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NICE 1.3
(N)ew (I)nvestigator (C)hess (E)ngines
NICE 1.3 is the successor of the 5 year old NICE 1.2 as documented on the old REBEL website.
With NICE you can easily and by fast computing create reasonable valid rating lists based on a large volume of EPD positions which are analyzed by Stockfish 17 at long time control with MultiPV=4 and the 4 best moves of each position are calculated a bonus, for the best move 10 points and for the remaining 3 moves 0-9 points based on the score difference with the best move.
In this way we selected 41.539 EPD positions and made a first rating list of it with MEA at 1000ms (one second) per position. With NICE we split the 41.539 EPD positions over 16 cores, running time only 43 minutes per engine. The whole first rating list (of 93 engines) was created in only 10 days. The first list of January 2025 contained engines released in 2024 with the exception of golden oldies like Fruit, Senpai, Shredder, Crafty and the very first versions of Komodo and Stockfish to further check the reliability of the system.
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How to run
. For the purpose of demonstration we also analyzed the famous 1500 STS positions.
​. After installation run the batch file REBEL.BAT
. It will run 6 REBEL versions starting with the first NNUE version REBEL 14 till the last one REBEL 16.3
. And when finished it will show you the elo progress made during the years.
. Used EPD : the 1500 STS positions at 100ms time control, used time : 15 minutes.
. Then open REBEL.BAT with a text editor to see how it's done.
. For posting results check the created REBEL.TXT file, or make a screenshot from the created REBEL.html.
. For more technical info check the old REBEL website how things are organized.
Final remark
NICE 1.3 when properly used is an alternative way to lists engines by strength in a reasonable reliable way and is many factors faster than playing games. However it can never replace playing games. See NICE 1.3 as a fun tool.
