An engine for beginners?

[Andres Valverde]

I would give a try to Glass 1.6

http://www.koziol.home.pl/marittima/glass/index.htm

it has a very well tested weakening system

[hgm]

Usurpator II and micro-Max 1.6 could be in that range. If they are too strong you could try Toledo nanoChess.

[fluviumque]

I'm currently using Crafty. You add a "skill=15" command to it's config file. You can use it in Arena. It's using the time controls. This is important, because AFAIK strong engines weakened by the uci elo options immediately move. Not sure though.

[JVMerlino]

CM is probably the best at playing down to yr level. not dropping a rook etc. it's also a steal, the latest version can be had for prob 10 bucks. u get great tutorials, great personalities, & a very strong tactical engine.

Be careful of any version after CM9000. Some of the analysis features, particularly the "Mentor Lines" window, are broken. So if those features are important to you, and you can do without the new tutorial content in CMX and CMGM, I would try to find a copy of CM9.

jm

[JVMerlino]

I'm currently using Crafty. You add a "skill=15" command to it's config file. You can use it in Arena. It's using the time controls. This is important, because AFAIK strong engines weakened by the uci elo options immediately move. Not sure though.

It is my humble opinion that playing against engines that move instantly is a good training tool. I have seen many Masters lose to the Lacey personality in Chessmaster, and she is rated only about 1300. But she moves instantly and appears (on the surface) to never blunder. So it trains you to not get flustered and look for the combinations that she missed.

jm

[fluviumque]

Hey, the Glass' weakening and personality system looks great, and it's well documented! And well integrated into the Arena UCI GUIs engine options.
Can I make it make use of the chosen time controls? Currently it immediately makes it's move.

[fluviumque]

It is my humble opinion that playing against engines that move instantly is a good training tool. I have seen many Masters lose to the Lacey personality in Chessmaster, and she is rated only about 1300. But she moves instantly and appears (on the surface) to never blunder. So it trains you to not get flustered and look for the combinations that she missed.

May be a valid point, but I play for fun only and I wish to have that "feels like against a human opponent" feeling...

[JVMerlino]

It is my humble opinion that playing against engines that move instantly is a good training tool. I have seen many Masters lose to the Lacey personality in Chessmaster, and she is rated only about 1300. But she moves instantly and appears (on the surface) to never blunder. So it trains you to not get flustered and look for the combinations that she missed.

May be a valid point, but I play for fun only and I wish to have that "feels like against a human opponent" feeling...

Perfectly valid point as well.

jm

[hgm]

This should be a GUI optition, really: -maskTimeOdds true|false. When you then would set the time odds for an engine to 100, in order to dumb it down a little, you could have the GUI delay the engine move by sleeping 99 times as long as the engine had actually been thinking, before processing the move.

[fluviumque]

It is my humble opinion that playing against engines that move instantly is a good training tool. I have seen many Masters lose to the Lacey personality in Chessmaster, and she is rated only about 1300. But she moves instantly and appears (on the surface) to never blunder. So it trains you to not get flustered and look for the combinations that she missed.

May be a valid point, but I play for fun only and I wish to have that "feels like against a human opponent" feeling...

Perfectly valid point as well.

OK, I've seen Glas is fully dependent on the search depth. Some of the braindead personalities use a max depth of 8 or less, i.e. it moves immediately. I set the max depth to 100 now; still there are enough options to weaken it.