Idea: clearly identified engine accounts for engine developers

I had an idea that could potentially make use of the interactive API at some point.

I've wanted to write my own engine for a while, but never gotten around to it.  But if/when I do, I'd love to be able to take it online in a clearly-designated computer account, similar to the chess.com computers like @Computer4-IMPOSSIBLE, but running on my hardware.  I believe FICS has a feature similar to this (update: so does Lichess).

This might be best as a new kind of account type, perhaps with a little computer icon next to the name (similar to where staff have a green pawn and mods have a blue pawn).  That way there's no confusion from anyone (including potential opponents) as to whether there's cheating going on.  It would also allow people to use the existing seek filter to exclude these computer accounts.

It might be good if there was some kind of verification that people have developed their own engines so that you don't get dozens of Stockfish clones.

A feature like this could make chess.com a popular platform for engine developers, but it would need caution so as to avoid facilitating cheating.

This is a great idea for next year!

So there's a chance this might actually happen?  Maybe there's a chance I'll actually get around to writing my own engine, too!

I have seen this in the ICC servers. They ask you to mark your account with or without computer. Which will put the account in a computer group/server set.

Yeah, we would have to create a "Centaur" rating for people and they could play in special events. We've talked about it plenty

The other option would be specially-designated accounts that play in the normal pool like @Computer4-IMPOSSIBLE and the other chess.com computers, that people could filter out with the current setting to filter out computers.  These accounts probably would not be able to interact in forums and clubs, only play live chess.

How is it that I see posting interface and I'm not even a member of this group ?

It's a public group.

I would love to see this happen. It would be fun to code a chess engine and watch it perform. It would also be fun to watch engine-only tournaments to see whose engine comes out on top.

I've heard about others requesting this on and off for the last few years. Lichess has something along these lines, and so I think that's where people go for this kind of thing right now. But it would be nice to have it here too.

Since the site migrated the bots away from the live area, it's probably less likely now as the Play interface is essentially designated for member vs member play.

Though I guess it's possible there still some thought of a centaur pool maybe

A centaur pool would be something different. It would be daily only, and would be human+engine rather than engine vs engine. There would still be some interest in that, but it would be a different feature.

This comes up every now and then. Latest query in the Cheating Forum: https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/question-1452

I currently have to direct people to other sites for this kind of feature, unless they're happy with games against the chess.com bots or unrated games against willing opponents.