Upgrade 'rand_core' to 0.6.3 (security fix)

March 15, 2021 - Rustic Alpha 1.1

This is a bugfix release. Alpha 1 lost all of its games on time forfeit when playing in MoveTime mode (for example, when playing seconds/move).

Bugfixes:

  • Do not exceed allotted time in MoveTime mode.

January 24, 2021 - Rustic Alpha 1

This is the initial release. Below are the features included in this version.

  • Engine:
    • Bitboard board representation
    • Magic bitboard move generator
    • UCI-protocol
  • Search
    • Alpha/Beta search
    • Quiescence search
    • MVV-LVA move ordering
    • Check extension
  • Evaluation
    • Material counting
    • Piece-Square Tables