Chest for Linux

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

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zullil
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Re: Chest for Linux

Post by zullil »

Look wrote: Fri Sep 13, 2019 1:08 pm
Dann Corbit wrote: Fri Sep 13, 2019 5:48 am Arena runs on Linux
Shredder GUI runs on Linux
I guess that there are a lot more besides those already mentioned
There could be many. But I tried Arena GUI in windows and it has some delay and other problems. Shredder GUI is old. And so on. What GUI I want on linux ? A GUI with many features like ChessBase GUI in windows with :
  • Mega Database.
  • Fast And responsive.
  • Ability to install any UCI engine.
  • Powerful game search.
  • Annotated games.
  • Opening books.
  • Many types of board and pieces displayed.
  • And so on.
http://chessx.sourceforge.net/

Have you looked at this?
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MikeB
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Re: Chest for Linux

Post by MikeB »

Look wrote: Fri Sep 13, 2019 5:18 pm
hgm wrote: Fri Sep 13, 2019 5:07 pm Well, XBoard does most of that. Except the mega database; the database and game search functions would get a bit slow above 40k games. To handle larger databases there is SCID.
As a training tool I would add :
  • Advanced replay training. Like that featured in ChessBase 15 and even better.
Chessbase is a commercial product that is good value for the money. Xboard is provided pro bono at an even better value value for the money since it is free , of course that means no one is getting paid to make xBoard better for you. Of course one is always free to make it better for themselves and at the same time share it back with the community. Joe Ellis does that with Matefinder and Crystal, HGM did that / does that with xBoard, so normally if someone want to improve something that is free, get on the bandwagon and start working on it.
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Look
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Re: Chest for Linux

Post by Look »

zullil wrote: Fri Sep 13, 2019 5:29 pm
Look wrote: Fri Sep 13, 2019 1:08 pm
Dann Corbit wrote: Fri Sep 13, 2019 5:48 am Arena runs on Linux
Shredder GUI runs on Linux
I guess that there are a lot more besides those already mentioned
There could be many. But I tried Arena GUI in windows and it has some delay and other problems. Shredder GUI is old. And so on. What GUI I want on linux ? A GUI with many features like ChessBase GUI in windows with :
  • Mega Database.
  • Fast And responsive.
  • Ability to install any UCI engine.
  • Powerful game search.
  • Annotated games.
  • Opening books.
  • Many types of board and pieces displayed.
  • And so on.
http://chessx.sourceforge.net/

Have you looked at this?
Sorry , it is for some time that I can not download from sourceforge.net .
Farewell.
zullil
Posts: 6442
Joined: Tue Jan 09, 2007 12:31 am
Location: PA USA
Full name: Louis Zulli

Re: Chest for Linux

Post by zullil »

Look wrote: Fri Sep 13, 2019 5:45 pm
zullil wrote: Fri Sep 13, 2019 5:29 pm
Look wrote: Fri Sep 13, 2019 1:08 pm
Dann Corbit wrote: Fri Sep 13, 2019 5:48 am Arena runs on Linux
Shredder GUI runs on Linux
I guess that there are a lot more besides those already mentioned
There could be many. But I tried Arena GUI in windows and it has some delay and other problems. Shredder GUI is old. And so on. What GUI I want on linux ? A GUI with many features like ChessBase GUI in windows with :
  • Mega Database.
  • Fast And responsive.
  • Ability to install any UCI engine.
  • Powerful game search.
  • Annotated games.
  • Opening books.
  • Many types of board and pieces displayed.
  • And so on.
http://chessx.sourceforge.net/

Have you looked at this?
Sorry , it is for some time that I can not download from sourceforge.net .
It's available in many linux distros.
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Look
Posts: 364
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Location: Iran
Full name: Mehdi Amini

Re: Chest for Linux

Post by Look »

MikeB wrote: Fri Sep 13, 2019 5:37 pm
Look wrote: Fri Sep 13, 2019 5:18 pm
hgm wrote: Fri Sep 13, 2019 5:07 pm Well, XBoard does most of that. Except the mega database; the database and game search functions would get a bit slow above 40k games. To handle larger databases there is SCID.
As a training tool I would add :
  • Advanced replay training. Like that featured in ChessBase 15 and even better.
Chessbase is a commercial product that is good value for the money. Xboard is provided pro bono at an even better value value for the money since it is free , of course that means no one is getting paid to make xBoard better for you. Of course one is always free to make it better for themselves and at the same time share it back with the community. Joe Ellis does that with Matefinder and Crystal, HGM did that / does that with xBoard, so normally if someone want to improve something that is free, get on the bandwagon and start working on it.
I have almost no graphics coding experience in programming language that I know (C). So it takes time to learn it. Also I think the "replay training" feature is relatively easy to code and extremely beneficial to chess players. If I just look at a replay game in a fast pace , I suppose the moves are easy and trivial. But they are not in general. Following the footsteps of a world champion through history of chess , can teach one invaluable lessons.
Farewell.
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Look
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Full name: Mehdi Amini

Re: Chest for Linux

Post by Look »

zullil wrote: Fri Sep 13, 2019 5:52 pm
Look wrote: Fri Sep 13, 2019 5:45 pm
zullil wrote: Fri Sep 13, 2019 5:29 pm
Look wrote: Fri Sep 13, 2019 1:08 pm
Dann Corbit wrote: Fri Sep 13, 2019 5:48 am Arena runs on Linux
Shredder GUI runs on Linux
I guess that there are a lot more besides those already mentioned
There could be many. But I tried Arena GUI in windows and it has some delay and other problems. Shredder GUI is old. And so on. What GUI I want on linux ? A GUI with many features like ChessBase GUI in windows with :
  • Mega Database.
  • Fast And responsive.
  • Ability to install any UCI engine.
  • Powerful game search.
  • Annotated games.
  • Opening books.
  • Many types of board and pieces displayed.
  • And so on.
http://chessx.sourceforge.net/

Have you looked at this?
Sorry , it is for some time that I can not download from sourceforge.net .
It's available in many linux distros.
I just have an ordinary laptop with Ubuntu Linux that is used for C coding. If I happen to own a new Linux PC , I may use this software.
Farewell.
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MikeB
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Location: Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania

Re: Chest for Linux

Post by MikeB »

Look wrote: Fri Sep 13, 2019 5:58 pm
MikeB wrote: Fri Sep 13, 2019 5:37 pm
Look wrote: Fri Sep 13, 2019 5:18 pm
hgm wrote: Fri Sep 13, 2019 5:07 pm Well, XBoard does most of that. Except the mega database; the database and game search functions would get a bit slow above 40k games. To handle larger databases there is SCID.
As a training tool I would add :
  • Advanced replay training. Like that featured in ChessBase 15 and even better.
Chessbase is a commercial product that is good value for the money. Xboard is provided pro bono at an even better value value for the money since it is free , of course that means no one is getting paid to make xBoard better for you. Of course one is always free to make it better for themselves and at the same time share it back with the community. Joe Ellis does that with Matefinder and Crystal, HGM did that / does that with xBoard, so normally if someone want to improve something that is free, get on the bandwagon and start working on it.
I have almost no graphics coding experience in programming language that I know (C). So it takes time to learn it. Also I think the "replay training" feature is relatively easy to code and extremely beneficial to chess players. If I just look at a replay game in a fast pace , I suppose the moves are easy and trivial. But they are not in general. Following the footsteps of a world champion through history of chess , can teach one invaluable lessons.

There is a "replay" feature in xboard , not sure if it is what you are looking for.

Fwiw, I'm a trained accountant, CPA, with no practical coding experience at all period, that didn't not stop me from adding to attempting to add features to Stockfish ( Honey X5i).
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hgm
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Re: Chest for Linux

Post by hgm »

I have no idea what you mean by 'advanced replay training'. I don't have any ChessBase GUI.

I know that XBoard (in addition to the possibility to 'auto-play' through existing games, or just step through those manually) has a 'training mode'. I have never used it, so I am not 100% sure what it does, but I think it allows the user to enter moves, and then compares them with the moves of an existing game (so far hidden from the user) to see if the entered move is 'correct'. And only allows you to proceed once it is.

BTW, to add such a high-level feature to XBoard it is unlikely you would not need to know anything about computer graphics; it doesn't seem to require any graphics operation that XBoard doesn't already do. (Displaying positions, animating moves.) You would only have to program the back-end fnctionality, and draw on existing high-level display routines. And XBoard is programmed in plain C...
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Look
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Re: Chest for Linux

Post by Look »

hgm wrote: Mon Sep 16, 2019 4:45 pm I have no idea what you mean by 'advanced replay training'. I don't have any ChessBase GUI.

I know that XBoard (in addition to the possibility to 'auto-play' through existing games, or just step through those manually) has a 'training mode'. I have never used it, so I am not 100% sure what it does, but I think it allows the user to enter moves, and then compares them with the moves of an existing game (so far hidden from the user) to see if the entered move is 'correct'. And only allows you to proceed once it is.

BTW, to add such a high-level feature to XBoard it is unlikely you would not need to know anything about computer graphics; it doesn't seem to require any graphics operation that XBoard doesn't already do. (Displaying positions, animating moves.) You would only have to program the back-end fnctionality, and draw on existing high-level display routines. And XBoard is programmed in plain C...
ChessBase 15 "Replay training" has these usable features for me:
  • Play white or play black
I choose which side to play. Still better is to select a player as your role model and replay his career.
  • Radar board
Show the position in a few moves later. I use it in opening since there are many openings out there and I do not know which one is played.
  • Save
This one copies game pgn and my suggested moves into clipboard. After the game is over. I am to face analysis of my moves according to a chess engine. Stockfish 10 in my case.

What I mean by "advanced replay training" is to add more features to "replay training" so that a game is "simulated" for user. For instance I said a timer can be added to "replay training" with user setting the amount of it. I may set it as 25min+5sec for an entire single game. Then I would follow game of a player knowing at the end that where are my mistakes and how to fix these. User might be given problems to solve that occurred in chess games so that mistakes are reduced. This might be beneficial for kids as they are in their learning age.

By the way for now I am busy solving Sudoku by a PC and other businesses , so for the moment I do not have time to implement these ideas.
Farewell.
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hgm
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Re: Chest for Linux

Post by hgm »

I am not sure what all this means. You choose to play a color. So who plays the other color? And when? And what? If the other color would never move, you would not be able to progress very far from the initial position...

Is the idea that the moves you enter are not really played, but just added to the PGN as a variation? And that the position then automatically reverts to the main game, two half-moves later? In XBoard you can achieve this by playing your move in Edit Game mode with Shift pressed, (the general way to start a variation), and then use the Annotate menu (or its accelerator key) to revert to the game, adding the 1-move variation to its PGN. And then use the step-forward buttons or keys to go to the next position you want to guess the move for. So it is not automatic.

I don't quite understand the 'radar board'. If the display shows another position than the current, how can you enter moves from the current position? Is the radar board only displayed while you press something (and reverts to the current game position when you release it)? How many moves ahead would you look? And what if the game is not that long?

Saving games as PGN is a standard function, and any variations (or comments) to the moves would be saved with it. XBoard currently does have an 'Analyze Game' mode where it annotates all moves with score info from an analysis engine. I understand you would want such a function that does not analyze positions on the main line of the game, but after the first move of any variation. As the variations you plan to add are only one move long, this might as well be a mode where it analyses all positions in every variation (possibly recursively).