Chess for Android: version 6.1.1

[adams161]

I did relay to Ruy and Charles at ICC abik that i'd assume you weren't ready to commit to anything but you might think about it particularly after all the work on Chess for Android becoming a FICS client done recently but Ruy the COO was excited anyway and I thought i'd share what he said. Ruy is the guy who decided to turn checkers back on.

Hi Mike!
Sounds quite interesting, and indeed we have no problem if he wants to use ICC for guest play.
We can give him technical assistance as well if needed. Keep us posted!

[abik]

that i realize what you've done, adding fics support o chess for android, was considerable work. And unless your retired or on vacation you may not jump to start another major task next week. Mainly wanted to plant the idea that the style 12 fics support and for chess and what you could do with checkers are similar. I of course dont expect you to jump to commit to take on such a task over night.

Hi Mike,

Thanks for all the information, and your enthusiasm for projects like this, which I warmly share! And it's true, writing client code for Chess for Android from scratch was a lot of work, and I often tell myself to take a small break from the project after a task like this, only to find myself busy again with the next idea or feature request

I indeed do like the FICS team, but I also don't mind supporting ICC or another server for either chess or checkers or both if there is a demand for that. Since I already wrote style12-based client code, I expect adding a very closely related protocol will be not too much work.

If you don't mind, can you please put me in contact with the right people for this through PM?

Thanks, and please let me know when you beat my checkers game!
Aart

[adams161]

Great to hear. Sent the PM. Now i got to get back to my pulsar work with open PGN and engine analysis.

Crazy day yesterday but i have such days now and then get caught up on an idea i'm interested in.

We'll see about that checkers program. First thing i need to do is maybe drop it down from level 2 to level 1

Mike

[abik]

Great to hear. Sent the PM. Now i got to get back to my pulsar work with open PGN and engine analysis.
Crazy day yesterday but i have such days now and then get caught up on an idea i'm interested in.

Thanks! Good luck with your program!

[gbtami]

Just let you know that PyChess has FICS (block mode) and ICC (datagram style protocol) support at https://github.com/pychess/pychess/tree ... pychess/ic
Feel free to borrow any code/ideas from there

[adams161]

Thanks, and please let me know when you beat my checkers game!
Aart

I gave checkers for android another go tonight. Initially i was going to set it to level 1 from level 2. Level 2 is one second. Level 1 said "fast". I wasn't sure i wanted a fast game. So i tried free play. Now i quickly realized i could move for both sides. White was winning initally but though he had more points he was not converting to kings. Black had a path to king and started to win and won.

Emboldened by this i tried random(0) seconds and managed a win.

I was able to share the game with OpeningTree my android app. Now openingtree couldnt parse the game and had no moves but show game data menu option worked and i screen shotted the game. Apparently copy text wasn't working in OpeningTree. Now one funny thing is it said 1-0 but black was the guy who won. Maybe that was just the color since i did move first



And here is the board where i won.



great fun.

Mike

[adams161]

I did test the seek pairing I mentioned earlier. Logged in a guest on another copy of lantern and we both typed seek 5 0 u w30 0-9999 and the second time it was typed it started a game with us. Like seeks challenge the earlier seek. Now it could still not start if they have formula or manual accept but guests games would all start.

w30 is part of the seek for wild 30 or checkers, https://www.chessclub.com/help/checkers

This is lantern's checkers UI on ICC by the way, me in examine mode. There's a choice of white and black pieces as well.



Mike

[abik]

Emboldened by this i tried random(0) seconds and managed a win.

Thanks for the game!

Note that random really means random. The GUI just replies with an arbitrary valid move. In order to claim true victory against the engine, you will need to beat Level 1 (fast), which replies very quickly, but still uses the engine.

Now one funny thing is it said 1-0 but black was the guy who won.

In Checkers PDN, 1-0 means black wins, since black indeed moves first. One of those interesting differences you find out when implementing other games. Did you, for example, know that a Reversi board uses algebraic notation, but then transposed (top left is A1, bottom right is H8)? Really messes up the orientation of the seasoned chess player.... And of course checkers notation takes a while to get used to as well.

But all my apps now support exporting the game in a PGN-flavored fashion (PGN for chess, PDN for checkers, and something like PGN for reversi, I am not sure if there is an official standard).

[abik]

Just let you know that PyChess has FICS (block mode) and ICC (datagram style protocol) support at https://github.com/pychess/pychess/tree ... pychess/ic
Feel free to borrow any code/ideas from there

Thanks for the offer and I certainly will ask high level questions if needed. But all source code in Chess for Android is written from scratch (and in Java since it is Android), even if that means reinventing the wheel. This is part of the hobby for me (I am sure many on this forum share that sentiment). So far, I had most fun implementing the protocols for the e-boards (figuring out what bytes to send, and what to expect back) and probably the least fun with the client code (so many things can go wrong with a connection....).

[adams161]

Thanks, and please let me know when you beat my checkers game!
Aart

I've determined that the level progression just starts out to hard for those of us trying easy or level one. I"ve played online in two periods. One at the Microsoft gaming zone in early 2000s. I played online some when we had the checkers pool a few years ago. I've now played like 30-40 games vs your easy AI and not won one. Now i've always been able to beat players online even if i dont win the majority against a player and a few i cant beat

Maybe it's fine for slightly more advance checkers players who know an opening. But it be nice to see some level progression for a guy who doesn't really know an opening and wings it. My best game so far i got down at end one king to two kings. I avoided the traps and being jumped mostly. But it did a better job of blocking me from kinging and kinged first.

My pulsar is a challenging program. But i put some effort into an easy level that is beatable by all but the most amateur players. Perhaps consider fixed depth searches as even a fraction of a second on a modern CPU can get depth 6 or 7 sometimes or more and if you tested online you might find that is enough for 1700 or 2000 which is not so easy for many. 1200 is more easy these days for a club guy like me. It may seem like depth 6 is easy now-a-days with stockfish getting depth 25 but thinking 6 moves ahead is a lot for an opponent against a player on easy.

I tried to play on an older tablet with a weaker cpu and i want looking at the depth but saw once depth 8 i think. Now i try my Nexus and it's getting depth 12-13. Thats not really that easy Maybe implment a fixed depth search menu Determine how much depth it needs not to be just dumb and start there in addition to timed games. Timed games are less reliable anyway as modern cpus are quite strong. if you're worried it will be to dumb in endgames one thing i do is count pieces. if down to an endgame level maybe bump the depth up.