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KingsRow English 10-piece WLD and MTC Database Installation

Description
System Requirements
PC Preparation
WLD db Installation
MTC db Installation
Configuring KingsRow to use the databases
Support

Description

This page has instructions for installing the KingsRow English win/loss/draw (WLD) and moves-to-conversion (MTC) endgame database files. These databases have data for positions with 2 pieces through 10 pieces with up to 5 pieces on one side. The MTC db has data for positions with moves-to-conversion values that are at least 10 plies.

The setup program allows the selection of either a full or small database installation. The full installation installs all the data. The small installation does not install the data for 10-piece positions with 3 or more kings on a side. This allows the most useful parts of the database to be used on a PC with less RAM and disk space than is required for the full install.

System Requirements

Operating System: Windows XP, Vista, or 2000.
Free disk space
- full WLD: 214GB
- small WLD: 76GB
- full MTC: 47GB
- small MTC: 11GB
RAM
- full WLD: 1.5GB minimum. Up to 3GB can be used if you are using WindowsXP Pro.
- small WLD: 1GB.
- The MTC database uses very little RAM. There are no specific requirements for it.

PC Preparation

1. The hard drive on which you are going to install the databases must be formatted as a type NTFS file system. If this hard drive was in the computer when you bought it, it is probably already a type NTFS. If you purchased it separately and added it, or if you are installing to an external hard drive, then you will probably have change it from a FAT32 to an NTFS file system. To see which type it is, go to MyComputer, select the drive you are going to install to, then click on the menu File, Properties. The file system type is shown in the properties screen. If you need to convert to NTFS, then you have two options, depending on whether or not the disk has any data that you need to preserve:

If you do not need to preserve any existing data on the drive, then format the drive. Go to MyComputer, select the drive, then click on the menu File, Format... Select NTFS for the file system, and leave the check boxes in the Format Options group unchecked. Make sure you have selected the correct disk before you click the Start button.
If you do need to preserve existing data, you can convert the drive with a Microsoft utilty program. Open up a command line window. You will probably find this in Start, Programs, Accessories. Assuming for example that you want to convert your d: drive, type this command:

convert d: /fs:ntfs

This example will convert your d: drive to NTFS without data loss. Replace the 'd' with the letter of your drive.

2. Check your versions of KingsRow and CheckerBoard against the latest versions that are available on the web, and update if your versions are not the latest. Version 1.16c of KingsRow has improvements that are needed for using the 10-piece database.

WLD db Installation

The USB hard drive has a separate power module and AC power cord. Connect one end of the AC power cord to the power module. Plug the other end of the power cord into an AC line outlet.
Connect the DC output of the power module to the DC power connector on the USB hard drive.
If there is an ON/OFF switch on your USB hard drive, set the switch to ON. (Some drives do not have an ON/OFF switch.)
Connect one end of the USB cable to the hard drive, and connect the other end to a USB port on your computer.
It will take a few seconds for your computer to detect that a new hardware device has been connected and to assign a drive letter to the USB hard drive. When this happens you will probably see a popup message from your system tray that says "Found new hardware."
Using Windows Explorer, browse to the program file Kingsrow_English_WLD_Setup.exe on the USB hard drive and run it by double-clicking on the filename. You can run Windows Explorer by right-clicking on the Windows Start button, and then left-click on Explore.
Follow the prompts as directed by the setup program. When you get to the screen Select Destination Location, the default location is c:\kr_english_wld. You may be installing onto a drive different than C:. If so, change the "C" to the letter of the drive where you want the database installed. You can either edit the text directly, or click the Browse button to select another drive.
When you get to the Select Components screen of the setup program, you can leave the settings as they are if you are doing a full install. To select the small install, click on the arrow at the right side of the dropdown selection box (where it says "Full installation"), and select "Small 10-piece installation".
Once the setup program begins installing the database files, a full install will take at least 4 hours on a fast computer, or 2 to 3 times longer if your computer is a few years old.

MTC db Installation

If you have not already done it, connect the USB hard drive to your computer by following steps 1 through 5 above in WLD db Installation.
Using Windows Explorer, browse to the program file Kingsrow_English_MTC_Setup.exe on the USB hard drive and run it by double-clicking on the filename. You can run Windows Explorer by right-clicking on the Windows Start button, and then left-click on Explore.
Follow the prompts as directed by the setup program. When you get to the screen Select Destination Location, the default location is c:\kr_english_mtc. You may be installing onto a drive different than C:. If so, change the "C" to the letter of the drive where you want the database installed. You can either edit the text directly, or click the Browse button to select another drive.
When you get to the Select Components screen of the setup program, you can leave the settings as they are if you are doing a full install. To select the small install, click on the arrow at the right side of the dropdown selection box (where it says "Full MTC installation"), and select "Small 10-piece MTC installation".
Once the setup program begins installing the MTC files it will take at least an hour for the full installation to finish.

Configuring KingsRow to use the databases

Set your windows Virtual Memory to at least 2048MB.

Window 2000: go to Control Panel, System, Advanced, Performance Options, and click the Change button for Virtual Memory.
Window XP: go to Control Panel, System, Advanced, Performance Settings, Advanced, and click the Change button for Virtual Memory.
If the Initial Size and the Maximum Size are less than 2048, then change them to 2048.

Run CheckerBoard.

Go to the menu Engine, Select, select kingsrow.dll as the primary engine.

Go to the menu Engine, Options:

In the Database Directory box, type c:\kr_english_wld. If you installed the database on a different disk drive then enter that drive instead of c:
In the Hashtable box select 64
In the Endgame DB box
- If your PC has 1GB RAM, select 768
- If your PC has 1.5GB RAM, select 1216
- If your PC has 2GB RAM, select 1664
- If your PC has more than 2GB RAM, you may be able to use more Endgame DB memory and get even better performance with KingsRow. In order to do this, you need to be running Windows XP Pro (not the Home version), and you need to put the "/3GB" switch in your Windows boot.ini file. Do a Google search for "/3GB switch" to learn more about this. You also need to increase your windows Virtual Memory to 3000. If your PC has 3GB RAM you can set your Endgame DB memory to 2688.
Click OK to exit from Engine Options.
Notes:
- You may need to use a smaller Endgame DB setting than shown above, depending on how your PC is configured.
- If you change the Hashtable setting, you should also change the Endgame DB setting so that the sum of both settings does not increase.
- If you change either your Hashtable or Endgame DB setting after the first search, you should exit CheckerBoard and start it up again before continuing.

Use the menu Engine, Command to bring up the engine command message box. Enter the following text into the box:
set mtcpath c:\kr_english_mtc
If you installed the MTC database on a different disk drive then enter that drive instead of c:

Start a search by clicking the play (!) icon. Wait one or two minutes while KingsRow initializes the databases. Watch the messages on the status line at the bottom of the CheckerBoard window. It will display something like "Wait for db init; KingsRow db, 10 pieces, ...".

If after a minute or so you get the message "Cannot open endgame db driver. See kingsrow.log for details", then your Endgame DB setting is too high. Go back to the Engine, Options menu and reduce your Endgame DB setting to the next smaller number. Click OK to exit from Engine Options, and now exit CheckerBoard completely. Run CheckerBoard again and start another search with this smaller setting.
After the first search, you can check in the menu Engine, About. It should say something like "Using the KingsRow 10-piece database...", and also "Using the mtc database". If instead it says "Not using an endgame database" then you have not configured it correctly.
The search speed in kN/sec should be about the same with the 10pc db as it has been with the 8pc db. If it appears to be much slower than normal, your Endgame DB setting may be too high. Go back to the Engine, Options menu and reduce your Endgame DB setting to the next smaller number. Click OK to exit from Engine Options, and now exit CheckerBoard completely. Run CheckerBoard again and start another search with this smaller setting.
If you have trouble, look for messages in the file kingsrow.log which is in the CheckerBoard\Engines folder. This is a text file which can be viewed with Notepad. You can also look at your PC's memory usage using Windows Task Manager. To do this, press the CTRL-ALT-Delete keys, and click the Performance tab in Task Manager. If your Physical Memory Available is less than 15,000K, your Endgame DB setting may be too high.

You can test the MTC database by copying the following pdn position into the Windows clipboard, and pasting it into CheckerBoard using the menu Edit, PDN from clipboard:
[FEN "W:WK7,K17,K21,K30:BK8,K5,K12,13,K20."]
Then click the play (!) icon. KingsRow should immediately play 17-22 and show the MTC value for this move as 194 plies. Continue clicking the play icon and view some more moves. These high MTC positions are some of the most unusual and difficult positions to play in all of checkers. You can download a file containing the highest MTC position in each database slice here.

Support

I will provide email support if you have problems.