Training for OTB play

[Rowen]

I would love to use a chess engine for training my over the board (OTB) play. However, they are often well above my level of comprehension (1900 Elo) and a I would need to seriously weaken them in to level the field. I am afraid that making some simply adjustment, say lower the number of searched nodes, would not make an ideal sparring partner. Do you have any recommendation for an engine I could use? Also, what type of adjustment would you make to make it a reasonable opponent?

Hi, we have similar ratings .I find the uci engine sargon plays at about my level. If you explore the CCRL rating list you can find other engines at about the same strength. They maybe could be downloaded. Although I use a very weak laptop (processor) in my games. I recall reading that it is better to use a weak engine at full strength than dumb down engines, I find this generally true

The author Of houdini writes on his web page (user manual) that reducing the number of positions searched reduces mainly the tactical strength of the engine but if the engine purposely choses a move it knows is suboptimal this mainly reduces positional strength of the engine. Not sure if that was a general remark or specific to Houdini.

I find stockfish ,using reduced strength level plays a reasonable game. Shashchess also. Rodent engine is a good tool (many parameters and personalities) as is Lucas chess gui.

[Odd Gunnar Malin]

I would love to use a chess engine for training my over the board (OTB) play. However, they are often well above my level of comprehension (1900 Elo) and a I would need to seriously weaken them in to level the field. I am afraid that making some simply adjustment, say lower the number of searched nodes, would not make an ideal sparring partner. Do you have any recommendation for an engine I could use? Also, what type of adjustment would you make to make it a reasonable opponent?

First, try to set up an environment that simulates OTB play with its tension. My setup is to stream it online and play on an electronic board, maybe also advertise it to get it more serious.
For me it is important to use an e-board, I use a DGT tournament board. It shouldn't have much to say, but if I look at time usage, that is the only way I can play with approximate in the same pace as OTB. I play too fast on screen, so the value isn't that good.
I use commercial engines, there are some that have done a job of getting them to simulate lower ratings. Dragon, HIarcs, and Shredder are the ones I have been using. The new Fritz could also look promising, Chessbase have made its own setup to give it a challenging game with a focus on learning.
As GUI, I guess the suggested Lucas Chess is an alternative since it looks like it supports most of the e-board out there. Else, Hiarcs only support Millenium, and Fritz/Shredder only supports DGT out of the box. There is some method to get Fritz and Shredder to support other boards.

Forgot to mention which GUI I use. I fire up a bot to play the engine, and play on Lichess. If you want to try any of the above mentioned engines, I can set it up on Lichess for you to try. If you want it to play with a special book, f.ex. compiled by games of your assumed opponents, I can do this too.

[carldaman]

The new Fritz has personalities with different levels of strength, such as strong club player or candidate master.
So far I'm very impressed, especially with the Swindler personality. :

[CornfedForever]

The new Fritz has personalities with different levels of strength, such as strong club player or candidate master.
So far I'm very impressed, especially with the Swindler personality. :

AND...I believe you can simply tag a file 'WHITE' or 'BLACK' and it will allow you to practice the lines you already have put together - nice targeted training on what you want to play anyway when you mix in the personalities. I hope to try that later this week....need to defend my city championship title that is coming up 12/11.