Clarity 8.0.0 - new version chess engine

Clarity

The C++ rewrite is complete! Clarity is now faster and better, using new techniques, and I have learned a new language!

For those who didn't see the engine in its depressing, confusing, error-filled C# state, this engine was originally written in C# before I decided to switch to C++. That decision was one of the greatest I think I've ever had, as the engine is now faster, easier to read, less error-filled(hopefully), and better overall.

Rating Chess Engines Diary CEDR=3615

v.8.0.0:

It turns out my hasty unrelease was prompted by errors that only happen while testing games in fastchess, and its fine in every other one. So here we are, back again. I'll fix it with the next version.

To summarize what happened: I went back nearly a year ago at this point on the decision to use Leela's data, and reverted back to selfgen, using about 80 elo in the process. Since then I've worked my way back up and this version is stronger than ever. I then proceeded to take a break of nearly 9 months.

WE'RE SO BACK now though, currently the bulk of my focus is on a full search rewrite (since the codebase has become cumbersome), and then after that I'm going to redo my NNUE inference in preparation for more layers, and do lazy updates.

Here's the progtests:

Elo   | 55.56 +- 9.16 (95%)

Conf  | 8.0+0.08s Threads=1 Hash=16MB

Games | N: 2018 W: 696 L: 376 D: 946

Penta | [6, 154, 428, 356, 65]

https://furybench.com/test/1011/

Elo   | 34.68 +- 8.44 (95%)

Conf  | 40.0+0.40s Threads=1 Hash=64MB

Games | N: 2000 W: 608 L: 409 D: 983

Penta | [5, 171, 477, 314, 33]

How to choose what binary to use:

Each binary here is separated by the features that your CPU has, v1 has a simple popcnt instruction, but I'm not sure about v2, and v3 is divided into bmi2 and magic bitboard builds (if you have a Ryzen 3000 series or earlier CPU, go for the v3_magic), and v4 has everything.

If you are unsure about what features your CPU has, start from v4 and attempt to run it (bench is a good command for that, but often it won't even start up if its the wrong one), if it doesn't run, move one lower, and keep doing that until a build runs. If none of them run, open an issue and I'll attempt to help.

Clarity 7.2.0 JA vs other engines:

PlentyChess 3.0.1	6/14	-2	14 Partii
Lizard 11.2	5/12	-2	12 Partii
Arasan 25.0	4.5/12	-3	12 Partii
Berserk 20241119	4/12	-4	12 Partii
Yuliana 6.0	2/12	-8	12 Partii
Igel 3.6.0 JA	5.5/10	+1	10 Partii
Velvet 8.1.1 JA	5.5/10	+1	10 Partii
Motor 0.8.0 JA	4.5/10	-1	10 Partii
Clover 8.1 JA	4/10	-2	10 Partii
Revenge 4.0	4/10	-2	10 Partii
Equisetum 1.15 JA	4/10	-2	10 Partii
Quanticade Chimera 1.2	4/8	+0	8 Partii
Fire 10	4/8	+0	8 Partii
CorChess 20241222	1.5/8	-5	8 Partii
Aurora 20241007	6/6	+6	6 Partii
Zangdar 3.04	5.5/6	+5	6 Partii
Pingu 5.0.0	5.5/6	+5	6 Partii
Titan 1.1.0	3.5/6	+1	6 Partii
Akimbo 1.1.0 JA	3.5/6	+1	6 Partii
Integral 7.0.0 JA	3/6	+0	6 Partii
Yuli GM STRONG X	2.5/6	-1	6 Partii

Clarity 8.0.0 download