Play Chess Online Against Computer Opponents

A few days ago we launched a new chess game but did so in quite a muted manner as it was necessary to take the time to see how well it performed for users of this site. There was clearly no need to take down the old page as many people will have bookmarked it already and may, in fact, prefer the old game. However, now we are satisfied that the new game performs well it is time to give it a bit more prominence.  This link will take you to our new page to play chess against computer opponents.  The new chess game is stronger and also allows for online human versus human play.  Overall, I believe it offers a better experience for all types of player.

Other Game Feedback

While listening to feedback we have received about the original chess game a few other things became apparent.  Some players were reporting “bugs” that actually weren’t.  Specifically that the game would not let them castle, or that the game was performing illegal captures using pawns.

An experienced chess player will probably recognise just from this description that the move was probably illegal. The player could not castle because they had already moved a king or rook. Sometimes the proposed move would require moving across a threatened square or similar.

Likewise, with the pawn captures, many players have not heard of en passant. This lack of chess knowledge means that the computer moves appear to break the rules.  It was never my intention to provide online chess tutorials here at computer chess online. I do recognise though that it is time to provide some basic instruction on the rules of the game. My hope is that by doing so I can reduce gamers frustration at what they believe to be cheating by the computer.

The Future of Computer Chess Online

In the coming weeks and months, we will be providing a very basic tutorial on how to play the game of chess with diagrams where appropriate. It is my hope that this will dispel some of the issues arising for visitors to this site. May everyone grow in strength as chess players.

(EDIT: These pages are now up. You can learn to castle, learn what en-passant is and see how to set up a chess board. Have fun!)

Computer Chess Online - Play Chess Against the Computer

From the early days of the Rybka 1.0 beta, computer chess programmers have had concerns about the origins of the Rybka code.  Was it an original work of Mister Rajilich or did the code originate elsewhere?  Rumours abounded, but with very few of the community having the technical skills to examine the code and arrive at an informed opinion, the debate was often characterised more by emotion rather than logic and reasoned argument or production of factual evidence.

During those times some fans of the program at times behaved in a manner more reminiscent of a fundamentalist religious movement than rational human beings and logical(?) chess players.  Chess forums banned discussion of rival programs and posters merely mentioning the rivals names had their accounts banned and posts deleted.  It was a period very reminiscent of Stalin’s Russia in many ways, except that the violence was limited to character assassination rather than live ammunition.

The suppression of dissent over the origins of Rybka was one of the reasons that this website was founded.  I found the stifling of debate and lack of real effort to find the truth depressing.  The repression of debate is never a good thing.  The lunatic behaviour of some moderators on a number of chess forums ensured that the ability of the community as a whole to arrive at the truth of the matter was severely hampered.

It was always an object of curiousity to me that Mr Rajilich never sought to prosecute those behind any of the several Rybka clones that were released over the last year or two.  Surely a man that has worked hard to produce an original piece of intellectual property that was a world leader in its class would act to protect his product?  Now it seems that we have been provided with a possible reason why.  David Levy has accused Rybka itself of being the plagiarised work of two separate computer chess programs – Crafty and Fruit.  If the accusations prove to be correct then this would, of course, provide ample reason to avoid any public court case involving Rybka.  After all, how can you prosecute someone for stealing your intellectual property if your product is itself plagiarised?

As Houdini is currently leading the rankings in terms of playing strength (Elo) the point is somewhat moot anyway, except for one thing: Many assert that Houdini itself is merely a Rybka clone.  If this is also true and Houdini gets banned too, then where do the folks that want to play chess versus computer opponents go then?

Original article: Washington Times.

Computer Chess Online - Rybka Stripped of World Chess Champion Titles

What also might not be commonly known is that whenever the code for these free chess engines is publicly available Jim will also recompile the code to run more efficiently. Jim’s recompiles of well-known chess engines often run better than the original chess program did!

Have a look at Jim’s work at: http://jimablett.hostwebs.com/ (no longer valid)

Edit: Jim’s site moved again and he has retired from his compilation work – a sad loss.

The final repository of Jim’s work is at: http://jimablett.net63.net/ (Edit: Sorry this link was later found to have 4(!) trojans in the download. I have removed the active link, but leave the location as anyone with an up to date virus scanner may still wish to visit).

(The old site at: http://homepages.tesco.net/henry.ablett/jims.html is no longer maintained.)

It is a testament to the quality of the work that Jim does in his recompiles that many of the authors of many free chess engines are now going to him to have their code “tweaked”.

So, if you are looking for free chess software in the form of winboard or UCI chess engines then Jim’s page is a good place to start.

Some of the files he hosts include (no particular order):

• Rival Chess
• Red Queen Chess
• Protector
• GNU Chess
• Simplex
• Greko
• Komodo
• Gez
• Mizar
• Sjeng
• Scorpio
• Chess One
• Crafty
• Beaches
• Fimbulwinter
• Sungorous
• Alibaba

And many, many more.

Stockfish – Free Chess Engine

As a separate word of note.  Jim also compiled the latest version of Stockfish.  Stockfish is a free chess engine that is now within a few Elo points of Rybka 4 (currently the world’s strongest chess engine).  This is a great achievement by the team behind Stockfish and it must be mentioned that they deserve full credit and the thanks of the community at large for making a chess engine of this quality freely available.

If for some reason the download is offline you can get the Stockfish chess engine from: https://stockfishchess.org

Also, take a look at the custom made opening book to suit the engine’s particular style of play.

About UCI and Winboard Chess Engines

Winboard and UCI compatible chess programs do not run on their own.  You need a GUI to operate them.  Thankfully there are a number of free chess interfaces available.

My personal recommendation is Arena – which is hosted at: http://www.playwitharena.com/

Full explanation of the various parts of the install is dealt with on the site and Arena even comes with an early (and free) version of Rybka.

Of course if installing all these bits of software is not your thing then feel free to try out our free online chess game here at computer chess online.

Happy playing!

Computer Chess Online - Jim Abletts Free Chess Engine Site has Moved

Free Computer Chess Game for Visitors

We live in the computer age yet many people have never played chess against a computer.  I guess there are as many reasons for this as there are people in this situation.  As I enjoy computer chess I thought it was only fair to offer other people the chance to indulge themselves in a game I enjoy.

Although a number of sites like The Spectator offer chess puzzles online they do not offer the chance to play a full game. Here is my small effort toward improving the situation.

Installing Flash CHESS 3

Now don’t laugh, but it took me a few days just to get the page working.  The people from flashchess made a great program. However, my complete ignorance about how to install it on a website stood in my path quite some time.  Eventually, I found a way to install chess program and get it to work within WordPress. Overall I am happy with the results. The sole niggle is page load time. This is unavoidable as the computer engine has to load the game to work (about 2megs total).

It was my original goal to make a variety of chess computers available. Unfortunately, there was little interest from programmers in showcasing their work.  This left me with an unusual chess problem to solve. The only chess engine I could hope to put on the page was one that was freely distributed.  Flash chess 3 is thankfully a pretty advanced program considering its size. It looks good and plays reasonably well. And all this considering that it was written in Flash rather than a more conventional programming language.

If there are any computer chess programmers out there reading this with a non-experimental chess engine that can run within a web page please contact me.  It would be really great to offer people a greater variety of chess software and let them see what is available.

Installing Chess Programs is Fun! (Honest)

Anyone that is familiar with my other websites will know already that I am a big fan of computers and technology, science fiction, chess and online games in general. Writing this website is a labour of love. Yes, even when I can’t get annoying flash chess programs to install and run properly on it!

I hope over the coming months to show people some of the things that are really great about the game of chess in general, and computer chess in particular.  For now, though, I hope you enjoy your time here and this opportunity to play free online chess against a computer.

Computer Chess Online - Play Free Online Chess Against a Computer

I really love the game of chess.  It is simple to understand, yet amazingly complicated in practice. This love of chess is what lead me to create computer chess online.

There are very few similar games that demand such deep thought, strategic thinking, tactical brilliance and perfect concentration in order to win.  Chess offers all this and more, but without the element of luck.  The pieces only move to where you place them on the chessboard.

Unfortunately, unless you live in a locality with a large chess playing community it can be hard to find a human opponent.  There are of course websites and services that offer opportunities to play chess online.  The problem with these sites, at least in my opinion, is that most players want to play blitz chess and I personally enjoy classical time controls and longer games.  Finding a player of similar strength who wishes to play a longer game can at times be challenging.

Advantages of Computer Chess Software

As computer software has come on so much over recent years it is easy to get a computer opponent to play against that will challenge and indeed most likely beat, any player up to and including the World Champion GrandMaster.  Not only is computer chess software powerful in Elo terms, it is also available to play 24 hours a day, will not complain about the selected time controls etc.  I still enjoy playing against human players, but as my time to play is limited, a computer opponent is often a preferred choice.

Computer chess engines do not just make great opponents.  Due to the extreme playing strength of even the freeware chess programs the game analysis these engines provide can be invaluable.  It is a modern irony that the chess world looks down on computer chess as a poor relation to “the real game” when in actuality the games produced by computers are often tactically stronger. Even further down the line are the games between so-called “Centaurs”.  Centaurs or Centaur Chess are terms used to refer to a computer and human playing in tandem.  Centaur games are often of very high quality.

The reason I say that “real chess” looking down on computer chess is ironic is that the top human players will often use a battery of highly specialised multi-core computers to analyse a position or chess opening in order to find a new novelty or a refutation.  How ridiculous it is then to hear people speak in negative terms about computer chess.

The Future of Computer Chess

Ever since Gary Kasparov was beaten by a chess computer people have been claiming that chess will be “solved”.  By this statement they mean that there will be a method of playing in which the outcome of the game can be forced from the opening move, giving victory to white (who moves first) every time.  While this happened for tic-tac-toe, chess is a very different game.

At the time I write this post, a “solution” for chess seems totally absurd.  The combinations of moves even 10 or 20 ply into a game of chess are immense and although chess computers are increasing in power almost daily a “solution” seems unlikely.  Maybe I will be proven wrong on this point, especially if we see artificial intelligence or quantum computing become a reality, but for now, these ideas are science fiction and belong on my other blog!

To be honest, I would like to be proven wrong on this point as it would mean that humanity has taken a large step forward problem-solvinging with the aid of computers.

Whatever the future brings, I intend to be talking about it here at Computer Chess Online.

Computer Chess Online - Computer Chess Online – Coming Soon!