Questions tagged [engines]

Questions relating to chess engines: any computer program that is able to play/analyze chess positions.

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What type of hardware is the most important for analysing with Houdini?

I am going to analyse a lot of games with Houdini 3. The system on which I am going to analyse it is really powerful, but I am curious, what is the most important type of hardware for such analysis? ...
Salvador Dali's user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
16k views

Playing chess on a Mac with Stockfish and some GUI

I have a Macbook OS X 10.6 and want to play chess against a challenging program. I'm not very computationally inclined but it seems that I need to download Stockfish and some UCI-compatible GUI. I ...
drewski's user avatar
  • 89
17 votes
3 answers
5k views

Computers in correspondence chess

In competitive correspondence chess, can humans win at all against computers? Do humans contribute at all to the game? Provided that it is allowed by the rules, I fail to see how it is not just ...
xyz's user avatar
  • 271
7 votes
3 answers
3k views

strongest chess engine

Can somebody tell me where can i find an updated list of the strongest chess engines. I want to find out a comparison (ordered list of engines) Information on wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Salvador Dali's user avatar
14 votes
3 answers
3k views

Can you really learn from playing against computers just like when playing against humans?

I am wondering whether or not playing against chess against a computer will help you get better as quickly as playing against humans. The motivation for this questions come from video gaming. I used ...
OmnipresentAbsence's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
1k views

Scandinavian: 2. Nc3 d4

I started out with a simple opening: 1. e4 d5 2. Nc3 and then the computer played 2... d4, surprising me, as I had never encountered it before. Since then, I've been trying to analyse the possible ...
Zachary M. Olson's user avatar
36 votes
5 answers
30k views

How do chess engines "think"?

What I want to know is how engines are programmed to find moves. I'm sure they first calculate the most forcing lines such as captures and checks. But what about subtle, deep positional moves? They ...
chubbycantorset's user avatar
12 votes
5 answers
867 views

Why do people say today's chess is dominated by computers?

Every time I read articles on chess I see people who say that chess is now dominated by computers. For example if you look for a thread on the subject 'Fischer vs Carlsen' (just an example) you see ...
Fishes's user avatar
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15 votes
2 answers
15k views

Are the best engines better than the best humans?

I think the title asks it all. Under match conditions, would the best chess engines routinely beat the best grandmasters? If you say yes, have there been enough matches played under tournament ...
Stavros's user avatar
  • 151
20 votes
4 answers
5k views

Why do chess engines sometimes miss good moves (or take forever to spot)?

It is not the first time that I found a greatly superior move than the chess engine did, it even takes them a while to understand these moves after you make them. For example, the move 15 ... Bf2 in ...
ajax333221's user avatar
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12 votes
3 answers
4k views

Computer evaluations: How trustworthy are they?

Fritz 12 with Rybka gave a friend of mine an evaluation of +3 for white in this endgame position, [Title "White to move"] [FEN "8/8/8/3k3p/3P3K/2P3R1/8/7r w - - 0 1"] which turned out to be a draw. ...
chubbycantorset's user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
2k views

Chess engine - Losers variant

I often use the Pulsar engine to analyze my Atomic games for better play (post-mortem). I definitely learn something, since I am not as smart as Pulsar. I am interested in doing the same thing for ...
Rick G's user avatar
  • 350
10 votes
6 answers
7k views

Deep Rybka vs Deep Fritz vs Houdini vs (other), which one to buy?

I want to invest my hard-earned money to buy a chess engine which can help me to: analyze games easily experiment with different opening repertoire strategical analysis positional play I don't ...
RajSanpui's user avatar
  • 813
9 votes
2 answers
5k views

Fritz: Full analysis Vs Blunder check

In Fritz, I am interested to know the differences between the Full Analysis and Blunder Check. The differences at the first look seem superficial. For example, I wouldn't mind if there is no natural ...
rpattabi's user avatar
  • 722
14 votes
11 answers
11k views

Free, simple chess program for beginners

I can't play chess very well, and want a computer game to play against. I've tried two so far - Chessbase (Fritz 5.32) and Crafty Chess. Both had the same problem that even on the lowest difficulty ...
Jack M's user avatar
  • 651
7 votes
4 answers
1k views

Chess engines for analysing games

Up untill now, I have used Rybka for analysis of my games. What other chess engines have you used, and how helpful are they? I am not interested in a list of chess engines with their respective ...
Salvador Dali's user avatar
13 votes
3 answers
2k views

Computer endgame strength without tablebases

I have seen that engines aren't particularly strong in the openings without access to a book. How strong are modern engines in the endgame when they are not allowed access to tablebases? E.g., can ...
wim's user avatar
  • 542
9 votes
5 answers
520 views

When playing a computer opponent what situations should I create to give myself a better chance of winning?

Normally when I play against a computer I try to avoid any positions where I feel the knowledge-base of the computer would give it an advantage. For example I find computers very strong in typical ...
Totero's user avatar
  • 1,708
18 votes
5 answers
20k views

How many moves ahead does Anand calculate in his mind?

I always wondered about this! How many moves ahead can strong players like Anand actually 'see' during the game? How does the calculation of a supercomputer like Deep Blue differ from that of strong ...
msumaithri's user avatar
6 votes
3 answers
2k views

What is the strength of the Shredder Chrome app?

Today, for the first time, I played against the Chrome app Shredder Chess, and at the "Hard" playing strength of the engine, I was easily able to beat it. I am just about 1850-1900 Elo. My question ...
Anshu's user avatar
  • 395
7 votes
4 answers
1k views

Free chess computer game

I am a chess novice. Can someone suggest a good, free chess computer game that I can use to start to learn chess by playing against the computer? Maybe with some different difficult levels...
Aslan986's user avatar
  • 181
9 votes
2 answers
895 views

What was the first chess-playing automaton?

One well-known automaton is The Turk. What is the first one and when was it constructed, including fake ones? [1]:
Chetter Hummin's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
368 views

Elements to take into account when evaluating 'board strength'

As part of a demo for a rules engine I'm dreaming up, I'd like to do an evaluation of a chess board that communicates each side's general strength at that point in time. Advanced things like ...
tmesser's user avatar
  • 415
37 votes
6 answers
20k views

Suggestion for a good chess engine on Linux

I'm using GNUChess with the Knights client (Knights doesn't seem to be THAT mature; crashes are common). Is there any equivalent of Chessmaster on Linux? What about good clients to play on servers ...
Swair's user avatar
  • 481
4 votes
4 answers
468 views

What is the best automatic chess playing app for a beginning level player?

I play chess very infrequently. Whenever I restart, I take a bit of time to get up to speed. Which chess playing apps are best for a beginner? I would prefer apps that scale up in diifficulty ...
Chetter Hummin's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
1k views

Programming chess engine [closed]

I'm a Java programmer, particularly an Android developer. I'm also a good chess player. My question is where do I start if I want to program a chess engine, may or may not be from scratch. Later I ...
Adnan Zahid's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
1k views

How do grandmasters prepare against computer endgames?

This question is a sequel to an earlier one . Just as in the openings, computers dominate endgames. Endgame tablebases provide an exhaustive analysis of endgame positions with a small number of ...
PKG's user avatar
  • 369
9 votes
1 answer
5k views

How do I use the analysis output of a UCI engine?

I'm trying to analyze some of my games with the Stockfish UCI engine. I'd like to make sure I'm interpreting the output correctly. Using this screenshot as an example. Can someone explain to me all ...
jcopenha's user avatar
  • 193
63 votes
15 answers
18k views

A purely self-trained chess AI

Insofar as I understand, it appears that, before moving, all strong chess software examines thousands or millions of possible, future positions; evaluates each future position according to some ...
thb's user avatar
  • 4,539
6 votes
1 answer
1k views

Why can't I analyze with Stockfish 2.0.1 in Winboard 4.5 beta?

I have to ask an engine-related question: after I installed the Stockfish 2.0.1 engine on my Winboard 4.5 beta, I can't analyze with it. What I mean is, it's giving nothing in the engine output; it ...
muneeb's user avatar
  • 61
15 votes
3 answers
2k views

Why are there no more exhibition games between top players and computers?

The 1997 match between Kasparov and Deep Blue is likely the most famous chess match in history. This is because it was ground breaking - for the first time ever a computer had beaten the best player ...
EPN's user avatar
  • 2,433
4 votes
4 answers
3k views

Which is the most CPU efficient chess engine?

I am learning artificial intelligence and chess programming. I want to analyze the architecture and read the code of existing chess engines. But I am confused between multiple choices. There are ...
Monika Michael's user avatar
11 votes
2 answers
7k views

What are good UCI-compatible GUIs for Mac?

Is anyone running a UCI-compatible GUI on a Mac? Preferably something native and modern, so WINE and Rosetta (etc) are not needed. My goal is to simply set up chess positions and let Stockfish ...
Tony Ennis's user avatar
  • 19.9k
13 votes
2 answers
5k views

Is there any chess engine that can show if one side has a forced draw?

Is there any chess engine that has an analysis mode that can show if a position is a forced draw by either side? It is common for engines to output evaluations of 0.0 when they detect a draw. But an ...
Mark Byers's user avatar
  • 1,649
6 votes
2 answers
6k views

What's the highest rating any computer has ever attained?

Along with that, I'd like to know what the highest rating of any human has ever been - including historical estimates.
Daniel's user avatar
  • 6,162
17 votes
11 answers
27k views

Alternatives to chessbase on OS X

Most of my chess preparation and studying used to revolve around ChessBase products. I stored my databases and notes in .cbh files, used computers with the ChessBase interface to study and do ...
Andrew Latham's user avatar
5 votes
4 answers
743 views

When is it appropriate to use a program during games with a longer timeframe, such as correspondence chess?

Are there rules about when a player may use a chess engine to aid his game? Is it always frowned upon? Do you have to specially ask? Not that you can stop your opponent from using an engine, but is ...
Daniel's user avatar
  • 6,162
25 votes
4 answers
3k views

Deep Blue vs Kasparov - Aftermath

Evaluating 200M positions per second and having a search tree of 20+ moves might not be enough to beat a World Champion if a computer searches in the wrong direction or if it's evaluating positions a ...
Marsellus Wallace's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
177 views

Is the World Chess Blitz Championship for Robots going to be broadcast over the Internet? [closed]

Does anyone know if the World Chess Blitz Championship for Chess Robots in Moscow is going to be streamed over the web? Sounds really cool and I'd like to see it.
Desroska's user avatar
  • 285
14 votes
3 answers
914 views

How can I find good tactics problems?

Say you have a database of a lot of games. How would you go about finding good tactics problems? I suppose you would search until there was a spot where the score shifted, and there was only one good ...
Eve Freeman's user avatar
  • 3,779
30 votes
4 answers
7k views

What is the status for seven man end game table bases?

There are complete (or nearly complete) six man end game table bases available for download, and even online. What is the status of seven man table bases? Is there still active development in this ...
Mark Byers's user avatar
  • 1,649
17 votes
8 answers
20k views

What is an accurate way to evaluate chess positions?

I've been interested for a while about a computer chess AI algorithms (and got the chance to work on one at some point) like Minimax, and as the core component of these algorithms is the so-called ...
Charles Menguy's user avatar
20 votes
1 answer
4k views

What algorithms and heuristics are popular in computer chess?

Computer chess has exploded in the last twenty years, with a computer world championship being established and many chess computer designers becoming quite profitable from their endeavors. Some of ...
Andrew Latham's user avatar
17 votes
2 answers
804 views

Has AI changed opening theory, and if so, how?

Pre-AI, it's hard to imagine that opening moves had changed much. Following the birth of computer engines, has AI changed opening theory, and if so, how?
blunders's user avatar
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