+1000 Elo In just few months and over 3100 Elo strength (!!), which considering the open-source code of this engine - is quite a feat. Carp is a free chess engine created by Mr. Andrea Sgobbi in Rust language and under the GNU GPL 3 license. It is worth noting and appreciating the extremely dynamic and effective development of the Carp chess engine. Its version 1.1.0 was still playing at 2170 Elo in January 2023. By contrast, the latest Carp 2.0.0, taking advantage of numerous improvements and a neural network, plays at 3121 Elo. Source: MCERL (ongoing) I would like to commend the approach of the author of this engine for the remarkable openness of his work: Carp was written in such a way that it allows easy creation of compilations for popular operating systems. This is a beautiful and valuable gift for users of different devices. Andrea, thank you very much! I am very happy to include the Carp chess engine in the MCERL. It is worth watching its interesting style of play and even more - its further development :) Feel free to visit the download area. Android – Compiled by Archimedes Linux arm64 & x64 – Compiled by Darius Mac Apple Silicon & Intel – Compiled by Darius Windows x64 – Compiled by Darius In the Files area you will find free chess engines for download.

Here is one of the latest chess engines - Svart - written in the Rust language under the MIT license. Svart logo, source: GitHub It was first published at the beginning of February 2023. Unfortunately on the date of publication, while testing this version I found numerous errors during games (illegal moves). Since then, the author of this free open source engine Cristopher has made numerous corrections which resulted in playing according to chess rules. Source: GitHub Thus, I have allowed Svart 2.0.0 (fixed) to play engines under MCERL and compiled it for popular platforms (downloadable at the bottom of the post). In the course of playing 504 games, I have not found any errors in this engine. How strong is Svart 2.0.0 ? Source: MCERL 2477 Elo, which for a debut in MCERL - is a good result :) Congratulations to the author! In the Files area you will find free chess engines for download.

"Clovis is born again!" With these words, Mr. Jonathan McDermid announces the release of the latest version of his chess engine. Source: GitHub Clovis is a free open source chess engine under the MIT license. Here are the changes that have taken place in the latest version of Clovis III. " implemented gradient descent tuner disabled drawishness and some other evaluation functions until they are integrated into tuner added some params to evaluation (candidate passer, rook on seventh) vertically mirrored some PSQTs " Source: GitHub Certainly, Clovis III is stronger than its predecessors. Considering that Clovis uses HCE (hand craft eval) and it has only been a little over 1 month since the release of the Clovis I, the 133 Elo difference between Clovis I and Clovis III is not small number. Source: MCERL (ongoing) This shows that the author is making an effort and working on his engine! I think it is worth paying attention to Clovis - an engine that, in my opinion, has great potential. Currently, Clovis does not use a neural network and already plays strong chess. I predict that if in the future Mr. Jonathan McDermid decides to develop Clovis with the possibility of using a neural network, we can look forward to a really strong computer player. I encourage you to download and use this interesting and regularly developed chess engine. Linux arm64 & x64 – Compiled by Darius Mac Apple Silicon & Intel – Compiled by Darius Windows x32 & x64 – Compiled by Darius Source Code – by Jonathan McDermid In the Files area you will find free chess engines for download.

Each edition of Wasp, is a very pleasant surprise for fans of this "biting" chess engine. Wasp is free chess engine available under the MIT license. Source: Wasp homepage Wasp can really "bite", it's one of the strongest chess engines, which has been consistently enhanced and developed for many years with the latest techniques and algorithms including a neural network. Here are the results of previous versions of Wasp: Source: CCRL What changes have occurred in Wasp 6.50 - a detailed list can be found on the release note page; a few selections I will take the liberty of pasting here: " I estimate that Wasp 6.50 is about 50 Elo stronger than Wasp 6.00. The neural network for evaluation is similar to Wasp 6.00 except that the number of neurons in the hidden layer has been increased to 1536. Positions from games played in the last 6 months were added to the training data bringing the total to about 220M positions. The positions were re-scored using a fixed 35K node search and a recent net. The target used to train the net is now based 80% on the search score and 20% on the game result. To create the final network, two 1024 nets were created and each were trained using about 300 "epochs" of 500M positions. These networks were then merged to create a 2048 neuron net and trained with about 50 additional "epochs". This net was then pruned to 1536 neurons and trained with about 50 more "epochs". I have no idea if this merging and pruning technique is actually better than just creating and training several 1536 node nets and picking the best one. " Source: Wasp release note Thank you very much to author Mr. John Stanback for releasing another version of Wasp. I am very happy that Wasp 6.50 is available for many different platforms like Linux, Windows and Raspberry Pi. I would love to test and incorporate Wasp's chess engine into MCERL competitions. It would certainly be a worthy and very threatening opponent for the strongest! It would be great if a Mac version would also join this family :) I encourage you to download Wasp from its home page. It is worth mentioning that Mr. John Stanback on the Wasp website has posted a Technical section, where those interested will find a great deal of useful and informative information on the features of the Wasp chess engine. In the Files area you will find free chess engines for download.

In the second part of this post, I will introduce the ecosystem programs from ChessBase. For several decades, Windows users have been able to use ChessBase software, one of the oldest, recognized and renowned brands in the world of chess software designed for all chess players: from amateurs to world's leading grandmasters. This post is dedicated to chess players who would like to use the most interesting, useful and proven tools - programs from ChessBase for various chess activities in their chess workshop - Windows operating system. My goal is not to discuss as many ChessBase programs in as much detail as possible, but to demonstrate the key capabilities of the tools I have selected in relation to specific chess activities, e.g. training, analysis, database and engine use, etc. To learn about the capabilities and practical use of the ChessBase software, I invite you to visit the course area. This entry will be updated on a regular basis when I feel that there is software worth presenting to you dear readers. How to play chess / Learn Once upon a time there was a small country, a very, very small country. And this little country was ruled by a very wise king. In fact, he was the wisest king that ever existed. He was called "King White." This is the beginning of an interesting program for learning chess: Fritz & Chesster. The program counts in four parts and is aimed at children who have never played chess before. It teaches the basic rules in an atmosphere reminiscent of Sesame Street. Children can follow the cartoons and stories and then interactively solve the tasks. In each of the four games, Fritz White and his cousin Bianca learn to play chess with the help of Chesster. In the first three games, they learn the different elements of chess and then compete in a chess game against the Black King. The fourth game takes place on another planet. The first game teaches the rules of the game, basic chess and strategy. Subsequent games teach opening theory, tactics, middle and endgame analysis, and chess patterns. Other games include chess variations, chess puzzles, or timed games with scoreboards. During the game, the child participates in an adventure in which young Prince Fritz must briefly replace his father, King White. Together with his cousin Bianca, Fritz sets off on a journey through his kingdom. A cheerful instructor accompanies them on their journey and tells them all about the kingdom. In each scene, children can click on different items, such as the mouse traps in the image above, which causes funny things to happen. While traveling through the kingdom, all three encounter the menacing Black King, who challenges them to a chess game. But Fritz doesn't know how to play. Fortunately, as the journey continues, he manages to learn the game. The Fritz & Chesster series has been translated into 17 languages, which is certainly beneficial to learning chess in your native language. Fritz & Chesster has received numerous awards, such as. won the Deutscher Computerspielpreis (German Computer Games Award) in the category Best Children's Game. Training / Practice / Play Chess Offline Fritz as well as other ChessBase programs is a mature product, developed and regularly updated, with its 30 years of tradition! Several decades and 18 versions of Fritz may suggest that the program offers a lot. And indeed it does. For years, Fritz has been the undisputed market leader in chess software for training, playing, analyzing and using chess engines. It's a combo that also combines and gives access to many ChessBase services like the PlayChess online game server and web applications. Upon startup, Fritz greets you with a window containing clearly described selection options. Want to practice openings or end game elements? Or maybe the middle game, the motives of attack, defense or looking for the mat? All "classic" training options can be found in Fritz. Along with counting the rankings. But... I'd like to turn you on to Easy Game. First, what isn't Easy Game ? It's not an option where a chess engine playing over 3000 Elo level uses 0.1 seconds to think of a move in order to lower its playing strength to human level. It's not an option where the engine plays without a pawn or even a few chess pieces. And what is Easy Game? It's a mode where the program will adapt to your level of play, make you a fun but also challenging opponent, give you a chance to make brilliant moves and win the game. It's also a mode where the computer coach assists you during the game, giving you tips and suggestions, but not hints - unless you want a specific hint on what move to play, then the Coach will give you such information. The computerized trainer communicates with the player by voice, in addition to the information visible on the screen. I used the English version of the Fritz 18 program and the computer coach spoke to me in that language during the game. During the game, the computer coach, after a few moves, begins to evaluate the strength of your moves using Elo rating points. It will try to create appropriate situations for you, so that you learn something and play an interesting game. With such a coach by your side, playing chess is extremely satisfying, often spectacular, but most of all informative and developing. Ok, let's go through some examples. Before starting the game, it is a good idea to select the level of the opponent during our training. We have a choice of levels: Beginner Hobby player Club player Strong Club player Master Candidate Grandmaster In my first game, I selected an opponent playing at the Club player level and checked the Assisted Analysis and Dynamic Hints options. I set the game time for each player at 3 minutes per game plus an additional 2 seconds after each move. Here are the first 10 moves. After my eleventh move, an evaluation of my game appeared. Certainly at the beginning of any game, as long as you don't make any glaring mistakes, your game rating will be high. A 2700 Elo rating is the playing strength of a super grandmaster. I play at a much lower level - perhaps at the level of a experienced club player. The longer I played, the less precise my moves became, although with white I reached a pretty promising position after sixteen moves. After a few more moves, unfortunately for me, black's position regained control. The position was equal. I was determined, I was able to improve my position. Finally, after 57 moves, I managed to win. The strength of my play in the entire chess game was rated at 2170 Elo points. I must admit that after finishing my first chess game with the assistance of a computer coach I was impressed. Fritz behaves very naturally, the comments and suggestions are accurate, the voice communication helps in understanding. Maybe it's a coincidence, but after only one Easy Game, Fritz accurately indicated my level of play, which in reality usually oscillates between 2100-2200 Elo. Analyze During chess training and practice, it is extremely important to be able to analyze and learn from completed chess games. Fritz has a very powerful chess game analysis module that stands out for its excellent annotation in the language of your choice and its ability to place diagrams and highlight moves and variants. So, we will analyze a played chess game with the default settings. After a while.. ...we get a complete analysis of the chess game. Below is the complete analysis performed by the Fritz 18 program. Now let's analyze the chess game with the Training settings and with the Opening reference checked. When Erase old annotations is checked, the previous annotations will be deleted. After the game analysis is completed, the notation window will show the positions that will be proposed to indicate the best move. In the notation we also see a marked novelty (4...f5N) and a reference to the game from the database. Fritz adds diagrams, making the notation more readable. If the correct movement is indicated, Fritz moves on to the next training position. The diagrams show highlighted suggestions for good moves in conjunction with the position. Fritz 18 is currently (February 2022) probably the best chess program for training, sparring and playing. The program although has a huge playing power (Fritz 18 over 3100 Elo) plays so that you can win with it and learn cool and new chess stuff. You can also play against it in a position of your choice or set to test the answers you may encounter in playing against your opponent. Due to high reader interest, the Fritz 18 program and its features will soon be described in detail with practical examples. Feel free to visit the course area. I recommend Fritz 18 to players of all levels. Play Chess Online Play Chess is one of the oldest and most recognized places to play chess online. This is a commercial and extensive chess server that will provide entertainment on all chess fronts. Play Chess is available to play for all hardware and system platforms through its website. It is also directly accessible from any Fritz or ChessBase program. There is also a separate Play Chess client, a free download that allows you to play on this server. This server has probably one of the best chess safeguards (e.g. using computer assistants), which takes it a regular place for people who want to spend time having fun playing chess. Play Chess is a place where you will certainly meet many nice and helpful players and admins. After logging into the server, we are greeted by a program in the Main Playing Hall. We can filter and customize the view. After selecting the time for the game using the buttons at the top, the program will search for an opponent with a similar ranking. Here is the beginning of the first game played by chessengeria. As an untitled player, I was given a ranking of 1620 before the game started. The results of the first games have a big impact on the ranking. After playing just a few games, depending on the results of the games, the ranking can change by up to several hundred points. When we want to take a break from the game for a bit, we can watch other games while they are going on. During the observation, the program allows you to run the chess engine (Kibitzer), which displays an analysis lines. Of course, it is possible to customize the appearance of the program elements - in the image above the chessboard with changed color. Every day we can participate in interesting events such as tournaments, shows, streams with famous and titled players and... Also play in official tournaments... ...or private tournaments. In a very nice atmosphere :-) We also have access to a profile, statistics and a many information - for each Play Chess member. On the Play Chess server, you can participate and watch live games from many chess tournaments and events. When there are interesting events, matches, games going on, then Play Chess provides a live feed with commentary by the Masters and Grandmasters. As an Play Chess member, we are provided access to a database of hundreds of videos of lessons and previously covered events. Play Chess also offers the opportunity to practice tactical skills... ...and many more like Fritz engine, Games cloud, Quizs (from web). Play Chess is not only a place to play chess over the Internet, it is also an excellent center for many services provided by ChessBase, such as broadcasts of events, game streams, participation in simulations, access to chess games databases and various types of training. Chess Game Annotations / Databases / Analyzes ChessBase is a commercial program developed by the company of the same name (ChessBase GmbH). ChessBase as well as other programs from this developer, has a long tradition of over thirty years. It is actively developed and on average every 2 years a new version is released. During the life of each version of ChessBase, it is also regularly updated - the producer's support usually extends over several years. For many chess players, ChessBase stands for the best chess database software. And there is a lot of truth in this, because ChessBase is used all over the world by amateurs, club players, champions and grandmasters from the world's top. ChessBase is a program that has been paving the way for the development of chess-database software for many years. Everything or almost everything can be done using this program in a comfortable, fast and, above all - effective way. Due to reader interest, the course area has materials showing practical ways to use ChessBase. You are invited! A feature of the ChessBase program that is worth emphasizing is that a novice player as well as a chess expert will be able to very easily use this program adequately to their needs. Example no. 1 A beginning chess enthusiast simply needs to collect his chess games in one database, in some games he would like to add text annotations and from time to time use the chess engine hints. Example no. 2 An advanced and experienced player needs many databases of chess games in order to quickly and efficiently manage a collection of millions of records. He very often uses advanced chess notation in his games, prints games with diagrams and regularly looks for chess novelties while preparing for different and strong opponents. When analyzing many positions and games he uses different chess engines and endgame tablebases simultaneously. In both activities described, ChessBase will do a great job. I invite you to watch a few pictures showing the capabilities of ChessBase. Annotated chess game with diagram... ...and Symbol Palette. Variations. Position analysis by three chess engines: one line of analysis. Position analysis by single chess engine: main chessboard, three lines of analysis, variation board, Let's check database informations. An analysis of the entire chess game by the chess engine, along with the annotations and variations it adds. Analysis of a chess game to check if the opponent did not use computer assistance - Centipawn Analysis Selecting the type of chess database. Chess player dossier. Player's ELO rating over time. List of chess player's tournaments from the database. Table of selected tournament. Advanced chess game search. Database statistics. ChessBase is a program of enormous capabilities offering the chess player extremely powerful tools for game and chess database maintenance and analysis. Add to this many years of producer's support and regular updates - not without reason ChessBase is considered to be the best and one of the most popular programs for handling chess databases. Chess Engines Watching chess engines struggle Testing in different configurations and positions Organizing matches and tournaments between computer opponents Calculating rankings and creating ranking lists Advanced position analysis Examining the "strength" of different opening books To see if the engine ( Deep Junior ), which in 2003 was able to draw with the then world chess champion ( Garry Kasparov ), today competing with the modern Stockfish engine in 100 matches, wins ... hmm, as in many games Deep Junior is able to win against Stockfish? ... All of the above and many more "computer" features can be found in the Fritz. I did an introduction to the Fritz program in the body of this post above - in the section on practice, practice and offline play. In this section I'll describe Fritz's capabilities in relation to chess engines. Fritz is by all means a professional program, so users will surely be pleased with its ease of use, clear interface and many options for customizing the appearance. Fritz has clear and logically grouped ribbons, menus and icons with shortcuts to the most frequently used options, and... In addition to using chess engines locally - installed on your own computer... ...offers the possibility to use chess engines in the cloud. It's great how easy it is to have access to very powerful chess engines. You don't have to spend a lot of money to buy a powerful computer - all you need is a regular PC with internet and the Fritz program (or ChessBase program). The Cloud engine or engines can be used in exactly the same way as engines installed on your own computer - they can analyze, play matches and participate in tournaments. Here's example what the window looks like where we set up the engine tournament. Below is a view when playing two engines against each other. And current tournament result. Based on the results of the games played, Fritz can calculate the ranking of chess engines. Are you a chess engine author, would you like to test a new configuration or an opening book, do you want to play in an engine tournament, ..., ? Nothing stands in the way to do it - log on to the server Play Chess and enter the engine room. Good fun guaranteed and the opportunity to meet nice people :-) Fritz is an amazing program that, in combination with an ecosystem (Fritz & Chesster, Fritz, PlayChess, Cloud, ChessBase, etc.), offers the chess player modern and useful tools with comprehensive use of chess engines. And that ends the entry about... Stop! As I was writing, the Deep Junior and Stockfish engines were fighting in the background on my computer. Dear reader, if you have been reading this post carefully, you are probably thinking what was the result of this match ? Before we get into the outcome of this exciting match, let's check out what - what chess engine - Garry Kasparov was up against in 2003. According to Wikipedia, Deep Junior in 2003 was the holder of the 2002 World Computer Chess Champion title! To determine the version of Deep Junior that Stockfish is up against, let's look at the release dates: All is clear, Stockfish should play against Junior 7. ( explanation: Deep -> means a version Junior chess engine capable of playing using the power of multiple processors ). Match parameters: for the entire game: 1 minute, 0 seconds of extra time cpu's: 4 for each engine hash table: 128MB for each engine open book: Perfect_2021 ponder: off number of games: 100 Result: Out of 100 chess games played, Deep Junior 7 has not won a single game draw 1 game lost 99 games Below is a link to download games from that match. This is the end the entry: Tools in a chess player's workshop - Windows - Part 2

In Windows, as in other systems, you can use programs for every chess enthusiast, from the beginner to the very advanced, for the correspondence chess player and the fan of competitive chess engines. This post is dedicated to adults chess players who would like to use the most interesting, useful and proven tools - programs ( not web-based tools and servers ) for various chess activities in their chess workshop - Windows operating system. My goal is not to discuss as many programs in as much detail as possible, but to demonstrate the key capabilities of the tools I have selected in relation to specific chess activities, e.g. training, analysis, database and engine use, etc. This entry will be updated on a regular basis when I feel that there is software worth presenting to you dear readers. To learn about the capabilities and practical use of the best chess software, I invite you to visit the course area . Contents Program​ Learn / Training / Practice Chessmaster Play Chess Offline Hiarcs Chess Explorer Play Chess Online ICC for Windows Chess Game Annotations / Database / Analyzes Chess Assistant Chess Engines Shredder Classic How to play chess Fortunately for us fans of this Royal Game, you don't need to read several books to play your first chess game :-) Learning to play chess is relatively easy and quick. Mastering the basics of the game will allow you to play one or more games, which is important in memorizing the chess rules. It is a good idea to simply ask someone who can play to show us the basics of chess. If we don't have such an opportunity, I suggest reading just one page of Wikipedia , where the rules of chess are described in a very simple and understandable way. And if you have Windows available, learning to play chess with Chessmaster might be an even better idea. Learn / Training / Practice Chessmaster (currently owned and developed by Ubisoft) is a commercial program that runs on Windows system. Chessmaster (CM) is a program with a long and glorious tradition, which was very popular and intensively developed in the 1980s and 1990s and in the first decade of the new century. In 2002, CM sold over 5 million copies worldwide. Just a dozen years ago, CM was paving the way for chess software development and was a competitor to the biggest brands in that area. In the years when CM was created, the Internet was not yet around or widespread. Therefore, CM has many built-in options that allow offline learning, fun and competition. The last version released was the 2007 ChessMaster Grandmaster Edition. The quality of the whole CM program is very high and the chess learning and training modules deserve special attention even today - in 2022, 15 years after the last release. Before you continue with this post, I must inform you dear reader, that at the time of writing this post (February 2022) Chessmaster cannot be purchased from its manufacturer/publisher . CM stopped being developed by Ubisoft, which at one time was very surprising to the loyal chess community and supporters. Until the eventual resumption of the Chessmaster cycle, to acquire this program, it is worthwhile to browse auction sites (e.g. Allegro, Amazon, Ebay, etc.) and other places where software and games are distributed. Chessmaster in a still unpacked box fetches a high price at auctions. If you manage to get your own copy of this excellent program, then you should know that the latest version of it works on the modern Windows 10 and Windows 11 systems without any problem. ( According to the specifications, the officially supported systems are Windows® XP/ Vista ) It's worth knowing that earlier versions like Chessmaster 10th Edition and Chessmaster 9000 are not much inferior to the Grandmaster version and are worth getting interested in. Especially since earlier versions were also released for other operating systems ( e.g. Chessmaster 9000 for Mac ). Ok, so let's take a closer look at what Chessmaster offers in terms of chess learning and training. Learn Academy Josh Waitzkin's Academy The academy is led by International Master Josh Waitzkin. The lessons are interactive, the student is asked to make choices, the CM provides opportunities for undo and redo. There are many lessons and they are divided into thematic groups. I will show some examples. Larry Christiansen Attacking Chess Interesting and informative game examples with commentary. Chessmasters Series Lots of lessons and cool quizzes designed for chess players of different levels. Famous games Beautiful, informative and surprising chess games with rich commentary and analysis. Database Something for "chess nerds" ;-) Openings Pracice Openings Openings Book Reference Openeings Book Editor New Openeing Book Do you know how to play against the Latvian gambit ? Play Chessmaster uses a chess engine called The King (author Johan de Koning), which plays with a strength of about 2700 Elo points (super grandmaster level - top 50 strongest human in the world). An unusual feature of this engine is that it can be configured in a very detailed set of settings. In practice, this means that Chessmaster or rather the various computer opponents from this program. It can play with strength from novice to grandmaster and in the style of Paul Morphy (aggressive, spectacular attack) to tough, controlled and precise defense (Tigran Petrosian). Training Mode Ranked Play Set Up Position Tournament You can create a chess tournament (offline) with humans and selected computer opponents. Online (doesn't work for me, probably due to lack of developer support) LAN Fun Play Different game modes and chess puzzles, as well as chess learning for the youngest :-) Puzzles Mini Games Learn Basics Chessmaster is a program that even today after 15 years since its last release, amazes with its vastness of training possibilities, variety of lessons and refinement of details. The visuals as well as the sound stand at a high level. It is very good for young people especially for children, whose attention is attracted by various colorful graphic elements, humorous animations and sounds (Fun mode). Chessmaster can be very helpful for those starting their adventure into the world of chess - from novices to intermediate chess club players, will benefit the most. It is a great pity that CM is no longer developed. It would certainly find many buyers, and more importantly, it could ignite a love of chess for more people . I heartily recommend the Chessmaster program for learning, training and practice. Play chess with computer ( offline ) Hiarcs Chess Explorer (authors: Michal Rudolf, Mark Uniacke) is a commercial program that also runs on Mac. On both platforms, Hiarcs Chess Explorer is identical and behaves the same. One of the few differences, for example, is the appearance of the window's top bar, which looks appropriate to the operating system on which this program is running and at the moment (February 2022, HCE version 1.11.1) dark mode is only supported on Mac. HCE ( Hiarcs Chess Explorer ) is a program with a clear, easy to understand interface. The look of the program is very elegant and inviting to start playing chess. The interface is highly customizable, the user can use many features of the program depending on the needs. Below are two examples. Let's play chess! :-)) HCE has a unique property that allows this program to adjust the strength of the game to the level of the chess player. It is not fun and does not bring much 10 defeats in a row with a program capable of beating a World Chess Champion. When selected: Match player strength, the first chess game will play against Hiarcs with a strength of 1600 ELO points (the average club player plays with this strength). Here's a view from my first game against Hiarcs. Nothing on the s is distracting, we can see the chessboard timers and game notation. Of course we can adjust the size of the windows, such as the chessboard, to suit our needs. During the game, our progress is monitored by the Coach. If he thinks we made a mistake, or that we could have made another good or interesting move, then a window is displayed with information. If we don't believe the Trainer, when we click the Show refutation button, the computer opponent's movement will be shown in an animated way. If, in the heat of the chess battle, you forget about the countdown clock, then Hiarcs will offer you the option of adding additional thinking time. In each successive chess game, Hiarcs adjusts his playing strength more and more to the level of his human opponent. He does this in such a way that each game is challenging and motivates the chess player to play better and better. After playing at least a few games, it's a good idea to check rating. The chess game is over. You would like to check the entire game for strong weak moves. Or maybe... you could play something completely different at several points in the game ? HCE has an analytics module that, like other features, can be configured at our discretion or we can use the default settings. Here's how the computer Coach annotations for one of my games. A nice and useful addition is the ability to use the electronic chess board to play with the Hiarcs Chess Explorer program. For more details, I encourage you to visit the manufacturer's website . Below is some information about what we can do after connecting electronic chessboard to Hiarcs Chess Explorer. What distinguishes HCE from most other chess programs are the detailed aids prepared by the authors. The program is easy to use, however, for the user's convenience there is a traditional help file (the size of a book), context-sensitive help available for each option that is currently used, and numerous instructional videos. Hiarcs Chess Explorer is a long-established program, developed over the last several years. Its latest version ( Hiarcs Chess Explorer Pro ) was released at the time of creating this entry. Customer support and service stands at a very high level, which is repeatedly confirmed by users on Internet forums. Hiarcs Chess Explorer is a program written by professionals, polished to the smallest detail. I highly recommend. Play chess with computer ( online ) ICC -Internet Chess Club is one of the oldest and most recognized places to play chess online. This is a commercial and extensive chess server that will provide entertainment on many chess fronts. ICC is available to play for all hardware and system platforms through its website. For the most popular ones like Windows, Mac, Mobile, etc. - provides a dedicated program to play on this server. On Windows platform, ICC is identical and behaves the same like on Mac. After logging into the server, we are greeted by a program in the Lobby. We can filter and customize the view. After selecting the time for the game using the buttons at the top, the program will search for an opponent with a similar ranking. Here is the beginning of the first game played by chessengeria. As an untitled player, I was given a ranking of 1400 before the game started. The results of the first games have a big impact on the ranking. After playing just a few games, depending on the results of the games, the ranking can change by up to several hundred points. When we want to take a break from the game for a bit, we can watch other games while they are going on. During the observation, the program allows you to run the chess engine, which displays an analysis and a move suggestion. Every day we can participate in interesting events such as lessons, simulations with famous and titled players and... ...Also play in tournaments... In a very nice atmosphere :-) We also have access to a profile, statistics and a library of games played - for each ICC member. This data can be useful when, for example, preparing against a selected opponent. You can examine and analyze each completed game, make graphical annotations and use the chess engine to, for example, check our moves. When there are interesting events going on, such as the World Chess Championship Match, then ICC provides a live feed with commentary by the Masters and Grandmasters. As an ICC member, we are provided access to a database of hundreds of videos of lessons and previously covered events. ICC also offers chess training opportunities through chess coaching and... ...access to the Learning center. You can choose a teacher... ...From among several hundred Masters and Grandmasters - and sign up for online lessons. ICC is not only a place to play chess over the Internet. Being a member of Internet Chess Club we can realize our chess passion in a very wide range, meet interesting people, as well as train and learn from the best. Chess Game Annotations / Databases / Analyzes Chess Assistant (produced by Convekta, Ltd) is a commercial program considered by many as one of the best for chess databases. It has always been and is released exclusively for the Windows family of operating systems. Chess Assistant (CA) is a program first released in 1990. The current version available for download is number 22 and has very rich capabilities for managing games and chess databases. The latest version of CA 22 supports modern versions of Windows 10 and 11. Noteworthy are the very low hardware and system requirements: Windows XP (!) 256MB of RAM and 4GB of hard disk space is enough to work properly. Two edge examples of CA program use. Example no. 1 A beginning chess enthusiast simply needs to collect his chess games in one database, in some games he would like to add text annotations and from time to time use the chess engine hints. Example no. 2 An advanced and experienced player needs many databases of chess games in order to quickly and efficiently manage a collection of millions of records. He very often uses advanced chess notation in his games, prints games with diagrams and regularly looks for chess novelties while preparing for different and strong opponents. When analyzing many positions and games he uses different chess engines and endgame tablebases simultaneously. In both activities described, Chess Asisstant will do a great job. I invite you to watch a few pictures showing the capabilities of Chess Assistant. Annotated chess game... ...With image and other multimedia (audio, video). Promoting variation. Diagram with current position. Position analysis by single chess engine: one line of analysis. Position analysis by single chess engine: main chessboard, four lines of analysis - threat suggestions. (detailed informations). Simultaneous position analysis by two chess engines. Analysis setup windows. An analysis of the entire chess game by the chess engine, along with the annotations and variations it adds. A view of the chessboard with the last move. Opening tables. Search by various criteria... ...even the most complex ones. Chess Assistant is by all means a pro program that offers everything needed for the amateur as well as the professional chess player. It is worth noting that Chess Assistant offers very good value for money, giving the user a opportunity to work effectively with chess games and databases. I invite you to visit the course area . There you will find a series of courses devoted to the Chess Assistant program , in which the possibilities of practical use of this program are presented in great detail. Chess Engines Watching chess engines struggle Testing in different configurations and positions Organizing matches and tournaments between computer opponents Calculating rankings and creating ranking lists Advanced position analysis Examining the "strength" of different opening books To see if the engine ( Deep Junior ), which in 2003 was able to draw with the then world chess champion ( Garry Kasparov ), today competing with the modern Stockfish engine in 100 matches, wins ... hmm, as in many games Deep Junior is able to win against Stockfish? ... All of the above and many more "computer" features can be found in the Shredder Classic. Shredder Classic (SC) is a commercial graphical user interface by Stefan Meyer-Kahlen. It includes the Shredder chess engine by the same author, which boasts a fine collection of many tournament and championship wins. SC is also available for Linux and Mac, but in very truncated versions compared to SC for Windows. SC is by all means a specialized program, so users of this program will surely be pleased with its ease of use, clear interface and many options for customizing the appearance. SC has clear and logically grouped Menus, icons with shortcuts to the most frequently used options, and... ...it has a unique analysis option using several chess engines called Triple Brain. In short, Triple Brain automatically combines two engines as they run to produce the optimal analysis result. While the third engine (Triple Brain) decides which move or analysis is better. Here's example what the window looks like where we set up the engine tournament. During the engine tournament... ...SC automatically generates and updates a table with game results and engine's Elo rating performance. Instead of a tournament, you can run a chess engine match. Below is a view when playing two engines against each other. Result: Schredder Classic is a program distinguished by its capabilities and stability. Testing, playing and analyzing with chess engines often takes hundreds or even thousands of hours. Schredder Classic is a program that during its intensive use has never crashed, never been interrupted. This is very important for a fan of working with chess engines. Using Schredder Classic is a very good choice. And that ends the entry about... Stop! As I was writing, the Deep Junior and Stockfish engines were fighting in the background on my computer. Dear reader, if you have been reading this post carefully, you are probably thinking what was the result of this match ? Before we get into the outcome of this exciting match, let's check out what - what chess engine - Garry Kasparov was up against in 2003. According to Wikipedia , Deep Junior in 2003 was the holder of the 2002 World Computer Chess Champion title! To determine the version of Deep Junior that Stockfish is up against, let's look at the release dates: All is clear, Stockfish should play against Junior 7. ( explanation: Deep -> means a version Junior chess engine capable of playing using the power of multiple processors ). Match parameters: for the entire game: 1 minute, 0 seconds of extra time cpu's: 4 for each engine hash table: 128MB for each engine open book: Perfect_2021 ponder: off number of games: 100 Result: Out of 100 chess games played, Deep Junior 7 has not won a single game draw 1 game lost 99 games Below is a link to download games from that match. I invite you to the second part of this post, in which I will introduce the programs of the ChessBase ecosystem on Windows operating system. This is the end the entry: Tools in a chess player's workshop - Windows - Part 1

In Linux, as in other systems, you can use programs for every chess enthusiast, from the beginner to the very advanced, for the correspondence chess player and the fan of competitive chess engines. This post is dedicated to adults chess players who would like to use the most interesting, useful and proven tools - programs ( not web-based tools and servers ) for various chess activities in their chess workshop - Linux operating system. My goal is not to discuss as many programs in as much detail as possible, but to demonstrate the key capabilities of the tools I have selected in relation to specific chess activities, e.g. training, analysis, database and engine use, etc. This entry will be updated on a regular basis when I feel that there is software worth presenting to you dear readers. To learn about the capabilities and practical use of the best chess software, I invite you to visit the course area. How to play chess Fortunately for us fans of this Royal Game, you don't need to read several books to play your first chess game :-) Learning to play chess is relatively easy and quick. Mastering the basics of the game will allow you to play one or more games, which is important in memorizing the chess rules. It is a good idea to simply ask someone who can play to show us the basics of chess. If we don't have such an opportunity, I suggest reading just one page of Wikipedia, where the rules of chess are described in a very simple and understandable way. Training / Practice Lucas Chess (author: Lucas Monge) is a free program that also runs on Windows systems. It should be noted that Lucas Chess is available in more than twenty different languages (!), which means with a high probability that its interface will communicate with you in your native language. Lucas Chess has many training options. Below are its main training features: From the basics (find all moves), opening (training with a book), tactics (find best move), middle game, endings to long-term trainings. As you can see in the picture above, with the Lucas Chess program, a chess enthusiast can practice all the most essential stages of chess. For an example, let's check out one of the workout options offered: Check your memory on a chessboard. We start at level 1. At the beginning of the training, we are to memorize the setting of 3 chess pieces within 18 seconds. After clicking the Start button, a chessboard with three chess pieces will be shown and the time will be counted. When 18 seconds have elapsed, the student will be asked to position the pieces according to the previously shown position. In the image below, I intentionally placed the white King on the wrong square. If the student makes a mistake, the program will display a message: If the student remembers the position of the chess pieces correctly, the program will display a message: Isn't that a pretty effective way to train your chess memory ? :-) And another example: Training positions - Singular moves to win. Level 1 (easiest) A simple win by fork. After placed black Queen to e1 square with check, training program response Kh2. Taking the white Rook. End of training in this session. Now something more difficult. After b4 and Kd7... ...White played b5. If during practice, student play a move that the program thinks is worth comparing with other possible moves to make, then Lucas Chess will display a window showing alternative continuations. In this case, instead of playing the white pawn on b5, white could have chosen an even more effective line by putting the King on c4 or beating the black pawn on c5. The other training lessons in the Lucas Chess program work on a similar principle. There are tons of material to go through and help improve areas of weakness in student gameplay. Good software for training chess! Play chess PyChess (author: Thomas Dybdahl Ahle) is a free program that also runs on Windows systems. Let's play chess! :-)) PyChess is a program with a clear, easy to understand interface. The look of the program is very elegant and inviting to start playing chess. The PyChess program interface is not overloaded with dozens of options that could be enabled in several different ways. PyChess is simply a program for playing chess offline (against a computer or human opponent) and online on the popular and established FICS (Free Internet Chess Server) and ICC (Internet Chess Club) servers. A nice addition is the ability to save and store played chess games in .PGN format files, as well as the use of chess engines e.g. to analyze chess games and give hints. So let's take a closer look at what PyChess offers. To play the first game against a computer opponent, we can choose from several chess engines installed by the author. Among other things, we have at our disposal one of the strongest versions of the Stockfish engine (SF9 - about 3300 Elo) far exceeding the playing power of any human. One of the more interesting engines is the authors PyChess.py, one of the few chess engines written in Python. I encourage you to play against this engine - good fun guaranteed! PyChess allows you to play different chess variants. The following variants are available: Atomic Crazyhouse Fischer Random/Chess 960 Losers Suicide Random and Asymmetric Random Shuffle Corner Upside Down Pawns Pushed/Passed, Pawn/Knight/Rook/Queen Odds as well as: ASEAN, Makruk, Ouk Chatrang, Sittuyin, King of the hill, 3 check, Horde, Placement. Other chess engines can be attached to PyChess. PyChess can use engines that communicate via the UCI protocol or Winboard / Xboard. This means that in PyChess program we can use virtually any chess engine prepared to work in a Linux environment. Here are some images from chessengeria's struggle with the Stockfish engine. After the game, we can choose to rematch or let the engine analyze. The result of the chess game analysis is a notation in the Annotation window along with hints and potential threats. To compete against a live opponent, it only takes a few clicks to start playing on a chess server. An interesting choice is the free FICS server, which can be tried by selecting Log on as Guest. Of course, if you want to record your progress, compete for rankings, then it is worth creating an account and logging in. When you enter FICS, the first thing you see is a window called Seeks / Challenges with a list of proposals to join the game. And this is what the window looks like while the game is in progress. Of course, we have the possibility of defining our own parameters before the start of the game, e.g. setting the time of the chess game, range of opponent's strength which the FICS server will find for us, choice of game mode (Play normal chess rules or other e.g. Fisher random, etc.). PyChess is a well-thought-out program with consistent options and an elegant easy to use interface. PyChess can be useful both for those who are new to chess and want to play a quick online game or against a computer opponent, and for those who want to use the computer to hone their chess skills - avoiding distracting the user with unnecessary options. Chess Game Annotations / Databases / Analyzes Scid vs. PC is a free program, a fork of Shane Hudson's Chess Information Database (SCID), started in 2009 by Steven Atkinson. It was also released for other operating systems: macOS, Solaris, Windows and other Unix family systems like FreeBSD, OpenBSD. In the case of Scid vs. PC, the more accessible it is - the better for us - chess players. In terms of handling chess games and databases, and engine-based analysis, Scid vs. PC is not inferior to professional and paid software. A feature of the Scid vs. PC program that is worth emphasizing is that a novice player as well as a chess expert will be able to very easily use this program adequately to their needs. Example no. 1 A beginning chess enthusiast simply needs to collect his chess games in one database, in some games he would like to add text annotations and from time to time use the chess engine hints. Example no. 2 An advanced and experienced player needs many databases of chess games in order to quickly and efficiently manage a collection of millions of records. He very often uses advanced chess notation in his games, prints games with diagrams and regularly looks for chess novelties while preparing for different and strong opponents. When analyzing many positions and games he uses different chess engines and endgame tablebases simultaneously. I invite you to watch a few pictures showing the capabilities of Scid vs. PC. Annotated chess game... ...With Comment Editor. Promoting variation. Diagram with current position. Position analysis by single chess engine: one line of analysis. Position analysis by single chess engine: main chessboard, three lines of analysis, threat suggestion, variation board. Simultaneous position analysis by two chess engines, variation boards. An analysis of the entire chess game by the chess engine, along with the annotations and variations it adds. A view of the chessboard with the last move. Selecting the type of chess database. List of tournaments from the chess database. Opening key data from a database containing over 4 million games. Player information. Player's ELO rating over time. I highly recommend trying out the Scid vs. PC program. It may become your electronic friend on every stage of your chess adventure. I invite you to visit the course area. There you will find a series of courses devoted to the Scid vs. PC program, in which the possibilities of practical use of this program are presented in great detail. Chess Engines Watching chess engines struggle Testing in different configurations and positions Organizing matches and tournaments between computer opponents Calculating rankings and creating ranking lists Advanced position analysis Examining the "strength" of different opening books Running chess computer emulators To see if the engine ( Deep Junior ), which in 2003 was able to draw with the then world chess champion ( Garry Kasparov ), today competing with the modern Stockfish engine in 100 matches, wins ... hmm, as in many games Deep Junior is able to win against Stockfish? ... All of the above and many more "computer" features can be found in the Arena - program dedicated to using chess engines. Arena is a free program by Martin Blume; development started in 2001/2002. Noteworthy is the fact that the Arena interface has been translated into 19 languages and is also available for computers using Linux and ARM architecture (e.g. for Raspberry Pi). The program is also available in a Windows version. Arena is by all means a specialized program, so users of this program will certainly enjoy Arena's help - clear and rich in content. Arena has clear and logically grouped Menus, icons with shortcuts to the most frequently used options, and... ... a chess engine installation wizard, which can be helpful especially to novice users of this program. Of particular note is the management of the installed chess engines. Arena offers access to detailed features and configuration tools for all chess engines. It supports even the oldest communication protocols, which means that you can use chess engines released many years ago. As you can see in the picture below, next to modern versions of engines like Stockfish or Komodo - we see Phalanx engine from 2012. There was, of course, no shortage of support for chess tablebases. The program doesn't impose a specific format. We can use tablebases available in different formats - which can be useful. Here's example what the window looks like where we set up the engine tournament. And below is a view of the Arena program when playing two engines against each other. It is worth knowing that after many years of development and gaining an established position in the chess engine software segment, updates to the program have been slowed down considerably. The latest version of Arena for Linux is the release dated January 19, 2020. Arena is a mature, excellent program, written by a man who is very well versed in the subject of chess engines. At the time this post was written (February 2022), the source code for Arena had not been opened and published. I sincerely hope that Arena will continue to be a developed program, which would certainly be helped by inviting the kind Linux community to further support its development. And that ends the entry about... Stop! As I was writing, the Deep Junior and Stockfish engines were fighting in the background on my computer. Dear reader, if you have been reading this post carefully, you are probably thinking what was the result of this match ? Before we get into the outcome of this exciting match, let's check out what - what chess engine - Garry Kasparov was up against in 2003. According to Wikipedia, Deep Junior in 2003 was the holder of the 2002 World Computer Chess Champion title! To determine the version of Deep Junior that Stockfish is up against, let's look at the release dates: All is clear, Stockfish should play against Junior 7. ( explanation: Deep -> means a version Junior chess engine capable of playing using the power of multiple processors ). Match parameters: for the entire game: 1 minute, 0 seconds of extra time cpu's: 4 for each engine hash table: 128MB for each engine open book: Perfect_2021 ponder: off number of games: 100 Result: Out of 100 chess games played, Deep Junior 7 has not won a single game draw 1 game lost 99 games According to Elostat, assuming Deep Junior 7 played at the 2800 ELO level, Stockfish 14.1 played at the 3400 ELO level. Below is a link to download games from that match. This is the end the entry: Tools in a chess player's workshop - Linux

In macOS, as in other systems, you can use programs for every chess enthusiast, from the beginner to the very advanced, for the correspondence chess player and the fan of competitive chess engines. This post is dedicated to adults chess players who would like to use the most interesting, useful and proven tools - programs ( not web-based tools and servers ) for various chess activities in their chess workshop - Mac operating system (macOS). My goal is not to discuss as many programs in as much detail as possible, but to demonstrate the key capabilities of the tools I have selected in relation to specific chess activities, e.g. training, analysis, database and engine use, etc. This entry will be updated on a regular basis when I feel that there is software worth presenting to you dear readers. To learn about the capabilities and practical use of the best chess software, I invite you to visit the course area. How to play chess Fortunately for us fans of this Royal Game, you don't need to read several books to play your first chess game :-) Learning to play chess is relatively easy and quick. Mastering the basics of the game will allow you to play one or more games, which is important in memorizing the chess rules. It is a good idea to simply ask someone who can play to show us the basics of chess. If we don't have such an opportunity, I suggest reading just one page of Wikipedia, where the rules of chess are described in a very simple and understandable way. Training / Practice SparkChess (authors: Media Division SRL Team) is a commercial program that also runs on Andoid, iOS, iPadOS and Windows systems. SparkChess is a very elegant program with many options for learning, training and practice. It is characterized by readability and simplicity, which does not mean that the program is poor, on the contrary. After launching, we are welcomed by a window with precisely described options to choose from. By selecting Learning, more detailed selection options appear: Once you enter the Lessons area, SparkChess offers numerous lessons that are mainly geared towards beginner chess players. So let's check out some of them. First: Promotion and En-Passant. The lessons are interactive and include commentary. The student has buttons to e.g. go back to previous comments of the program to consolidate the acquired knowledge. Another example: Tactics - Overloading. The program automatically revived the chessboard showing the correct move. At any time during the lesson, the student can use the explanations of the computer trainer. I will show this in the following item taken from the lesson discussed above. After clicking on the Analyze button... ...A menu appears after the checker containing: Control, Mobility, Attacks and Close button. Depending on which button you click, SparkChess describes the position in detail and shows important things on the chessboard with colors, When you click the Show Coach button, program show threat indicators and the directional arrows for moves. If you need a suggestion to consider, then SparkChess will show suggestions when you click the Help me button. We can change or set a different position at any time. This is a useful feature when checking different lines. When learning or practicing, SparkChess often shows useful tips. It is worth training and learning from the best... also from their mistakes. SparkChess has annotated chess games in its database. Below are screens from two different games. Not only learning and training a chess player lives :-) The program also offers the opportunity to play and test your skills against computer opponents with specific skills. To conclude the coaching capabilities of the program, SparkChess can easily explain and show on a chessboard why your move was good or bad. Visualizations highlight threats or suggest opportunities for attack. Custom position settings give the student ability to train different potential continuations with the AI commentary. I would like to emphasize that SparkChess is a very friendly program. This is a great advantage, especially for chess enthusiasts taking their first steps and for children learning the basics of the chess. Play chess with computer ( offline ) Hiarcs Chess Explorer (authors: Michal Rudolf, Mark Uniacke) is a commercial program that also runs on Windows systems. HCE ( Hiarcs Chess Explorer ) uses the Hiarcs chess engine, which won the World Computer Championship in Beijing in 2008. HCE is a program with a clear, easy to understand interface. The look of the program is very elegant and inviting to start playing chess. The interface is highly customizable, the user can use many features of the program depending on the needs. Below are two examples. Let's play chess! :-)) HCE has a unique property that allows this program to adjust the strength of the game to the level of the chess player. It is not fun and does not bring much 10 defeats in a row with a program capable of beating a World Chess Champion. HIARCS author Mark Uniacke said in video interview that one of his current development priorities is to improve HIARCS to play in a more "human way" with different Elo strengths. And it does indeed feel when playing against Hiarcs that this engine makes "very human" moves, which can be an advantage for chess players because these moves are understandable unlike the moves of other engines against which any chess player would lose any game. When selected: Match player strength, the first chess game will play against Hiarcs with a strength of 1600 ELO points (the average club player plays with this strength). Here's a view from my first game against Hiarcs. Nothing on the s is distracting, we can see the chessboard timers and game notation. Of course we can adjust the size of the windows, such as the chessboard, to suit our needs. During the game, our progress is monitored by the Coach. If he thinks we made a mistake, or that we could have made another good or interesting move, then a window is displayed with information. If we don't believe the Trainer, when we click the Show refutation button, the computer opponent's movement will be shown in an animated way. If, in the heat of the chess battle, you forget about the countdown clock, then Hiarcs will offer you the option of adding additional thinking time. In each successive chess game, Hiarcs adjusts his playing strength more and more to the level of his human opponent. He does this in such a way that each game is challenging and motivates the chess player to play better and better. After playing at least a few games, it's a good idea to check rating. The chess game is over. You would like to check the entire game for strong weak moves. Or maybe... you could play something completely different at several points in the game ? HCE has an analytics module that, like other features, can be configured at our discretion or we can use the default settings. Here's how the computer Coach annotations for one of my games. A nice and useful addition is the ability to use the electronic chess board to play with the Hiarcs Chess Explorer program. For more details, I encourage you to visit the manufacturer's website. Below is some information about what we can do after connecting electronic chessboard to Hiarcs Chess Explorer. What distinguishes HCE from most other chess programs are the detailed aids prepared by the authors. The program is easy to use, however, for the user's convenience there is a traditional help file (the size of a book), context-sensitive help available for each option that is currently used, and numerous instructional videos. Hiarcs Chess Explorer is a long-established program, developed over the last several years. Its latest version ( Hiarcs Chess Explorer Pro ) was released at the time of creating this entry. Customer support and service stands at a very high level, which is repeatedly confirmed by users on Internet forums. Hiarcs Chess Explorer is a program written by professionals, polished to the smallest detail. I highly recommend. Play chess with computer ( online ) ICC -Internet Chess Club is one of the oldest and most recognized places to play chess online. This is a commercial and extensive chess server that will provide entertainment on many chess fronts. ICC is available to play for all hardware and system platforms through its website. For the most popular ones like Mac, Windows, Mobile, etc. - provides a dedicated program to play on this server. After logging into the server, we are greeted by a program in the Lobby. We can filter and customize the view. After selecting the time for the game using the buttons at the top, the program will search for an opponent with a similar ranking. Here is the beginning of the first game played by chessengeria. As an untitled player, I was given a ranking of 1400 before the game started. The results of the first games have a big impact on the ranking. After playing just a few games, depending on the results of the games, the ranking can change by up to several hundred points. When we want to take a break from the game for a bit, we can watch other games while they are going on. During the observation, the program allows you to run the chess engine, which displays an analysis and a move suggestion. Every day we can participate in interesting events such as lessons, simulations with famous and titled players and... ...Also play in tournaments... In a very nice atmosphere :-) We also have access to a profile, statistics and a library of games played - for each ICC member. This data can be useful when, for example, preparing against a selected opponent. You can examine and analyze each completed game, make graphical annotations and use the chess engine to, for example, check our moves. When there are interesting events going on, such as the World Chess Championship Match, then ICC provides a live feed with commentary by the Masters and Grandmasters. As an ICC member, we are provided access to a database of hundreds of videos of lessons and previously covered events. ICC also offers chess training opportunities through chess coaching and... ...access to the Learning center. You can choose a teacher... ...From among several hundred Masters and Grandmasters - and sign up for online lessons. ICC is not only a place to play chess over the Internet. Being a member of Internet Chess Club we can realize our chess passion in a very wide range, meet interesting people, as well as train and learn from the best. Chess Game Annotations / Databases / Analyzes Scid vs. PC is a free program, a fork of Shane Hudson's Chess Information Database (SCID), started in 2009 by Steven Atkinson. It was also released for operating systems: Linux, Solaris, Windows and other Unix family systems like FreeBSD, OpenBSD. In the case of Scid vs. PC, the more accessible it is - the better for us - chess players. In macOS system Scid vs. PC is called Scid vs. Mac. Scid vs. Mac work the same way like Scid vs. PC on each other system. In terms of handling chess games and databases, and engine-based analysis, Scid vs. Mac is not inferior to professional and paid software. A feature of the Scid vs. Mac program that is worth emphasizing is that a novice player as well as a chess expert will be able to very easily use this program adequately to their needs. Example no. 1 A beginning chess enthusiast simply needs to collect his chess games in one database, in some games he would like to add text annotations and from time to time use the chess engine hints. Example no. 2 An advanced and experienced player needs many databases of chess games in order to quickly and efficiently manage a collection of millions of records. He very often uses advanced chess notation in his games, prints games with diagrams and regularly looks for chess novelties while preparing for different and strong opponents. When analyzing many positions and games he uses different chess engines and endgame tablebases simultaneously. I invite you to watch a few pictures showing the capabilities of Scid vs. Mac. Annotated chess game... ...With Comment Editor. Promoting variation. Diagram with current position. Position analysis by single chess engine: one line of analysis. Position analysis by single chess engine: main chessboard, three lines of analysis, threat suggestion, variation board. Simultaneous position analysis by two chess engines, variation boards. An analysis of the entire chess game by the chess engine, along with the annotations and variations it adds. A view of the chessboard with the last move. Selecting the type of chess database. List of tournaments from the chess database. Opening key data from a database containing over 4 million games. Player information. Player's ELO rating over time. I highly recommend trying out the Scid vs. Mac program. It may become your electronic friend on every stage of your chess adventure. I invite you to visit the course area. There you will find a series of courses devoted to the Scid vs. PC program, in which the possibilities of practical use of this program are presented in great detail. Chess Engines Watching chess engines struggle Testing in different configurations and positions Organizing matches and tournaments between computer opponents Calculating rankings and creating ranking lists Advanced position analysis Examining the "strength" of different opening books To see if the engine ( Deep Junior ), which in 2003 was able to draw with the then world chess champion ( Garry Kasparov ), today competing with the modern Stockfish engine in 100 matches, wins ... hmm, as in many games Deep Junior is able to win against Stockfish? ... All of the above and many more "computer" features can be found in the Banksia GUI - program dedicated to using chess engines. Banksia GUI (BSG) is a free program by Nguyen Hong Pham (Phạm Hồng Nguyên). At the moment of creating this entry (February 2022) - BSG is a very intensively developed program - updates appear regularly every few weeks/months, and the author carefully "listens" to users' opinions by having contact with them on his website and on various forums dedicated to computer chess. BSG is also available in a Windows and Linux systems. BSG is by all means a specialized program, so users of this program will surely be pleased with its ease of use, clear interface and many options for customizing the appearance. BSG has clear and logically grouped Menus, icons with shortcuts to the most frequently used options, and... ... Download tool, after opening which we can download for free and legal: Very powerful chess engines Databases of chess games Openings books Syzygy tablebases Of particular note is the management of the installed chess engines. BSG offers access to detailed features and configuration tools for all chess engines. It supports even the oldest communication protocols, which means that you can use chess engines released many years ago. As you can see in the picture below, next to modern versions of engines like Stockfish or Komodo - we see Phalanx engine from 2012. Here's example what the window looks like where we set up the engine tournament. Below is a view when playing two engines against each other. And current tournament result. With Banksia GUI you will do everything easily, quickly in a modern and highly customizable interface. I am very pleased with the active support and participation of the chess community in the development of this program. The author of Banksia GUI is open to new ideas and a nice person. The results of his work on BSG are impressive! I highly recommend using Banksia GUI. And that ends the entry about... Stop! As I was writing, the Deep Junior and Stockfish engines were fighting in the background on my computer. Dear reader, if you have been reading this post carefully, you are probably thinking what was the result of this match ? Before we get into the outcome of this exciting match, let's check out what - what chess engine - Garry Kasparov was up against in 2003. According to Wikipedia, Deep Junior in 2003 was the holder of the 2002 World Computer Chess Champion title! To determine the version of Deep Junior that Stockfish is up against, let's look at the release dates: All is clear, Stockfish should play against Junior 7. ( explanation: Deep -> means a version Junior chess engine capable of playing using the power of multiple processors ). Match parameters: for the entire game: 1 minute, 0 seconds of extra time cpu's: 4 for each engine hash table: 128MB for each engine open book: Perfect_2021 ponder: off number of games: 100 Result: Out of 100 chess games played, Deep Junior 7 has not won a single game draw 1 game lost 99 games Below is a link to download games from that match. This is the end the entry: Tools in a chess player's workshop - Mac

In this article, you can find out how to use windows engines on Mac in the same way as native ones compiled exclusively for Mac. If you are interested in using Windows and Windows software on the Mac, then I invite you to visit the article page: Mac and Windows in one house. Almost all modern chess engines are available for Mac. Starting from the strongest ones like Dragon by Komodo Chess or Berserk through RubiChess and Hiarcs, to Lc0, Shredder and Prophet. I could go on listing for a long time. Using Intel-based Macs or the latest Macs with Apple Silicon processors, computer chess enthusiasts have excellent engines and software at their disposal. Undoubtedly, today with Macs any chess player can fully realize his passion for chess. Take a look here to learn more about chess software for Macs In the past, this was not always the case. Until a few years ago, most chess engines, including the free ones, were made available only to Windows computer users. I am thinking of engines such as Houdini, Junior, which have richly written their pages in the history of computer chess, but also those less known but playing very interesting chess such as Vajolet, iCE and many others. There are many enthusiasts and fans of especially older chess engines who use mainly Macs and are interested in using these perhaps no longer the newest, but still very attractive chess engines. That it's not only a kind of nostalgia (Houdini the long-time dominator of the top spots on the ranking lists), it's also a desire to use engines that play in a beautiful and unique style (Junior, Vajolet) understandable to.... human. This article is in response to the many questions I have received about using Windows engines in the same way as native ones compiled exclusively for Mac. I would like to take this opportunity to wholeheartedly thank user Hasimir, whose 2014 forum post inspired me to take action to use Windows chess engines on a Mac. Admittedly, in his post Hasimir focused on 32-bit engines, however the idea of using 64-bit engines on modern Macs - has not significant changed. Thanks! Before we get into the details, some important information. This article will describe how to use 64-bit windows chess engines on a Mac. However, the way to deal with 32-bit windows engines is analogous, albeit requiring an older Mac with a processor that supports 32-bit programs. See the paragraph describing the Wine program for details. Knowing how, installing windows chess engine on Mac is very easy. In order to use the windows chess engine/s, we will use a free software called Wine 7.0 to do so. Using Wine 7.0, not every windows chess engine will allow itself to run. Such engines, the more recognizable ones, include Rybka, SlowChess and Rebel, for example. With Wine 7.0, many chess engines can be used just as on Windows; these include Junior, Houdini, Vajolet, iCE, Uralochka, Revenge and others. Due to the evolution of Wine software, it is possible that in the future it will be able to use other chess engines such as Fritz, Chiron, for example, which do not currently run on Wine 7.0. I would like to emphasize that I do not give any guarantee, commitment that a particular chess engine will work on the Mac you use. The Wine program is being developed all the time and still does not ensure that every windows chess engine will run on a macOS computer. Since Wine has been a freely available software for many years, it can be installed on a Mac in several ways, such as through the Crossover application or MacPorts project. In this article, in order to keep things as simple as possible with free software, we will use the installation of Wine through brew package manager. What do you need ? 1. Internet connection. 2. Basic skills in using the Mac's Terminal program. If you don't know anything about the Terminal program, then before you go any further, I suggest that you first get that necessary but small dose of basic knowledge that is widely available on the Internet. 3. Xcode Command Line Tools. On your Mac, it is most likely already installed. After typing the command: xcode-select --version You can check if this package is installed and in what version. If you need to install or upgrade Xcode Command Line Tools, just type the following commands: xcode-select --install In the window that appears, click on the Install button. Xcode Command Line Tools is a free suite of tools. If you agree with the License, then click Agree. Now the download and installation will take place. Depending on the speed of your Internet connection, the process will take about a few minutes. 4. Wine program. Wine (originally acronym for "Wine Is Not an Emulator") is a free compatibility layer capable of running Windows applications on your Mac. " Instead of simulating internal Windows logic like a virtual machine or emulator, Wine translates Windows API calls into POSIX calls on-the-fly, eliminating the performance and memory penalties of other methods and allowing you to cleanly integrate Windows applications into your desktop. " Source: Wine Wine is an amazing piece of software that, in addition to allowing us to use Windows engines, will provide their native-like speed ( see MCERL and the ranking achieved by Stockfish 15 (Wine) ). First we need free software called brew, which we will next use to install Wine. Type: /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)" Confirm the brew installation by entering your Mac account password. Confirm to continue by pressing the Enter key. After some time, the installation of the brew will be completed. Next steps: type the following three commands that will appear on your Terminal program. After each by pressing Enter. In this case, the following commands appeared on my Terminal for input: echo '# Set PATH, MANPATH, etc., for Homebrew.' >> /Users/chessengeria/.zprofile echo 'eval "$(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)"' >> /Users/chessengeria/.zprofile eval "$(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)" Now we're going to install Wine. The brew program will check your computer before installing Wine and correctly select the latest stable Wine package to use on your Mac. Type in Terminal: brew install --cask wine-stable After the time it takes to brew a cup of coffee, Wine will be installed ;) Let's check what version of Wine has been installed. When you click on the Launchpad icon, an icon named Wine Stable should appear. After clicking on the Wine Stable icon, a window with information will open. A stable version of Wine numbered 7.0 was installed on my Mac. My Mac uses a 64-bit processor, so Wine is ready to run 64-bit chess engines. Currently (October 2022) it is not possible to run 32-bit engines via Wine on a Mac with a 64-bit processor. If you install Wine on a Mac with a 32-bit processor, then you can only use 32-bit chess engines. Congratulations!! You have done well to prepare your Mac to run the first windows chess engine. Now it's time for the most pleasant activity of the whole process - choosing a windows chess engine :) ..... .......... ................ ..................... Alright, I choose Vajolet :) You can find more information about this engine on its website. Vajolet is a free UCI chess engine, and you can download it from here. Once downloaded, the Vajolet engine should be visible in the Downloads directory. To run the Vajolet chess engine in Terminal, you must point to the correct path to the Wine program. By default, 64bit Wine is installed in: /opt/homebrew/bin/wine64 To check this, type the command in Terminal: which wine64 As you can see in the image below, on my Mac wine64 is located in the default location. If wine64 is located in a different directory on your computer, then you will need to provide the correct path to this program. Good. You know what the path to wine64 is. In terminal, type the path to wine 64 /opt/homebrew/bin/wine64 Now, press the spacebar and drag the Vajolet chess engine icon to the Terminal After dragging, the command in Terminal should look like this: Pay attention, please. When you press enter, Wine will be launched for the first time, along with the necessary configuration. A lot of messages will appear. Don't worry about it. This is normal. The configuration of the Wine program will happen only once. After the Wine setup is complete, you may see a window with this information: Press Cancel. The Vajolet engine will be started. To approve running Vajolet engine in macOS, you only need to go to System Preferences - Security & Privacy once and press Allow Anyway. Return to Terminal and type quit. There will be a close of the Vajolet engine. After typing the commands to start Vajolet again, press enter, and you will finally see Vajolet running - this time without any Wine configuration messages. Type: uci and press Enter Vajolet reports readiness for work. The way I've shown above, you can prepare the windows chess engine of your choice to work on macOS. Note! Let me remind you that not every windows chess engine can be run through Wine. Using windows chess engine in dedicated software. BanksiaGUI I mainly use for matches and tournaments between chess engines. Banksia is a very stable and easy to use GUI. Almost 100 different chess engines that I have installed support Banksia - including the windows ones. To add a windows chess engine, fill in the fields of the Add Engine window as follows: After click OK button, if you do everything right, then Vajolet will be included in the list of available engines in BanksiaGUI. From this point on, you can use Vajolet or any other windows chess engine in BanksiaGUI in the same way as other engines for Mac. Example: a match between the Vajolet and Velvet engines. Of course, Banksia allows you to edit the engine name. I took advantage of this possibility and added the addition (Wine) to the name of windows engines. Hiarcs Chess Explorer and Hiarcs Chess Explorer Pro To use the windows chess engine in Hiarcs, you need to prepare an executable file to run the engine of your choice, in this case Vajolet. 1. In any text editor, such as TextEdit, which is available on any Mac, create a file named Engine.cc. The name of the file can be anything else. 2. Type or paste the following code into the file: #include #include int main() { system("/opt/homebrew/bin/wine64 /Users/chessengeria/Downloads/Vajolet2_2.8.exe"); } Close the Engine.cc file by saving it to a location of your choice (eg. Downloads). 3. Open the Terminal program. Go to the location where you saved the Engine.cc file and then type the following commands: g++ Engine.cc -o Vajolet2-2.8 (Enter) After a few seconds of compilation, a file named Vajolet2-2.8 will be created. To make this file executable, we will give it the appropriate attribute through the command: chmod +x Vajolet2-2.8 Now we can introduce the Vajolet chess engine into the Hiarcs program. Programs from the Hiarcs Chess Explorer family do an excellent job of analysis. Scid vs. Mac In the same way as for Hiarcs, also for Scid or Scid vs. Mac, we prepare an executable file and point the path to it in the chess engine configuration window. Vajolet in action: A few words of summary. It is nice to use well-known and well-liked chess engines :) I'm very happy that modern technology makes it possible to use the software on different operating systems. I hope that you, dear reader, will also benefit from the knowledge I have provided in this article. In the meantime, I invite you to visit the MCERL (chess engines rating list), where you can see how windows chess engines running on a Mac are doing.

On various online forums and discussion groups for computer chess enthusiasts, very often the topics discussed are mainly about the strongest chess engines. The ones with the top of the top. When the strength of one of these chess monsters increases by 5 or 10 Elo, a significant part of the Internet community welcomes this state of affairs. When Lc0 wins against Stockfish, or Stockfish wins against Lc0, another interesting topic of conversation arises for many participants in these debates... Well, that is about ok. But.... what about those chess engines that have not reached such a high level of strength or will never reach it? What about older chess engines, What about engines that are 10, 15 or even 20 years old? Have they become quite... useless ? Such a nice picture of chess Rook At Chessengeria.eu we appreciate all chess engines, we appreciate the work of all Chess Developers, especially those who make their engines available to as many users and the chess community as possible. It is worth noting that before the engines started playing with a strength of 3000 Elo and higher, it took several decades to reach such a level; all this effort was the result of the work of countless talented Creators from all over the world. The Oldie Goldie series aims to showcase these magnificent chess engines – products of human creativity, which, although older by their age, still manage to delight and be useful. The Gullydeckel chess engine is no different, although it is not as strong, well-known and successful. It is not an engine that plays at the level of 3000 Elo, it does not even play at the level of Grandmaster. More! It doesn't come close to the Master level! Source: MCERL (ongoing) I chose Gullydeckel deliberately to show that an engine more than 20 years old can be.... well, just what? :) I invite you to read the rest of this post to find out what a chess engine playing at around 2000 Elo level can offer. Before we go further, let me add that Gullydeckel is a chess engine by Mr. Martin Borriss, open source under the GPL. It's a wonderful exception from decades ago, when its author was one of the really few to make the source code available (a very rare practice in those days). Gullydeckel, although originally written to run on computers using Linux and Windows, is written in such an elegant and accessible way that it has enabled me to prepare binaries for modern Linux arm64 and also Mac (Intel & Apple Silicon) computers. Ok, to answer the title question, let's see the game between Gullydeckel 2.16.pl2 (white) and Cinnamon 2.0 (black)*. Cinnamon 2.0 is an engine that, according to MCERL, plays with the strength of a champion candidate and holds a 2158 Elo ranking. Objectively, Gullydeckel plays with a strength about 100 Elo lower, however, this will not prevent a quite interesting game - by both computer players. On the chessboard we see a position after already 31 moves, formed after the Spanish opening, a closed variant. Usually, the continued play after this opening is characterized more by strategic maneuvers than open tactical plays. With 31 moves behind us, there is still a lot of material left on the chessboard. With painstaking maneuvers, Black has developed a clear advantage: their Rook penetrates the first line, the Knight occupies the excellent c5 square and they have a pair of Bishops that can pose quite a threat in retrospect. The Whites seem a bit overwhelmed by the developments, their Bishop plays the role of Pawn.... on the first line, it is so limited in its moves, the b2 pawn seems to be in a lost position. Before Gullydeckel the difficult task of saving this game. 32.Nd5 Typical Knight play when there is an opportunity. White provokes an exchange. 33.Rxd5 Exchange made, white places its Rook on d5. Is this a good square for a heavy piece ? 33...f5? Obviously not 33...Qxb2 because of 34.Bc3. The movement of the black pawn on f5 is unfortunately late, it is a mistake. Probably the idea was to block the white Queen by planning to play ...f4 or to bring about an exchange on f5 in order to weaken the d5 square where the white Rook is located. A calm 33...Nd7 with another Nf6 was the best to threaten Rook d5. 34...Qb7? White eagerly agreed to the exchange on the f5 square. Cinnamon, in response, sets the black Queen on b7 hoping to put pressure on the “weakened” Rook d5. Unfortunately, this is another mistake, which on the next move allows white to seize the initiative and reverse the fortunes of this game. 35.Rxc5! Gullydeckel decided (rightly) that d5 was not the best square for Rook, and it would make no sense to go back; white sacrifices Rook for a strong black Knight. 36.Bd2 Let's assess the situation on the chessboard. The white pieces are finally starting to play like a good orchestra. Thanks to the activation of the white Bishop, all the dark squares – are weak squares. Cooperation with the white Queen will allow Gullydeckel to penetrate deep into the black camp. 38.Qh6+- White poses a checkmate threat. 40...Bxb2 Cinnamon finally takes Pawn b2, although it won't do anything to improve its situation. 41.Nxe4! The White Knight is untouchable. If black takes it, then in two moves their King will be checkmated. Nothing more can save black from defeat in this game. 45.g7 The orchestra of the whites plays triumphantly. Despite the resistance put up by black, their end is near. 48.Qg6 Cinnamon is unable to avoid the checkmate. 52.h7# Nice Pawn checkmate. Did you like this game Dear Reader ? Although it was not without fat errors, I think that the style in which Gullydeckel won could be enjoyed. Gullydeckel and other chess engines playing at this and similar levels, may not be the best for conducting analysis and looking for, for example, novelties in chess openings or finding clever solutions in endings. Instead... It can be a cool and interesting sparring partner who plays quite natural chess and sometimes allows himself inaccuracies, mistakes but also able to play nicely and strongly! As part of the MCERL games, I let Gullydeckel play several hundred games, and a good number of them I really enjoyed! Gullydeckel, is a cool chess engine, an exciting return to the past that can provide a lot of fun. Like most engines of yesteryear, Gullydeckel does not support the UCI protocol, but communicates well via the CECP (XBoard/WinBoard) protocol. To use Gullydeckel in a program that does not support the CECP protocol (e.g. Fritz), you need to use the appropriate adapter (author Odd Gunnar Malin). This is a free tool, see the zip archive below for details. Feel free to download the Gullydeckel chess engine. Linux arm64 – Compiled by Darius Linux x32 – Compiled by Martin Borriss Mac Apple Silicon & Intel – Compiled by Darius Windows x32 – Compiled by Martin Borriss * Diagrams created in the Hiarcs Chess Explorer Pro with custom pieces and board theme.

Rating hundreds chess engines for Macs :) I encourage you to read the latest issue of MCERL.

New engines, new versions and on top of that - beautiful chess games! I encourage you to read the latest issue of MCERL.