Release 3.02

This version is not stronger than 2.53 when HCE is used.
But it supports a new net, "Narcotized Nightshift", available here (https://github.com/tryingsomestuff/NNUE-Nets).
This net seems to be nearly 90Elo better than the former one.

Warning : do not use "Nefarious Nucleus" with 3.02 and do not you "Narcotized Nightshift" with 3.01! There is a small difference in the net architecture that makes these usages incompatible but Minic won't warn for it. For sure, I'll add a something in the next release to handle such issues.

Release 3.01TCEC3

for compiler where filesystem is buggy

Release 3.01

make script executable

Release 2.53

Bug fix of release 2.52 (memory management issue, no functional change).

Release 2.52

Just fix a memory leak in version 2.51 and gives a clearer message about NNUE net loading.

Release 2.51

This version fixes MinicNNUE speed, for a 100% speedup and more than 100Elo.
See http://talkchess.com/forum3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=73521&start=110#p865367 for details.

My own nets can be found here : https://github.com/tryingsomestuff/NNUE-Nets

Release 2.50

Rank Name                          Elo     +/-   Games   Score    Draw 
   1 komodo-11.01-linux            244      18    1466   80.3%   24.1% 
   2 Ethereal                      222      17    1465   78.2%   23.5% 
   3 minic_2.50_uci_nnue           105      15    1465   64.7%   28.5% 
   4 minic_2.49_uci_nnue           102      15    1465   64.2%   30.9% 
   5 RubiChess                      76      15    1465   60.8%   30.2% 
   6 minic_2.48_uci_nnue            68      15    1465   59.7%   31.9% 
   7 Defenchess_2.2                 62      15    1466   58.8%   31.0% 
   8 demolito                        2      15    1465   50.3%   27.6% 
   9 nemorino                      -55      15    1465   42.2%   27.6% 
  10 texel                         -87      15    1465   37.7%   27.9% 
  11 Vajolet2_2.8                  -96      15    1465   36.5%   29.8% 
  12 minic_2.50                   -128      16    1465   32.4%   27.2% 
  13 minic_2.49                   -132      16    1466   31.9%   28.4% 
  14 minic_2.48                   -142      16    1465   30.6%   27.4% 
  15 gogobello_linux_bmi2         -223      18    1465   21.7%   21.6% 

Windows and Android binaries were not tested.... fingers crossed ...

Release 2.48

Fix Windows and Android build of 2.47

Release 2.47

Including MinicNNUE !

Minic 2.47 is released. This is a quite special version, as NNUE (from Stockfish) as be integrated inside.
This release has NNUE technology enabled (by #define WITH_NNUE inside definition.hpp), but has to be considerate as "MinicNNUE" only if you specify a network file using the NNUEFile GUI option.

MinicNNUE (using nn-97f742aaefcd.nnue) seems +200Elo versus standard Minic evaluation.
But as already stated in many places, MinicNNUE won't be "official Minic" version because it does not represent at all my own work.
Minic is already of course vastly inspired by others engines but I try and test everything by myself, and those who has followed Minic development know how long it took... but here, integrated NNUE was more or less just a copy/paste.
So please do not "categorized" MinicNNUE with standard Minic (i'm thinking of CCRL, FGRL, CEGT testing here).

Anyone is of course free to use this Minic version with any network file you want (but please call it MinicNNUE, not Minic, as soon as a net is used). I'd also be glad if someone try to train specific net for it...

This experiment showed that many Elo can be gained in Minic by working on its evaluation, and also many more working on search ! :D

Using NNUE inside Minic was quite easy (as discussed on the TCEC discord channel), mainly because the NNUE code itself is very clear, a very good job was done by people who integrated it into Stockfish.

Finally, I'd like to make a point about NNUE technology release. I think many engine dev will try (and success) to use it in the next days or weeks, and it would feel more natural to me if the NNUE is hosted in a specific repository so that many engine authors can work with it. I think this would benefit to everyone in the community, including Stockfish and maybe even shogi engine devs. Maybe some will try to write others architectures for instances. This will at least be better than 100 copy/paste different codes hard to track and merge.

Release 2.46

Fix for TCEC