Abaia: A new iPhone chess program

[Cubeman]

I don't know much about programming but was interested in your thoughts on the bitboard limits when using mobile devices.Could this explain why Rybka has not yet made a mobile version?

[Tord Romstad]

I have PocketFritz3 and have Glaurung as an additional engine.Would the iphone version be the same.

I've never seen the Pocket Fritz version (it was made by Stanislav Tsukrov of ChessBase) but I think it is based on Glaurung 2.1, while the iPhone version is based on the newer and slightly stronger Glaurung 2.2.

I have also tested ChessGenius on both platforms and it seems that the iphone is as fast as a midrange PPC.

Yes, that seems reasonable.

But 6-0 against Genius is very good result.

I played four more games after I posted, the final result was 9-1 (+9,=0,-1). Yes, the result is good, but the games aren't that great, and it is clear that the programs are far closer in strength than this result indicates. Genius blundered away two dead drawn endgames in time trouble, and was so obviously winning in game 4 that I was on the edge of resigning on behalf of my program when Genius started creating problems for itself, and ended up losing spectacularly. By the way, that game is extremely badly played by both sided, but still one of the most entertaining computer chess games I have seen recently.

I think something like 7-3 or 6-4 would have been a more normal result.

Out of curiosity what was the time control for the games.

5 minutes/game, with no increment. I generally prefer time controls with increments, but it seems that Chess Genius doesn't support them. The games where played with ponder off, because I hadn't implemented pondering in my own program yet yesterday.

Tord

[Tord Romstad]

I don't know much about programming but was interested in your thoughts on the bitboard limits when using mobile devices.Could this explain why Rybka has not yet made a mobile version?

No, I think this is very unlikely. It is probably just a question of priorities. Porting a bitboard program to modern mobile devices is easy; apart from the little annoyance that they get a speed penalty of around 2x compared to most non-bitboard programs.

Tord

[mcostalba]

Hi Tord,

congratulations for your porting, unfortunatly I don't have an iPhone, but this could be a good reason to buy one

I have one curiosity. Why Abaia?

I ask this because in italian Abbaia (with two 'b') it means "to bark" or, more correctly "it barks".

[Tord Romstad]

Hi Tord,

congratulations for your porting, unfortunatly I don't have an iPhone, but this could be a good reason to buy one

You will be able to port Stockfish very easily.

I have one curiosity. Why Abaia?

I ask this because in italian Abbaia (with two 'b') it means "to bark" or, more correctly "it barks".

The name is originally from Melanesian mythology:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abaia

I know very little about Melanesian mythology, though. The Abaia my program is named after is a great aquatic monster from Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun. Wolfe, of course, took the name from Melanesian mythology. I chose the name partly because it is to some extent thematically related to Glaurung, and partly because I'm in the middle of my fourth or fifth re-read of TBotNS right now. As you can probably guess, it's one of my all-time favorite works of fiction.

Tord

[supersteve3d]

Hi Tord,

Thanks for this wonderful program. I am testing it now on my iPhone.
The program seems very full featured and I love the idea of using a swipe for takebacks etc.

Just a quick suggestion. I noticed you decided to use dragging as the method of move entry. I wonder if its too much to allow an option for clicking (ie. from square -> to square).

IMO this method has been used quite successfully in other programs.

Thanks again,
Steve.

[Tord Romstad]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for testing my program! Keep in mind that it's a work in progress.

I'm a bit surprised that almost nobody seems to try Abaia, when so many people express interest in the functionally equivalent version of Glaurung which will be released through the App Store. It almost seems like chess players jailbreak their iPhones and iPods far less frequently than the general population. I would have expected the opposite to be the case...

Thanks for this wonderful program. I am testing it now on my iPhone.
The program seems very full featured

That's a generous description of a program which still lacks basic things like handicap mode and editing positions, but thanks anyway.

At least pondering, the three different play styles and saving/loading PGN games now work. Stay tuned for frequent updates with new features and bug fixes. There will be a new update tonight, which fixes some stability problems and adds persistence (i.e. it remembers the current game and clocks when the program exits) and perhaps a few more improvements.

and I love the idea of using a swipe for takebacks etc.

I'm glad you like that! I originally did it like this only because I couldn't find a good place for buttons for taking back and replaying moves, but now I actually find that swiping is easier.

Just a quick suggestion. I noticed you decided to use dragging as the method of move entry. I wonder if its too much to allow an option for clicking (ie. from square -> to square).

Two of my testers have also requested this, although one of them has later reported that he is no longer sure what input method he prefers, after playing with my program for a while. Perhaps it's just a question of getting used to it.

I do plan to add move input by tapping the from and to squares some time later, but it isn't very near the top of my priority list. Adjustable strength and editing positions are my two top priorities right now.

Tord

[ardee]

...Glaurung performs very poorly on the ARM in general....Tord

You are way too modest.

It's a GREAT program. Very strong, excellent attacking style, large opening book, good features, good UI, and free. Everybody ought to know this!

Perhaps its relative performance on the ARM is a little disappointing to you, but it completely outclasses all its opponents on the same hardware and plays a wonderful style of chess that's more fun (for me) to lose to than Genius's any day.

PS: I was a member here for years but haven't posted in a long time. I reactivated my membership just to chime in about how amazing Abaia is! Jailbreaking is easy (I have an iPod touch 2G, the most difficult model to jailbreak, but still not hard) and was already a very worthwhile thing to do. I jailbroke to get around several Apple-imposed limitations, never expecting to also find a free chess program that's stronger than Chess Genius ($10) and better in other ways, too!

I hope somebody has the strongest programs for other handhelds to test it against. Perhaps Hiarcs on the Palm or Pocket Fritz on the PocketPC?

[ardee]

...my plan is therefore to throw out the bitboard internals of Glaurung and replace them with something more mobile-friendly....

How much stronger do you think it will become as a result of that? How much time do you think such a change would require? (Pardon my drooling.)

It's already the strongest on the platform, so such a change would be amazing.

Also: do you have any test results against the strongest programs on other handheld platforms, like Hiarcs on the Palm or Pocket Fritz on the PocketPC?

[Tord Romstad]

...Glaurung performs very poorly on the ARM in general....Tord

You are way too modest.

It's a GREAT program. Very strong, excellent attacking style, large opening book, good features, good UI, and free. Everybody ought to know this!

Perhaps its relative performance on the ARM is a little disappointing to you, but it completely outclasses all its opponents on the same hardware and plays a wonderful style of chess that's more fun (for me) to lose to than Genius's any day.

Genius is a very passive program: It usually doesn't really do much except playing solid chess and waiting for a mistake it can punish. Glaurung/Abaia is almost the opposite, and is often a little too wild and adventurous.

PS: I was a member here for years but haven't posted in a long time. I reactivated my membership just to chime in about how amazing Abaia is! Jailbreaking is easy (I have an iPod touch 2G, the most difficult model to jailbreak, but still not hard) and was already a very worthwhile thing to do. I jailbroke to get around several Apple-imposed limitations, never expecting to also find a free chess program that's stronger than Chess Genius ($10) and better in other ways, too!

Since yesterday, there is no very strong reason to jailbreak just to run my program. It's also available from the App Store, under the name "Glaurung". The only reason to prefer the version for jailbroken phones is that updates and bug fixes will arrive earlier.

I hope somebody has the strongest programs for other handhelds to test it against. Perhaps Hiarcs on the Palm or Pocket Fritz on the PocketPC?

Hiarcs is only slightly stronger on high-end desktop machines with multi-core 64-bit CPUs, but almost certainly a lot stronger on handheld devices. Glaurung just isn't (yet) optimized for that sort of hardware.

Tord