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Version 0.9.3 Released

This version fixes several significant bugs, and provides additional some performance enhancements. In addition, the following has been added:

New games: Chess256 by Mats Winther, Lemurian Shatranj by Joe Joyce, and Latrunculi duo milia et septum by Gary K. Gifford.

New pieces: This version adds support a few new piece types to be used in custom games. On the 8x8 board, support is added for the Dragon King (Rook+Ferz), Dragon Horse (Bishop+Wazir), Tower (Camel+Rook), Sage (Camel+Bishop), and Knightrider. The 10x8 board adds support for the same pieces, except for the Wildebeest instead of the Knightrider.

New features: Support is added for 4 different personalities. That is, the computer opponent can play in four different ways, ranging from Personality A (the previous and default personality, and the most computer-like), through Personality D (which is the least computer-like, and features an element of randomness to its moves.) While personalities C and D may well provide more enjoyment for the player, for purposes of computer analysis of games or positions, personality A should still be used because it is the strongest.

Download here: ChessV 0.9.3. There is no installation program - just unzip and run ChessV.exe. If you have a previous installation, you can unzip this right on top of it. When unzipping, you must restore the directory structure within the zip file. This should happen by default with the Windows zip engine, and with all common programs. But, if you run the program and cannot see any of the piece graphics, then you probably have not unzipped it correctly. Just let me know if you need help.

Ah, how wonderful !!

Downloading now, and I believe I'll have lots of fun playing personality D!

P.S. : I would be lying if I didn't say I would've liked one of my games there.


PS2 : Fully downloaded, but it is requesting a password.

the zip file is requesting a password.

It's probably the fact I am using the Zip feature installed withing WindowsXP rather than WinZip. It never showed any problems of the kind though.

That archive was made with the newest WinZip, so it must be using some new format that legacy compression utils don't support...  (Not sure why it is asking for a password, though.)  When I get home this afternoon, I will post a new version that is compressed in a more compatable way, and post an update.  But if you are really anxious, you can download the latest WinZip (version 11) and it should work.

Sorry for the delay ...

ChessV 0.9.3 seems positionally much improved. I have no more noticed that it would take over the opposites colour when being under pressure. It navigates excellent through the opening. But it might be tactically weaker now, and it does not always handle castling rules correct. See the following Embassy Chess game with SMIRF, where it refutes at least Black's castling move:

I get the feeling that XP's or Vista's unzipper is fussy in a way that Winzip accidently breaks. As an aside, I have never had problems unzipping files in Windows XP that were generated with the *NIX zipping utilities, even after using a special program called 'advancedcomp' to make the .zip file about 5% smaller than an ordinary .zip file.

I will post a report about ChessV 0.9.3 tomorrow.

I would like to thank Greg for the update, and for this excellent, free program.

- Sam

Ok, a new zip file has been posted, that should be more friendly.

Reinhard: Thanks for the feedback.  It is possible that I did not specify the correct castling rule for Embassy - I will check on it.

Abdul-Rahman: I will keep in mind the possability of adding support for your games.  Unfortunately, the design is fairly rigid and some things are difficult and many are impossible.  At present, the only board sizes supported are 6x6, 8x8, 10x8, 10x10, and 12x8.  A few of your games are possible, but are not trivial, as each has some things that would require some thought about how to accomplish.  I appreciate the interest!

Hey, Greg, thanks a lot! Nice program, and thanks for putting yet another shatranj variant in there; I appreciate it greatly.
After being unable to get ChessV to work on my computer with about 90 minutes of work between the two of us, my son said it could be machine-specific, so I asked him to try it on his machine, and it worked fine - lol! He hates chess.  I'm going to try again after I kick my box around the den a couple times.

Hea Joe!

What is the situation with your box?  What OS is it running?  What happens when you try to run ChessV?

Hi, Greg.

I'm running a genuine Piece O'Crap computer, with WinXP. It's been
giving me trouble for a while now. I booted and re-booted it; no joy.
AMD Athlon XP 2000+ 1.67 GHz 512 Meg RAM
XP Home Edition V2002 Service Pack 2
When it boots, it tells me A7V8X-X 

By the way, did you get my email? I think I sent it to an old address.

Enjoy,
Joe

Looking at the program very quickly, it looks like not too many new variants have been added to the game. What has been added, under the hood, is support for a lot more piece types, especially in the 8x10 and 8x12 boards.

For example, it is now possible to make a preset that plays the 'Crowned' pieces variant I proposed a couple of months ago. It is also possible to play with the 'Sage' (Camel + Bishop) and 'Tower' (Camel + Knight) pieces on the 8x10 and 8x12 board (As per the discussion in this thread). One thing ChessV doesn't have yet is these 'new' pieces on a 10x10 board (I feel the Sage makes more sense on a 10x10 board than on a 8x10 or 8x12 board, because otherwise there are problems with first-move smothered mate threats; perhaps a game with 'Sages' and possibly 'Towers' will make sense if we leave an empty square besides the king; I can see an 8x12 setup with the usual FIDE pieces, two sages, another faerie piece, and an empty square besides the king to stop smothered mate threats). However, to make these variants requires reading the extensibility document included with ChessV and making your own preset.

I plan on making ChessV presets for some of the ideas discussed in those threads, which I may be able to release next week (The only way I'm able to take time to post this is because I'm killing time while Cygwin downloads).

Anyway, Greg, this is really great work and I'm glad to see a new version of ChessV!

- Sam

- Sam

Yes, the Bowman is a Woody Rook (with a different name and icon.)  I do not normally make any alterations to anyone else's games, but I've made an exception in the case of CWDA.  When Ralph Betza named the pieces, they were all given names as close as possible to how the piece move is recorded in his piece-move-notation system.  Unfortunately, this produced completely terrible names, such as the Fibnif, the Furlrurlbakking, and the Forfnibakking.  The last two names you probably do not recognize because they have already been changed (and not by me) because they were just so bad.  So I am continuing the trend.  I would love to get Betza's ok, but after years of trying to contact him, I have not succeeded.  I hope that no one takes offense at this - it is just that CWDA is in my top three favorite variants of all time, and I hate to see development on it die.  Especially since Betza himself considered it very much a work-in-progress.

On a related note, I have been devoting a heck of a lot of computing resources into analysis of CWDA army matchups with ChessV to determine how well balanced the armies really are.  Although I already have a few years worth of high-powered CPU time into the project completed, I am still not ready to publish any results.  But I will say that initial results appear as though the four main armies are at least pretty close, and possibly very close, whereas the Meticulous Mashers are way, way, way too powerful - probably overpowered by a least 2 pawns!

Good, but is slightly bugged. Selecting Betza's Chess With Augmented
Knights causes the program to exit with an error message. Thanks anyway,
that is a great help for those of us that don't have Zillions.