Engine for sparring

[Odd Gunnar Malin]

I'm have been using Dragon (with and without MCTS), Hiarcs, Shredder, and Stockfish as sparring partner in the past. Recently, I added Shahchess and Madchess to the group. I spar mostly endgame and middlegame positions. Currently I spar technical endgames and set all engine to full strength except Shahchess that I set to 2600. I don't know if I'm right but I thought the unique feature of Shahchess only work with limited strength setting, at full strength it is more like Stockfish.

The problem with sparring technical endgame is that the engine could play a very unhuman move because it will lead to a slightly longer path to mate. Ex. in the lucena position it just let me promote to a queen without a fight. Is there any engine suitable for such training. I experimenting with what I have at the moment and will try reducing the strength of the other engine too to see if it is better.

Opening, I spare in online games against human, except before a tournament where I create opening book based on my supposed opponents in Polyglot format so the engine have to be able to use this. Here I play with reduced strength.

[Carbec]

Hi,

Did you try Rodent IV ? Its the most configurable engine I know. Lots of personalities and strength.

Philippe

[Odd Gunnar Malin]

Hi,

Did you try Rodent IV ? Its the most configurable engine I know. Lots of personalities and strength.

Philippe

I will try it out. I have played with it through the Chess Dojo app. when playing on DGT Pegasus. But not for sparring that I usually do through Hiarcs GUI since it is easy to collect and select positions for sparring.

[Enderjed]

You could try extracting TheKing out of Chessmaster (8000,9000,10, and XI)and tuning it to your liking, even if it is lower on the Elo scale.

[Odd Gunnar Malin]

You could try extracting TheKing out of Chessmaster (8000,9000,10, and XI)and tuning it to your liking, even if it is lower on the Elo scale.

I think I have enough engines to spar against in middlegame positions, it is in endgame positions where it should be a win that is the problem especially in rook endgames. When the engine see it is lost by the engine eye it start playing bad moves in human eye that make the winning a lot easier than it would have been against another human. The best engine I have for this now is Dragon in MCTS mode, but there is positions where it fails too.
Here is an example where the engine do a decent job. I play through six KBN mate positions against the engine pool I listed above. Start with 5+0, next 4+0, and so on. This training is so you can win a won game with very little time on your clock.

The King is a winboard engine and the GUI I use , Hiarcs, only manage UCI. But of course I have tools to convert it to UCI. Anyway with looking at Rodent IV, I think it suites the need that The King could fill. It comes with a lot of personalities, and if I need more I saw some at G. Kalab's github site too.