Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

Hello Greg,

I don't understand the board representation.

What does nsquare +1 mean? Does it advance ranks or files? How do I advance the other one? I am assuming nsquare+nfiles for the next rank or something like this.

Thanks for your help!

Greg,

Well, there are two main reasons I'm doing this.

1. Implementing the correct promotion rule that fairy-max isn't able to do (i.e. promoting to a minor on 8th rank, also a rook at 9th rank and also a major piece (queen,griffin,aanca, archbishop,chancellor),at 10th rank)..

2. Adding the fool (imitator) that mimics the last move of the opponent.

Not sure how to do those now but I got hints for the second from the mimotaur implementation.

Technical question:

Where is the main and the .prj file? Both would help! I need the main to be able to test my creations.

Thanks Greg!

Good luck, Aurelian, that is ambitious.  Let me know if you have any questions.

For detecting Griffon/Aanaca attacks in IsSquareAttacked, I would not back up from the target square.  Instead, I would find all Griffons/Aanacas of the color, go through them one-by-one and step out from them to see if they reach the target square.  If they don't attack the target square, you can hand off to the base class implementation of IsSquareAttacked to handle everything else.

Hi Kevin,

Yes, there's another step to get the preset entered into the site index.  First, make sure you are logged in.  Then, from the pull-down menu with your name, select 'Post Your Own Game'.  Don't fill out the form on the first page, instead click the Create Game Courier Preset link.  Then fill out the forms.  For the form on the second page, you'll need the hyperlink to the preset to put in the description.  If you've lost the hyperlink, go to the play.chessvariants.com domain, and select 'Your Game Courier Settings Files' from the menu with your name.

Please be aware that the new submission won't show up in the index until approved by an editor.

Cheers,
Greg

Greg Strong wrote:

"...You can open one of the Chess presets, click Edit to modify it, and just erase all the code in the seven boxes at the bottom to stop it from enforcing any rules.  Then, in the first box, change the name from Chess to Asymmetric Chess, enter your user id and password, and click Save.  It will give you a link that you can then use to send out invitations to play..."

As an experiment I tried doing this procedure for making a preset with a simple chess variant of mine called "Throne Chess" instead (same rules as chess, except playing K to K8 is an extra victory condition, "Thronemate"). I had some success, but I saw nowhere that a little PBM green box icon symbol for a Throne Chess preset had been created, with myself credited as the author. There was created a default file for Throne Chess, stored under my user ID, in Game Courier's programmer's file log system. Throne Chess was not showing as having, say, 0 games played for it so far under "All Games" in the Game Courier Menu though. I edited the 'settings name' from default to be called Throne Chess, later, along with redirecting the default file version to it, too, but still no little PBM green box preset icon showing anywhere upon searching the website. I'm wondering if I have to do something rather complicated, or beyond me, instead of my doing what was recommended to Dmitry, to get a little PBM green box preset icon to come into existence (without having to play anyone a game online first).

Thanks, Greg

I'll attempt to implement apothecary in chessV, hope to succeed.

In Fairy-Max I use the ultimate robust way for testing whether in check: just run the move generator for the opponent, and see if it captures King. But that is slow. A more general fast way for detecting attacks would be to not start from the board but from the piece list, and check for every piece whether is is alligned with the King for checking based on a lookup table indexed by the relative position to the King.

Hi Aurelian,

Yes, you are correct.  I never added Grande Acedrix because the Griffon move isn't directly supported.  This would be tricky to implement in a general way.  It's not just being able to generate the moves - that's not too bad.  It gets more complicated with the IsSquareAttacked function used for detecting Check.  IsSquareAttacked starts at the square and "backs up" in every direction the game uses until it hits a piece or leaves the board.  If it hits a piece, it determines if that piece can move that far in that direction.  To support moves with multiple parts, the logic in IsSquareAttacked would get pretty complicated.  To see if a square is attacked by a Griffin, as it is backing up in Rook steps, for each step, it would then need to back up one diagonal step each way and check for a piece that can move like a Griffon.  Then there is the problem of Static Exchange Evaluation (SEE).  This gets even more complicated, but ChessV allows you to just turn off SEE for specific games.  Some of the games already supported have to turn off SEE.  It's not really necessary, it just makes then engine faster.

All that said, it is possible to implement the Griffon in ChessV if you are really dedicated, but it is probably more trouble than it is worth.  You can override the GenerateSpecialMoves function of the Game class to add support for moves that the internal move generator can't handle.  Most of the pieces from Ultima work this way.  (Look at the implementation of Chess with Ultima Pieces for an example.)  Then you also have to override the IsSquareAttacked virtual function as well.

You could also look at Postduif by Evert Glebbeek.  It was designed to play Grande Acedrix.  In its move generator, every move has a step/leap component followed by a slide component (either one of which can be zero to skip it.)  It may have problems with some of the other pieces or rules for Apothecary though.  I haven't looked at it in detail.

Cheers,

Greg

Hello again Greg,

I contemplating writing code for my upcomming (still in testing phase) apothecary games, but I see the way movement is implemented, that there is no easy way of implementing the aanca and griffin.

The move info contains rank modification, file modification and maximum and minimum number of steps from what I understood. Nothing about a second legged move.

Am I correct? Do I miss something?

Thanks!

You're right, something is definitely wrong with that.  Thanks for letting me know, I'll take a look when I get a chance.

Greg,

I just watched an Enep game where the Enep knight has captured with an wazir move, this is not supposed to happen, could you please check?

Thanks, greg for adding Enep!

Oops, it was linked to the incorrect file.  Thank you for letting me know, Jospeh.  It's been fixed.

I clicked on the link for the 32-bit version, but I got the 64-bit version instead (which doesn't work on my computer). Am I doing something wrong?

Great news, and congratulations. It is a really good thing that you took the trouble to fix the bugs that were inadvertantly introduced in 0.94, because that had some interesting new variants not supported by older versions (such as Spartan Chess, and, IIRC, even Xiangqi.) Now you can terminate this ground-breaking project with a polished product.

ChessV 0.95 Released

After many years, I am releasing an updated version of ChessV.  The previous version, 0.94 introduced a problem that actually greatly weakened playing strength from version 0.93.  This version corrects that issue and adds other speed enhancements which should make this by far the strongest version.

ChessV can be downloaded from my new domain www.chessv.org. There is no installation program.  Just download the correct version (32-bit or 64-bit), unzip, and run ChessV.exe.

Please note that, as some of you know, there is a new ChessV, version 2.0, rewritten completely from scratch that is forthcoming.  Hopefully I'll be releasing that in the near future too, but that isn't what this is.  This is a new version of the "classic" ChessV.  I don't know if there will be any further releases of the classic version, but since version 0.94 had issues, it didn't seem right to leave that unfixed.

Changes from previous version:

• Multiple bug fixes, including one that seriously impacted playing strength


• Addition of Late Move Reductions (LMR), an engine feature that will further enhance playing strength


• Added support for Enep by Aurelian Florea


• Fixed a problem with Ralph Betza's Chess with Augmented Knights that I only discovered while trying to use it as a template for Enep.  This has probably been broken for many versions.  Actually, this Betza invention is so obscure, I had to dig pretty deeply to find the chessvariants.com page for it.


• Updated the implementation of Joe Joyce's Modern Shatranj to reflect the new, simplified promotion rule.  Previous versions actually did support the complex rule, but it required a special class to implement it (I couldn't just use the standard class the other Shatranj variants use.)  This change allowed me to eliminate two files and over 100 lines of source code.  Thanks, Joe, for agreeing to simplify things :)

Please let me know if you have any questions or issues with this version.

http://samiam.org/chessv

I could not find the download on your web page nor in the Winboard forum.

This will make Schoolbook 2010 a lot easier to implement.

Sam, your idea of having WinBoard force moves into an engine that refuses them by loading the engine with the position after the move works really great. I implemented in WinBoard now, under control of the option -forceIllegalMoves. In combenation with -testLegality false, this now allows me to completely autmatically play a Schoolbook-Chess match between ChessV and Fairy-Max. Now and then (about 10% of the games ChessV plays a non-standard castling, which then shows up in the PGN as Kf1h1 or Kf1b1, and Fairy-Max is simply restarted. It was a bit of a pain to implement it, because initially the engine will still think the opposite side is to move, and the WinBoard-protocol edit command (which Fairy-Max uses) does not alter that, and the commands that do are deprecated, so the side-to-move has to be flipped by playng a dummy move. But that works smoothly now.

In reaction to some earlier remark you made: there was no reason for hacking WinBoard to suppress the popup after a match: there is a command-line option that controls it (-popupExitMessage false/true), which is remembered in the WinBoard settings file. I use PSWBTM to play the match, in stead of the scripts you use, and this uses that option automaticaly.

I'm well. Invented two original chessvariants (Maorider Chess and Bungalow Shatranj) and some 'light' variants (not posted yet): Rookaba Shatranj, Rooks Chess.

Mighty Men:

Man (b,g lines) moves like a king (ferz + wazir).
Benz (c,f lines) moves like a bishop forward or like a
rook backward.
Pioneer (a,h lines) moves like a man or like a rook
forward or backward.
Cyborg (d line) moves like wazir, dabbaba, knight or alfil.
IT DOESN'T
MOVE LIKE FERZ.

Ok. I'll work on different openings for different armies. I'll post openings here.

Doing well, thanks!  How are you?

Sorry, been away for a while.  I bounce in and out ...

If you'd like to add lines to the CWDA opening book, I'd be happy to incorporate them in the next release.  I'd also be happy to incorporate your Mighty Men army if there's nothing that makes it technically difficult.  Can you describe the army?

Hi Greg! How are you?

It's a very good program! 

I can help you with CWDA openings. 
Also I've invented new CWDA Army based on the king. It's called Mighty Men. If you like I'll tell you moves of pieces. Here you can see game playing: 
/play/pbm/play.php?game=FIDE+vs.+Man&log=judgmentality-cetina.carlosr-2009-193-681

I believe his next chess engine (which can already play FIDE chess) does not have this issue.

Version 0.9.4 Released

This version fixes a nasty bug that was introduced a couple version ago that resulted in poor play and the computer moving pieces for the wrong side. A few other minor speed/evaluation ehancements have also been added, so this should be the strongest version to date.

Also, thanks to H. G. Muller, support for the WinBoard protocol has been added, making it much easier to pit ChessV against other engines.

There is no installation program; just unzip and run.

http://www.samiam.org/chessv/

So this program can be downloaded again, I've taken the last full release of the program and made it available on my site:

http://www.samiam.org/chessv/

Good, but is slightly bugged. Selecting Betza's Chess With Augmented
Knights causes the program to exit with an error message. Thanks anyway,
that is a great help for those of us that don't have Zillions.

- Sam

Yes, the Bowman is a Woody Rook (with a different name and icon.)  I do not normally make any alterations to anyone else's games, but I've made an exception in the case of CWDA.  When Ralph Betza named the pieces, they were all given names as close as possible to how the piece move is recorded in his piece-move-notation system.  Unfortunately, this produced completely terrible names, such as the Fibnif, the Furlrurlbakking, and the Forfnibakking.  The last two names you probably do not recognize because they have already been changed (and not by me) because they were just so bad.  So I am continuing the trend.  I would love to get Betza's ok, but after years of trying to contact him, I have not succeeded.  I hope that no one takes offense at this - it is just that CWDA is in my top three favorite variants of all time, and I hate to see development on it die.  Especially since Betza himself considered it very much a work-in-progress.

On a related note, I have been devoting a heck of a lot of computing resources into analysis of CWDA army matchups with ChessV to determine how well balanced the armies really are.  Although I already have a few years worth of high-powered CPU time into the project completed, I am still not ready to publish any results.  But I will say that initial results appear as though the four main armies are at least pretty close, and possibly very close, whereas the Meticulous Mashers are way, way, way too powerful - probably overpowered by a least 2 pawns!

- Sam

Looking at the program very quickly, it looks like not too many new variants have been added to the game. What has been added, under the hood, is support for a lot more piece types, especially in the 8x10 and 8x12 boards.

For example, it is now possible to make a preset that plays the 'Crowned' pieces variant I proposed a couple of months ago. It is also possible to play with the 'Sage' (Camel + Bishop) and 'Tower' (Camel + Knight) pieces on the 8x10 and 8x12 board (As per the discussion in this thread). One thing ChessV doesn't have yet is these 'new' pieces on a 10x10 board (I feel the Sage makes more sense on a 10x10 board than on a 8x10 or 8x12 board, because otherwise there are problems with first-move smothered mate threats; perhaps a game with 'Sages' and possibly 'Towers' will make sense if we leave an empty square besides the king; I can see an 8x12 setup with the usual FIDE pieces, two sages, another faerie piece, and an empty square besides the king to stop smothered mate threats). However, to make these variants requires reading the extensibility document included with ChessV and making your own preset.

I plan on making ChessV presets for some of the ideas discussed in those threads, which I may be able to release next week (The only way I'm able to take time to post this is because I'm killing time while Cygwin downloads).

Anyway, Greg, this is really great work and I'm glad to see a new version of ChessV!

- Sam

Hi, Greg.

I'm running a genuine Piece O'Crap computer, with WinXP. It's been
giving me trouble for a while now. I booted and re-booted it; no joy.
AMD Athlon XP 2000+ 1.67 GHz 512 Meg RAM
XP Home Edition V2002 Service Pack 2
When it boots, it tells me A7V8X-X 

By the way, did you get my email? I think I sent it to an old address.

Enjoy,
Joe

Hea Joe!

What is the situation with your box?  What OS is it running?  What happens when you try to run ChessV?

Hey, Greg, thanks a lot! Nice program, and thanks for putting yet another shatranj variant in there; I appreciate it greatly.
After being unable to get ChessV to work on my computer with about 90 minutes of work between the two of us, my son said it could be machine-specific, so I asked him to try it on his machine, and it worked fine - lol! He hates chess.  I'm going to try again after I kick my box around the den a couple times.

Ok, a new zip file has been posted, that should be more friendly.

Reinhard: Thanks for the feedback.  It is possible that I did not specify the correct castling rule for Embassy - I will check on it.

Abdul-Rahman: I will keep in mind the possability of adding support for your games.  Unfortunately, the design is fairly rigid and some things are difficult and many are impossible.  At present, the only board sizes supported are 6x6, 8x8, 10x8, 10x10, and 12x8.  A few of your games are possible, but are not trivial, as each has some things that would require some thought about how to accomplish.  I appreciate the interest!

I get the feeling that XP's or Vista's unzipper is fussy in a way that Winzip accidently breaks. As an aside, I have never had problems unzipping files in Windows XP that were generated with the *NIX zipping utilities, even after using a special program called 'advancedcomp' to make the .zip file about 5% smaller than an ordinary .zip file.

I will post a report about ChessV 0.9.3 tomorrow.

I would like to thank Greg for the update, and for this excellent, free program.

- Sam

ChessV 0.9.3 seems positionally much improved. I have no more noticed that it would take over the opposites colour when being under pressure. It navigates excellent through the opening. But it might be tactically weaker now, and it does not always handle castling rules correct. See the following Embassy Chess game with SMIRF, where it refutes at least Black's castling move:

That archive was made with the newest WinZip, so it must be using some new format that legacy compression utils don't support...  (Not sure why it is asking for a password, though.)  When I get home this afternoon, I will post a new version that is compressed in a more compatable way, and post an update.  But if you are really anxious, you can download the latest WinZip (version 11) and it should work.

Sorry for the delay ...

the zip file is requesting a password.

It's probably the fact I am using the Zip feature installed withing WindowsXP rather than WinZip. It never showed any problems of the kind though.

Ah, how wonderful !!

Downloading now, and I believe I'll have lots of fun playing personality D!

P.S. : I would be lying if I didn't say I would've liked one of my games there.


PS2 : Fully downloaded, but it is requesting a password.

Version 0.9.3 Released

This version fixes several significant bugs, and provides additional some performance enhancements. In addition, the following has been added:

New games: Chess256 by Mats Winther, Lemurian Shatranj by Joe Joyce, and Latrunculi duo milia et septum by Gary K. Gifford.

New pieces: This version adds support a few new piece types to be used in custom games. On the 8x8 board, support is added for the Dragon King (Rook+Ferz), Dragon Horse (Bishop+Wazir), Tower (Camel+Rook), Sage (Camel+Bishop), and Knightrider. The 10x8 board adds support for the same pieces, except for the Wildebeest instead of the Knightrider.

New features: Support is added for 4 different personalities. That is, the computer opponent can play in four different ways, ranging from Personality A (the previous and default personality, and the most computer-like), through Personality D (which is the least computer-like, and features an element of randomness to its moves.) While personalities C and D may well provide more enjoyment for the player, for purposes of computer analysis of games or positions, personality A should still be used because it is the strongest.

Download here: ChessV 0.9.3. There is no installation program - just unzip and run ChessV.exe. If you have a previous installation, you can unzip this right on top of it. When unzipping, you must restore the directory structure within the zip file. This should happen by default with the Windows zip engine, and with all common programs. But, if you run the program and cannot see any of the piece graphics, then you probably have not unzipped it correctly. Just let me know if you need help.

It gets better and better. Please consider adding Chess256 to v1.0. Of
course. everybody cannot expect to have their personal variants added, but
this one is rather easy to implement, and it is a good training concept for
'orthodox' chess players who have no help from opening theory from the
first move, while the positions are very similar to normal chess.
http://hem.passagen.se/melki9/randompawn.htm
/Mats

ChessV version 0.9.2 released

Program (and source code) may be downloaded from http://www.chessv.com/

There is no install program - just unzip and run chessv.exe. NOTE: When un-zipping, be sure to preserve the folder structure. The Windows decompression wizard does this automatically. If you have an old version of ChessV, you can unzip this on top of the old version.

The example does not have following line?

$castling-type = 'flexible'

If not, then that is an error in the documentation, and I'll fix it.
NOTE: those should be double-quotes... the chessvariants comment system changes them to single-quotes.

Well, although I am in the Ukraine, I have managed to get access to the
Internet :)

Strange that version 0.9.1 is weaker...  I did fix some problems related
to end-of-game detection with Kinglet, Extinction, and other games with
strange victory conditions.  It sounds like I have interjected other
problems... *sigh*  Not being able to beat you with a queen against a lone
king in los alamos is pretty bad.  I will take a look as soon as I get
back.  Thanks for play-testing for me.

Sorry I didn't see there was another Andy here till after I posted. I don't think I have a bug report really it's just that I had 2 other versions of ChessV and they used to win like 70% of the time. It's just my 1st game of Berlina I won with 0.91, my 2nd was with Polymorph and I won and I usually don't do good in that game, my 3rd game was Grotesteque and I won!

I don't think I ever won 3 games in a row with ChessV ever so either 0.91 is weaker somehow or I just got like super lucky!

ChessV getting fixed: If you have problems with ChessV, please make a complete bug report. 'I can sometimes win against ChessV, when will this be fixed?' is hardly a bug report that Greg Strong can use to fix the problem in question. If you have a problem with ChessV, please *save the game* so that Greg can look at the problem.

And, yes, I see that ChessV 0.9.1 Schoolbook game is weaker that its 0.9 game. For example, ChessV 0.9.1 was white, ChessV 0.9 was black and both sides had 60 seconds to think their move on a PIII 450 in this game:

1. Pawn f2 - f4
1. Pawn f7 - f5
2. Knight h1 - g3
2. Knight c8 - d6
3. Bishop g1 - d4
3. Pawn e7 - e6
4. Knight c1 - d3
4. Bishop d8 - f6
5. Knight d3 - e5
5. Marshall I8 - h6
6. Archbishop e1 - f3
6. Knight h8 - g6
7. Pawn e2 - e3
7. Queen b8 - d8
8. Knight g3 - h5
8. Knight g6 - h4
9. Archbishop f3 - e1
9. Knight d6 - e4
10. Pawn d2 - d3
10. Pawn c7 - c5
11. Pawn d3 x e4
11. Pawn c5 x d4
12. Pawn e3 x d4
12. Pawn f5 x e4
13. Knight h5 x f6
13. Marshall h6 x f6
14. Marshall I1 - h3
14. Knight h4 x I2
15. Pawn j2 - j3
15. Pawn d7 - d6
16. Rook j1 - I1 @ I1 0 0
16. Archbishop e8 - b5
17. Bishop d1 - e2
17. Archbishop b5 x d4
18. Knight e5 - g4
18. Knight I2 - j4
19. Marshall h3 - f2
19. Archbishop d4 x f2
20. Knight g4 x f2
20. Marshall f6 - f5
21. Rook I1 - I3 @ I3 0 0
21. Marshall f5 x f4
22. Rook I3 - I4 @ I4 0 0
22. Marshall f4 - f5
23. Archbishop e1 - d2
23. Pawn e4 - e3
24. Archbishop d2 - e4
24. Queen d8 - j2
25. Archbishop e4 x f5
25. Pawn e6 x f5
26. Bishop e2 - d3
26. Queen j2 x h2
27. Bishop d3 x f5
27. Knight j4 - h5
28. King f1 - e2 @ e2 0 0
28. Knight h5 - g3
29. King e2 x e3 @ e3 0 0
29. Knight g3 x I4
30. Queen b1 - I1
30. King f8 - d8 Rook a8 - e8 @ e8 0 0 @ d8 0 0

- Sam

We now have two people posting using name of Andy, it appears. Previous post was not mine. Either this is coincidence or someone wants to make it look like my posts. I will post as Andy the First now.

- Sam

P.S. I liked Andy's last comment.

Version 0.9.1 released

new games: This version adds support for a new class of games - the diagonal games, Diagonal Chess, Diamond Chess, and Legan's Game (all from Pritchard's Encyclopedia of Chess Variants.) These games allow you to view the board normally, or rotated 45 degrees, for a more appropriate viewing. Also, support for new 10x8 games Optimized Chess by Derek Nalls and New Chancellor Chess by David Paulowich.

new features: New square textures, and a new option to customize the 10x8 Capablanca-like games. It was already possible to customize these games by making a SGF file, but now there is a user-interface to specify the rules you want, and you are given an option to save a SGF into your include directory, making the game a permanent addition to your ChessV installation. An option to replace Chancellors and Archbishops with Ministers and High-priestesses is also present to allow one to play Christine Bagly-Jones's Capablanca Shatranj variants. Just click on Capablanca Chess variants from the start screen, and check 'Customize the Selected Game'

performance: many performance enhancements speed things up 10-40 percent, depending on the game. 10x8 variants are much faster, and have much smarter evaluation of positions.

Enjoy! Download from the project's home at sourceforge.net

Awkward play by Zillions in the opening. But Zillions can easily be made to 
make good pawn opening moves by introducing rewards for such moves. 
As soon as Zillions has moved two pawns he continues to move pawns and 
pieces in a natural way. One can also introduce a reward for castling, and 
punish early queen moves. If one makes these additions to the code then 
Zillions plays chess very humanlike and positionally interesting. The effect is 
remarkable. Zillions's style is quite humanlike because it plays such a 
varied game of chess. It also understands to attack with the pawn on the 
flanks. It is sad that Zillions programmers don't use these tricks because 
there are so many implementations where Zillions plays too much with the 
pieces in the opening, which makes the games less interesting, and the 
play much weaker. You can have a look at the code in my zrf's. In most 
cases you can simply copy it, although it can certainly be improved in many 
ways. Note that I have often also added links from the corner squares. This 
simple trick is a good idea because it discourages Zillions from wasting 
king moves to the corner squares, something which is even more important 
in the Gustavian case.

1. Af3 Nd6 2. Ng3 f5 3. Nd3 Nhf7 4. h3 e6 5. BI3 h6 6. Ah5 Bh7 7. Ke1?

Zillions, for mysterious reasons, made a meaningless king move.

7. ... I6 8. Af3 MI7 9. Bxd8 Qxd8 10. Nc5 Ng5 11. Ae5 Nf7 12. Ad4 Ad6 13. Mj3 Qe7

ChessV now has Zillions on the run. With a better pawn structure and two more pieces developed, black has more than equalized and now controls the game.

14. Nd3

At this point, Black can force the win of a piece. The moves to do so are left as an exercise for the reader.

In the game played, White never recovered and Black (ChessV) eventually won.

Zillions Save Game File Version 0.02 HH
RulesFile=C:\Zillions\3rd_party\largechess\Chess,_Large.zrf
VariantName=Janus Chess
1. Janus i1 - h3
1. Pawn e7 - e5
2. Pawn f2 - f4
2. Pawn e5 x f4
3. Knight c1 - d3
3. Pawn g7 - g5
4. Pawn e2 - e3
4. Pawn f4 x e3
5. Bishop g1 x e3
5. Pawn h7 - h6
6. Knight h1 - g3
6. Knight c8 - d6
7. Janus b1 - c3
7. Bishop g8 - h7
8. Bishop d1 - h5
8. Pawn i7 - i6
9. Janus h3 - g4
9. Queen f8 - g8
10. Queen f1 - e2
10. King e8 - f8 @ f8 0 0
11. Knight d3 - c5
11. Bishop h7 - f5
12. Knight g3 x f5
12. Pawn i6 x h5
13. Janus c3 - e5
13. Pawn h5 x g4
14. Knight c5 x d7
14. King f8 - e8 @ e8 0 0
15. Bishop e3 - f2
15. Bishop d8 - e7
16. Janus e5 x d6
16. King e8 x d7 @ d7 0 0
17. Queen e2 x e7
17. King d7 - c6 @ c6 0 0
18. Knight f5 - d4
18. King c6 - d5 @ d5 0 0
19. Queen e7 - e5

- Sam

Dan, I've done some more significant tweaking today, primarily aimed at making sure it doesn't fall too far behind in development just for a pawn or two. It now makes better moves in the situations in your previous game. How much better it is overall, I cannot say, but it is almost certainly much better than Sam's modified version, as I have made a number of improvements in the last 2 weeks. If you're up for a game against the current iteration, just start a game with Game Courier, and let me know what I-Depth you would like (I have enough computing power to go up to 12 or 13, but I would recommend more like 9 or 10.) Thanks!

What I have published of John's (with his permission, of course) is his notes on one of his 2001 Grand Chess world championship games.

- Sam