Obsidian 16.0

This is a major leap in strength.

Results against v15.0:

Elo   | 34.82 +- 3.92 (95%)
Conf  | 10.0+0.10s Threads=1 Hash=16MB
Games | N: 8000 W: 2396 L: 1597 D: 4007
Penta | [17, 623, 1944, 1376, 40]

Elo   | 38.72 +- 3.60 (95%)
Conf  | 60.0+0.60s Threads=1 Hash=64MB
Games | N: 8000 W: 2442 L: 1554 D: 4004
Penta | [4, 508, 2087, 1398, 3]

Obsidian 15.0

This new version includes a few search patches and a new NNUE architecture, finally with layers.
I dropped support for pre-AVX2, but I might add it back if requested to.
For testers: if you tested 14.24, don't test 15.0, they are exactly the same.

Obsidian 15.0 vs 14.0 (LTC)

Elo   | 27.21 +- 4.01 (95%)
Conf  | 40.0+0.40s Threads=1 Hash=128MB
Games | N: 7012 W: 2009 L: 1461 D: 3542
Penta | [7, 576, 1796, 1116, 11]

Obsidian 14.0

Obsidian comes back far stronger than ever:
this release features a few bug fixes, multithreaded TT initialization, and especially, Elo gains I wasn't sure I would've been able to delivier.
Both tests below were run at a way higher time control than is written - I won't get into the details of this here - it doesn't matter.

Obsidian 14.0 vs 13.0 (STC)
Elo   | 40.34 +- 6.59 (95%)
Conf  | 8.0+0.08s Threads=1 Hash=16MB
Games | N: 3002 W: 947 L: 600 D: 1455
Penta | [6, 227, 712, 526, 30]

Obsidian 14.0 vs 13.0 (LTC)
Elo   | 46.25 +- 6.05 (95%)
Conf  | 40.0+0.40s Threads=1 Hash=128MB
Games | N: 3000 W: 899 L: 502 D: 1599
Penta | [1, 184, 740, 567, 8]

Obsidian 13.0

I did not beat Dragon 3.3 yet, but there is a big Elo gap from 12.0, so I decided to still put a checkpoint here.
As always, bigger and stronger neural network, refined search algorithm, and speed enhancements.

Obsidian 13.0 vs Obsidian 12.0 (STC)
Elo   | 44.81 +- 5.38 (95%)
Conf  | 10.0+0.10s Threads=1 Hash=16MB
Games | N: 8062 W: 2545 L: 1511 D: 4006
Penta | [14, 613, 1832, 1469, 103]

Obsidian 13.0 vs Obsidian 12.0 (LTC)
Elo   | 37.44 +- 8.77 (95%)
Conf  | 40.0+0.40s Threads=1 Hash=64MB
Games | N: 3000 W: 906 L: 584 D: 1510
Penta | [0, 206, 773, 514, 7]

Obsidian 12.0

The Elo gain of this update comes mostly from improvements of the neural network, however there were a few search tweaks too.
Due to the new type of neural network, v12.0 doesn't use anymore extra 150 MB of memory.
Lastly, I fixed some bugs here and there.

Obsidian 12.0 vs Obsidian 11.0 (STC)
Elo   | 56.70 +- 5.42 (95%)
Conf  | 10.0+0.10s Threads=1 Hash=16MB
Games | N: 8006 W: 2672 L: 1377 D: 3957
Penta | [9, 525, 1767, 1566, 136]

This new release is about on par with Berserk 12 (slightly stronger or slightly weaker depending on the time control).
The goal for the next release is to take down Dragon 3.3

Obsidian 11.0

The Elo gain of this version isn't as big as that of previous releases, however it features many crash and bug fixes.

Obsidian 11.0 vs Obsidian 10.0 (STC)
Elo   | 29.73 +- 5.24 (95%)
Conf  | 10.0+0.10s Threads=1 Hash=16MB
Games | N: 8000 W: 2235 L: 1552 D: 4213
Penta | [16, 667, 1996, 1260, 61]

Obsidian 11.0 vs Obsidian 10.0 (LTC)
Elo   | 24.24 +- 8.45 (95%)
Conf  | 40.0+0.40s Threads=1 Hash=16MB
Games | N: 3000 W: 797 L: 588 D: 1615
Penta | [4, 257, 773, 458, 8]

Obsidian 10.0

This update brings quite large Elo gains, but also important bug fixes (such as taking a tiny amount of CPU while not searching).
The neural network is the same, and the improvements are only about search and performance.
Regarding usability, Obsidian finally supports being executed on hardware where pext is unavailable or slow (Ryzen 3...)

Elo difference:

Obsidian 10.0 vs Obsidian 9.0 (STC)
Elo   | 53.07 +- 6.69 (95%)
Conf  | 10.0+0.1s Threads=1 Hash=16MB
Games | N: 5008 W: 1588 L: 829 D: 2591
Penta | [6, 306, 1165, 977, 50]

Obsidian 10.0 vs Obsidian 9.0 (LTC)
Elo   | 56.96 +- 10.43 (95%)
Conf  | 40.0+0.4s Threads=1 Hash=64MB
Games | N: 2000 W: 630 L: 305 D: 1065
Penta | [1, 93, 496, 400, 10]

Obsidian 9.0

Obsidian 9.0 is stronger than ever, with 2 important bug fixes, a bigger neural network, some search tweaks, and some performance tweaks.
The Elo gains seem to scale pretty well:

Obsidian 9.0 vs Obsidian 8.0 (STC)
Elo   | 57.76 +- 4.94 (95%)
Conf  | 10.0+0.10s Threads=1 Hash=16MB
Games | N: 10004 W: 3443 L: 1795 D: 4766
Penta | [23, 670, 2196, 1862, 251]

Obsidian 9.0 vs Obsidian 8.0 (LTC)
Elo   | 57.90 +- 4.85 (95%)
Conf  | 30.0+0.30s Threads=1 Hash=16MB
Games | N: 10004 W: 3363 L: 1711 D: 4930
Penta | [15, 602, 2270, 1946, 169]

Obsidian 9.0 vs Obsidian 8.0 (SMP STC)
Elo   | 58.75 +- 11.13 (95%)
Conf  | 8.0+0.08s Threads=2 Hash=16MB
Games | N: 2006 W: 700 L: 364 D: 942
Penta | [5, 130, 443, 374, 51]

Obsidian 8.0

This version features several improvements of the search algorithm and the performance (nps) of the engine, whereas the neural network is the same.
I added multithreading support too, but it was only tested at 2cpu and 4cpu, so contact me if you experience any crash or time loss.

Obsidian 8.0 vs Obsidian 7.0

Elo   | 110.41 +- 8.96 (95%)
Conf  | 10.0+0.10s Threads=1 Hash=16MB
Games | N: 3008 W: 1239 L: 314 D: 1455
Penta | [4, 96, 478, 823, 103]

Obsidian 7.0

This update comes with a larger neural network, crash fixes, and a lot of improvements to the search algorithm.
All of that, brings a huge jump in strength:

Obsidian 7.0 vs Obsidian 6.0

Elo   | 223.07 +- 14.07 (95%)
Conf  | 15.0+0.15s Threads=1 Hash=64MB
Games | N: 2006 W: 1269 L: 133 D: 604
Penta | [1, 15, 182, 457, 348]