Computer Chess III: Introducing WinBoard

It’s been a while. A long while, indeed – it was June when I last posted in my blog here on Chess.com. During the intervening months I have played many games, got a little better (I hope), been introduced to WinBoard and, just now, become premium.

I shall start with WinBoard. I first heard of it from the ever helpful Bogor, who showed me where to find it and how to work it. It comes with a number of engines on it, and the ability to add more, and it is this feature that has so dramatically reduced the time it takes for me to play two engines off against each other – from more than two hours to about fifteen minutes! This in turn means that I can now reach the previously unattainable target of playing twenty ‘rated games’ vs Chessmaster 8000 that a user needs to play before getting a non-provisional rating from the game. Imagine how long that would take at two hours a game!

The other thing that I mentioned is me becoming a premium member on this site. I had to make a bargin with my parents about this, and the bargin struck was that I would have to improve my terrible handwriting. As part of this, I have decided to handwrite my blog posts. I realise that this may remove all savings in time that Winboard gives me, but nevermind.

Back to the games. I shall begin at the beginning of my quest to play twenty rated games. My engine of choice for the games: Fruit 2.1. My first victim? The personality “Roxy,” rated 1971 and who has a reputation for unorthodox openings. It was all over very quickly.

I hope you enjoyed the game. I’ve got another 19