« Control SWF rendering in Contribute | Main | PNG transparency finally in IE7 w/o having to use hacks »
June 04, 2005
Think your good at Chess?
I love playing chess and playing chess while watching the AI determine its move visually is a different way to play chess if you ask me.
At first, I thought it was just "cool effects", then once I started losing, I realized I'm focusing on watching the AI make its move which can be distracting.
Anyways, I'm hooked on this version of chess, you gotta check it out if your a Chess player.
I might have to purchase the table version when they finish it, but of course, I'd prefer the HoloChess in Star Wars. :)
Posted by amusselman at June 4, 2005 11:12 AM
Comments
If you really want to feel humiliated, try chessmaster, v10, or as they call it 10,000.
It's an awesome experience even to be humiliated by it. It's sharp, vigilant and aggresive.
Posted by: Cort at June 4, 2005 02:07 PM
It's pretty good, although i beat it my first game. WOOT! I may have been lucky though, i'm not that good. It's fun watching it think. You can kind of tell where it's going to go based on how dark the lines are. The really interesting part was my last move. It clearly knew the game was over but was fighting hard to keep me from making that move. What was interesting is that it barely drew green lines showing me the winning move. I wonder if that was intentional?
If you ever want to play chess, send me a Yahoo message: fusebox_steve
Posted by: Steve Nelson at June 4, 2005 07:44 PM
Actually, the strongest available chess engines are made by Chessbase. Some of their desktop apps use algorithms that rival Deep Blue (the IBM world champion supercomputer, well temporarily since it was retired from service after it won one match - now that wasn't sporting) but the Chessbase engines are extremely fast for the work that they do. Chessbase is a company most known for its engines as well as huge game databases that are available to interface with the engines.
I suggest Fritz, not only is it inexpensive, it is an extremely strong and fast player - and in my view it is most flexible for many playing styles. (Quick, slow, sharp, tactical, positional, etc.)
It has a number of training options that are useful, such as winning move alarm - a red light that flashes when material or mate is available within an adjustable range of moves. As well as can build a long-term game history of openings and results that you have played against it. (You can also play one engine against another - this is a very good and cheap way to build its openings database...)
It has position analysis settings that allow you to deep analyze any setup position.
It also has a series of fun handicap settings which, unless you are a professional chessplayer, will be needed...
Posted by: Nickolas Nikolic at June 5, 2005 10:47 AM
I have played it. It was extremely beautiful to watch. Definitely worth giving it a go. A lot of the moves it tracks are really unrealistic and end up "messing up" simulation of what another human might be thinking. It would be interesting to see it track moves that were more humanly intuitive. That would be even more beautiful, I think.
Posted by: Nickolas Nikolic at June 5, 2005 11:00 AM