Yet another on line chess program

Fixed now (10.2) as it now plays quicker for the first 12 moves. Suggest trying the game on level 6 (5 seconds) or 7 (10 seconds). Obviously if you leave it on 60 second thinking time then yyou can't complain if it takes 60 sec to think but I agree this is pointless in the opening.

I like to estimate and rate engines as another hobby and I've been doin it for years and just from playing it once I'd say it's somewhere between 1000-1200 in elo but I'll do my usual test and get back to you when I know its possible specific rating myself.

Really??? The older version of the program was beating 1500 players (as ranked on this site). Another player here ranked 2000+ gave the old version an approx rating  of 1600-1700. The new version just released is also definitely stronger than the old version. I've also beaten a fair few 1800 players in matches and (on occasion) a couple of 2000 players in (very) friendly games and yet I'm being beaten by it at the moment.

Perhaps the elo system needs to catch up with your specific ratings? I will provide an interface to winBoard which will allow it to play players in leagues and this will give me a much better idea of it's strength.

Was your ranking based on just one game? and at what level? Perhaps if you could just have a quick game at level 6, then click the history pawn which shows the moves, then copy and post the image on the forum so I can see the moves and what mistakes it's making and why you're ranking it so lowly.

I played it on level 7 and yea I was just guessin for now off of one game and for it to beat a 1500 based of this site ratings furthur proves my guess a little cause a chess.com rating of 1500 is usually a OTB rating of 1100.  I already exited out of the game but I did still keep annotations since I always write down my games.

Thanks for the game notation. Different people play with different styles and I can see what needs to be done. It seemed to be playing fine but didn't realise it was being slowly strangled behind the pawns. If I can fix that then hopefully it will have a more equal game against you.

sounds good but dont just go off human opponents aswell cause tha in itself is a mistake. Human chessplayer are prodominately unstable and I dont mean this in a bad way but a human chess player at times can play as high as 200/300 above his rating on a good and the opposite on a bad day and in fact its so large in the population of this fact that I'd say only 20% or less of all chess players who ever lived and live to this day probably play exactly like the rating range in what there rating suggest. Only computers stay with consitency everytime but thats not noticble in the eyes of others for example a 1600 player plays a 1600 rated computer and beats it fairly easy and after the game says "this ain't right I play other 1600 players who were stronger than this when in fact that computer rating my be totally accurate but because the 1600 plays stronger then his rating and usually play other 1600 players who are better than there rating suggest he doesn't notice the computers stregth.

P.S. sorry I kept blabbering I got caught up in things

I don't know which level I played, since I was not checking, and I did not write down my game. I will write down my next one and post it on here. Fun program. I started out making rapid moves while it made 5 second moves. I then had to slow down when its queen came out and doubled up on my d pawn with its c knight. Then the queen started checking my king, and the knight came in with a fork and ruined my ability to castle, and got a few pawns off me. That is when I started pawn storming on the king side. I was White and I had played an e5 response the the French, so I trapped his queen and got it for a knight. I continued my pawn storm, and instead of its king fleeing the castle, it actually locked it in with Rf8. My queen and rook then went in and gave checkmate.

I just entered the game I played against it, but it did not appear. No way am I re-entering all that. I'll summarize.

I can beat level 7, though not that easily. I'll try level 8. And the computer won't let me underpromote. It gave me a queen automatically.

I like this computer program because it is strong enough for me to learn, but not so strong I don't understand what is going on.

The 10 second level is about 1400 blitz, just a bit weaker than me. The major weakness of the program is it does not anticipate pieces getting pinned and then attacked by pawns. It also did not anticipate me trapping its queen, though maybe it would have to look further for that.

I played level 8. It is fun. It feels close to my level. It is not much stronger than 7, though, because it does not use the full 30 seconds.

My only complaint is this is the second time in 3 games that I moved a piece and it stopped a square short of where I wanted it to go. I immediately tried to undo the move, but instead of reversing the move, the board just got a bit scrambled.

It is a nice program.I tried if it accept en passent and it does. Nice menu at the right side. I think the chess notation is not right. Pawn moves are not Pe6 but just e6 in common notation. It is not very clear what move the opponent made.you have to look very good or look in the pgn but that isn't convenient.

just cause the notation is diffrent doesn't make it right the computer is just using old versions which aren't to hard to read at all.

 When one wants to give the impression that he has build a modern chess program then he should use modern chess notation.

My only complaint is this is the second time in 3 games that I moved a piece and it stopped a square short of where I wanted it to go
  : I'll look into this and see if there's an issue. Another option is to just click the piece you want to move and then click the square you want to move to. If you do spot a bug then please take a screen shot and post the board pos here so I can investigate.

It is not very clear what move the opponent made : I'll try to make the moves easier to see. The problem is some people just wat to see a pure board with no addidtions so I tried to make it subtle. Perhaps I went to far!

 When one wants to give the impression that he has build a modern chess program then he should use modern chess notation : You're correct of course but remember it's just one guy working on this for fun. I've only been going for about 3-4 weeks now and have been trying hard to make it fun to play.


I like this computer program because it is strong enough for me to learn, but not so strong I don't understand what is going on : Thank you. I'm thinking of just calling the program Fun Chess because that;s really what the whole program is about. I know I can't invest the time to make it as powerfull as Fritze etc but would rather make it into a fun opponent that people would like to play.

I played it.I am on this site rated about 1600 blitz.On levels  5,7 i didn't have much problems.I got an advantage from the middlegame.On the highest level i outplayed him in an endgame.I would say that the highest level is something about 1400.I did my moves without thinking ,just throwing them to most logic squares

My comment about the chess notation was not criticism but just a remark. It is a small thing. The comment I made about the modern chess program was a contribution to the discussion whether there is any need to use modern notation when you make a ches program. It was not meant as criticism.  

No criticism taken - I think it's great people are playing it and I love getting suggestions for improving it. I've just released a new version (10.3) which includes:

• improved notation
• improved evaluation now includes mobility
• a few bug fixes
• slightly better highlighting of moves

I alse now show a small comment under the board showing something like "nps=30k". This shows how many nodes (or board positions) the program is looking at each second. On my home computer I get 30k (30000) while on my netbook I get 10k. This discrepancy may be the reason why some the playing ability of the program seems to vary between different users. Quoting this value and what level you're playing at gives me a good idea of what to expect from the program.

Mike

Just added chess clocks so you can play a 5 minute game (10, 15, 20 and half hour also available) which makes it more fun. The look has improved a little bit. Also added a few small interface improvements like if there's only one piece that can move to a square then clicking that square will move that piece.

The link doesn't work anymore

='(

Thanks for the warning. Appeared to be an issue on my server. Fixed now.