Am I able to test my own computer chess software on Chess.com?

Purely as a hobby, I am looking to program a chess engine. I have done similar work to this before with Reversi/Othello and always wanted to try it out with chess. Nothing major.

I would like to test its performance in ranked matches, versus either human or computer opponents. If I can obtain a ranking, then I can understand the strength of the program as I work to improve it.

It will not be grandmaster strength.

I would like to do this honestly, and not hide the fact that there is a computer playing. Am I able/allowed to do this on chess.com? If you know of other sites where I am able and allowed to do this, please inform me.

P.S. It is also of interest to have multiple accounts, for various versions of the software. It would be most honest to have a new account for "version 2" if and when I have produced a stronger version, rather than play a stronger version under the previous version's account.

Long first post. Hope someone can point me in the right direction here.

Thanks.

My best guess would be to look for one of the computer tournaments that some people set up and enter in there for playing vs another CPU. Human opponents may be harder though.

Thanks for your quick reply. I thought about doing this too, but was hoping to incrementally test the program, over and over, not just put it through a tournament or two.

I will see what I can find. I have not yet begun to code the software, but the design has begun.

ICC/FICS give free accounts to chess computers if you are the author.  Also it should be easier to interface your program to ICC/FICS that chess.com

most engines are written in C++, which programming language are you using?

there are many open source engines. if you take help from none of them, its a pretty work even to program which will only recognise legal moves and randomly move a legal move(including checks).

in 2nd stage you have to compare the moves to find better one.

there are at least 467 engines whose rating is greater than 1000.

http://www.computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/404/

You can't use an engine for rated games on Chess.com.  You can play a Vote Chess game and state in the challenge straight up that you are practicing with an engine.  It's not exactly playing someone true to their rating but you could still have fun with it :)

Thank you all for your help.

matt_mcknight, I have signed up for FICS and will be testing my engine there, when it's coded!

kiloNewton, I was thinking of using C#, even though I am aware C/C++ is the better choice for deep control, and thus deep optimizations. I haven't fully decided on this one yet, but likely it will be C# just to test the language's capabilities. I wish to code the entire engine on my own, not using anyone's source. I hope to learn from others, but not use their code. My goal is fun, as this is a side project, but would be disappointed if I could not crack an ELO of 1,000.

Blackenne, thank you for the input! Perhaps I will come back to chess.com and take part as a human player. You are all very welcoming to newcomers, which is not always a common thing these days! Thank you for this.

it depends on your own understanding of chess also - especially tactics.

You can do this on ICC freely if you create a computer account.  ICC has a much larger membership than FICS btw.

here u can do that only if you play in the Mindgames tournament.  sorry, that was a bad joke... there have been some cheaters there but some strong players too.

kiloNewton, very true. I agree.

Petrosianic, thanks for the extra info on ICC. I will have to check them out too then. Perhaps I could do both ICC and FICS. I'll decide later. Now that I have found a place to go, that's the main problem that has been solved for me!