Lucaschess: a program with increasing level of difficulty

Discussion of anything and everything relating to chess playing software and machines.

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pocopito
Posts: 238
Joined: Tue Jul 12, 2011 1:31 pm

Lucaschess: a program with increasing level of difficulty

Post by pocopito »

Hi all

This is my first post in this forum. I'm not sure whether an introduction is appropriate or not (as well as the real topic itself), so just in case I'll proceed to (a short) one: my chess and programming skills are medium, and my approach to chess engines has more to do with the one of a chess amateur than a programmer. From time to time I like to test different engines in my computer (btw, I usually use scid under a linux distro ). For example I find it's funny to see how different engines "behave" in the same position, specially in the hard anti-comp ones.

And the topic itself: it's about a program directed to play against chess engines by increasing the difficulty gradually, depending on the player's strength and improvement. Of course it's not a new idea, but I guess it's done in a nice way. The program can be found here (only available for Windows, but so far it works fine in feddora-15 + wine).

http://lucaschess.host22.com/


Hope you find it interesting and enjoy it, and thanks to all the people who participate in this forum: it's a really nice way to improve my (little) knowledge about this topic.

Cheers

E Diaz


PS: I made a search in the forum before writing this post and got no results related to lucaschess. I hope I did the search properly and I'm not wasting your time :)
PS': I hope my English is good enough to get this post to be (if not completely correct, at least) intelligible
Roger Brown
Posts: 782
Joined: Wed Mar 08, 2006 9:22 pm

Re: Lucaschess: a program with increasing level of difficult

Post by Roger Brown »

pocopito wrote:Hi all

This is my first post in this forum. I'm not sure whether an introduction is appropriate or not (as well as the real topic itself), so just in case I'll proceed to (a short) one: my chess and programming skills are medium, and my approach to chess engines has more to do with the one of a chess amateur than a programmer. From time to time I like to test different engines in my computer (btw, I usually use scid under a linux distro ). For example I find it's funny to see how different engines "behave" in the same position, specially in the hard anti-comp ones.

And the topic itself: it's about a program directed to play against chess engines by increasing the difficulty gradually, depending on the player's strength and improvement. Of course it's not a new idea, but I guess it's done in a nice way. The program can be found here (only available for Windows, but so far it works fine in feddora-15 + wine).

http://lucaschess.host22.com/


Hope you find it interesting and enjoy it, and thanks to all the people who participate in this forum: it's a really nice way to improve my (little) knowledge about this topic.

Cheers

E Diaz


PS: I made a search in the forum before writing this post and got no results related to lucaschess. I hope I did the search properly and I'm not wasting your time :)
PS': I hope my English is good enough to get this post to be (if not completely correct, at least) intelligible



Hello E. Diaz,

Welcome.

Your post is on topic and your English is far above merely intelligible.

Later.
gerold
Posts: 10121
Joined: Thu Mar 09, 2006 12:57 am
Location: van buren,missouri

Re: Lucaschess: a program with increasing level of difficult

Post by gerold »

Nice. Thanks E Diaz.

Best,
Gerold.
lukasmonk
Posts: 45
Joined: Sun Feb 07, 2010 7:35 pm
Location: Spain

Re: Lucaschess: a program with increasing level of difficult

Post by lukasmonk »

Thank you very much E.
A little free publicity is always welcome.:D

Cheers
Lucas
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Don
Posts: 5106
Joined: Tue Apr 29, 2008 4:27 pm

Re: Lucaschess: a program with increasing level of difficult

Post by Don »

pocopito wrote:Hi all

This is my first post in this forum. I'm not sure whether an introduction is appropriate or not (as well as the real topic itself), so just in case I'll proceed to (a short) one: my chess and programming skills are medium, and my approach to chess engines has more to do with the one of a chess amateur than a programmer. From time to time I like to test different engines in my computer (btw, I usually use scid under a linux distro ). For example I find it's funny to see how different engines "behave" in the same position, specially in the hard anti-comp ones.

And the topic itself: it's about a program directed to play against chess engines by increasing the difficulty gradually, depending on the player's strength and improvement. Of course it's not a new idea, but I guess it's done in a nice way. The program can be found here (only available for Windows, but so far it works fine in feddora-15 + wine).

http://lucaschess.host22.com/


Hope you find it interesting and enjoy it, and thanks to all the people who participate in this forum: it's a really nice way to improve my (little) knowledge about this topic.

Cheers

E Diaz


PS: I made a search in the forum before writing this post and got no results related to lucaschess. I hope I did the search properly and I'm not wasting your time :)
PS': I hope my English is good enough to get this post to be (if not completely correct, at least) intelligible
Welcome to the forum E.

Don
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pocopito
Posts: 238
Joined: Tue Jul 12, 2011 1:31 pm

Re: Lucaschess: a program with increasing level of difficult

Post by pocopito »

Hi Lucas

Well, you know, I just thought it was time for you to start making big money out of your program... oh, wait, it's free!!
(btw, and related to freedom, in your page there is a note saying that all its content is licensed under gpl, and I assumed it includes the program itself: is it right?)

On the other hand, and taking the opportunity of your presence here, although lucaschess seems to run pretty nice on my linux desktop under wine, do you have in mind any intention to make a linux version? (just asking)

Cheers and thanks for your program :)
lukasmonk
Posts: 45
Joined: Sun Feb 07, 2010 7:35 pm
Location: Spain

Re: Lucaschess: a program with increasing level of difficult

Post by lukasmonk »

The program is GPL, and that's because I started using the PyQt library, which has this license.

Regarding Linux, the biggest problem is to prepare a list of engines of similar strength to those now. Same for Mac.
The program code would be very similar in all three systems, Windows, Mac and Linux. Only small changes would be needed.

Now, this is the list of engines with its elo :
  • 1538 - Tarrasch ToyEngine Beta V0.905
    2184 - Bikjump 2.01 (32-bit)
    2218 - Clarabit 1.00
    2368 - Chispa 4.0.3
    2503 - Gaia 3.5
    2588 - Umko 0.7
    2625 - Garbochess 2.20
    2645 - Ufim 8.02
    2766 - Alaric 707
    2781 - Daydreamer 1.75 JA
    2870 - Glaurung 2.2 JA
    2930 - Toga II 1.4.1SE JA
    3015 - Rybka 2.3.2a 32-bit
    3113 - Komodo 2.03 JA
    3137 - Stockfish 2.1.1 JA
    3155 - Critter 1.2 32bits
Cheers
Lucas
K I Hyams
Posts: 3584
Joined: Fri Mar 31, 2006 11:21 pm

Re: Lucaschess: a program with increasing level of difficult

Post by K I Hyams »

lukasmonk wrote:The program is GPL, and that's because I started using the PyQt library, which has this license.

Regarding Linux, the biggest problem is to prepare a list of engines of similar strength to those now. Same for Mac.
The program code would be very similar in all three systems, Windows, Mac and Linux. Only small changes would be needed.

Now, this is the list of engines with its elo :
  • 1538 - Tarrasch ToyEngine Beta V0.905
    2184 - Bikjump 2.01 (32-bit)
    2218 - Clarabit 1.00
    2368 - Chispa 4.0.3
    2503 - Gaia 3.5
    2588 - Umko 0.7
    2625 - Garbochess 2.20
    2645 - Ufim 8.02
    2766 - Alaric 707
    2781 - Daydreamer 1.75 JA
    2870 - Glaurung 2.2 JA
    2930 - Toga II 1.4.1SE JA
    3015 - Rybka 2.3.2a 32-bit
    3113 - Komodo 2.03 JA
    3137 - Stockfish 2.1.1 JA
    3155 - Critter 1.2 32bits
Cheers
Lucas
I just downloaded it and took a quick look. I once put together a similar sort of thing, based on Winboard, as a present for the child of a friend of mine. Your program seems much much better, in a different league to my hack.

I doubt that the lad for whom I assembled the program would still be interested however I know a man who teaches chess to American schoolchildren who may well have a use for it.
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hgm
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Location: Amsterdam
Full name: H G Muller

Re: Lucaschess: a program with increasing level of difficult

Post by hgm »

Well, on the low end there would be HoiChess, Fairy-Max, GNU Chess.
Mincho Georgiev
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Location: Bulgaria

Re: Lucaschess: a program with increasing level of difficult

Post by Mincho Georgiev »

I wish you best and I sincerely admire people who actually are playing with their own engines!