Which Engine Plays Like Human?

 I like that chessmaster never resigns. I think Fritz is resigning to early not a great trainer.
my point is that I have learned to avoid stalemate traps in chessmaster namely because chessmaster never resigns. I know even in a clear winning position I have to play precise.  otb in 25 minutes games knowing how to win fast is important and know how to prevent stalemate traps.
therefore I am never annoyed by players that doesn't resign because I am not used to players resigning in my training.

Perhaps a collaborat8ive project would be of interest to discern some new opening, middle game and endgame strategies, by calculating recombinant chess game based on endings (and recalculated games leading thus) of like a pawn and a king v. knight and king, showing who would strategize an opening that led to point variable and defeat at the end of the game, with the pawned king sructure likely to win because of an easy possible queening.

But the computer would have to calculate with each player playing each side of the game being of sufficient rate (say 1300-1500elo v. 1500-2200elo), so as to eliminate the computer discovering games where useless errors would not have occurred in tournament like play.

And then, because there would be so many possible ways this ending could be achieved, discover which computer recombinant proof where the number of different games, say >1 or >2 possessed the first six exact same moves for the side superior (king and bishop or king and pawn, v. inferior, king and knight or king and rook, possible allowing for random association at endgame point..though more hefty calcs) at the conclusion of the game. let's try it mates

but I was also wondering on the point, and please correct me, who would be based on averages more likely to win, with whatever opening, white or black... and why is it such a racially divisive game for God's sake??????

I just got Chessmaster 10, and I'm seriously impressed. Fritz has a bit more depth and I like some aspects of it more, but Chessmaster is the better teacher (at least for me). And I agree, being able to play Capablanca or Petrosian (which I've tried) is very interesting.

On Fritz you can ignore the resignation by insisting the computer make a move. 

I've upgraded to Fritz 13, so the comments about Fritz 10 should be applied to 13. I've learned plenty from both Fritz and Chessmaster.

I don't know why UBI doesn't make Chessmaster any more. Great program. 

Wow, what's the cheapest program? Thanks for the int.

I think the chess GUI/Engine is Dasher.. This already has personalities with set ratings that range from 1000 to 2700..

Isn't this essentially like asking why Super-GMs don't play like NMs?

I'm partial to Hiarcs for natural moves at novice and club levels. It's stronger than its rating at the lowest levels, but that's about the only criticism I can think of.

Shredder gets honorable mention. At novice levels it can't seem to remember the basic checkmates.

Yes Hiarcs is known for it's human like play. There is a guy named Mato Jelic on youtube that comments on a few notable games of Hiarcs vs. other powerful engines. 

The Ivanov Engine.

I've just been playing Tal on chess master and actually managed a draw. Play style was nothing like tal. very boring game with just kings left on the board. I want somthing that actually plays like him. Not just shares his name. 

What about Houdini and Stockfish?

I think if the programers want they could write  a program that play like a human. They can make a engine that beat world champion,, so to make a engine to play weak, its just a matter of, instead made the better move , play the 3th or 4th better move, things like that.  But they dont do this cause the goal is to create the stronger chess engine, maybe strong enough to solve the game of chess.

The most interesting thing would be a program where you could change the strength of the program by USCF rating. I know Shredder for Ipad has this, you set the strength from 800-2600 ELO, but I don't know how close the playing strength will be to actual OTB players. If they could get that dialed in accurately, it would be incredibly useful. 

I would say try Lucas Chess the program personalities are pretty at playing at the desire human elo.

Nice Suggestion. I've been playing with Lucas Chess now for the past couple hours, seeing about getting it all dialed in with ELO and everything. 

DGT E board and Lucas Chess makes and good combo, also Acid ape chess and DGT E Board or babaschesss and DGT E Board

For reasons I note below, I don't think you'll find an engine that plays like a human player, but if you have a PC try the free Lucas Chess (http://www-lucaschess.rhcloud.com/index.html).  It seldom plays stupid moves if you play against a 1500 or higher engine. It's poorly documented. but as you go through it you'll see it has dozens of chess engines to choose from, from about a 400 to 3400 rating (Stockfish 8).  It lets you tweak how it plays. For example, you can set up "Personalities" that prefer piece over pawn moves, prefer to keep the two bishops stronger than normal, etc:

Here's a larger version of the Personality window:

And you can set up which opening you want to play make it vary the variations:

I don't think any engine thinks like a human in positions where there's a standard human technique, like the Principle of the Opposition in King & Pawn Endgames, where the technique guarantees a win but takes longer than the engine's calculated mate moves.

Also, if you're behind and have to take chances, a move necessary to have any chance of a win may get rated -5 pawn equivalents and the engine will prefer a move that keeps you losing because it is rated -2.

Also, if you follow standard human strategies that are likely to win, like pawn storming the enemy King when you've castled on opposite sides, the engine may see something better but complex, where a human could very easily miscalculate and lose, and play something clearly non-human in nature.