Do you play chess?
by Volker Weber
Watch the computer evaluate its next move. If you are a good chess player let me know how good this machine plays.
Comments
My first game:
1. d4 d5
2. e4 dxe4
3. Sc3 Lf5
4. f3 exf3
5. Sxf3 Lg4
6. Le3 Sd7
7. h3 LxSf3
8. Dxf3 c6
9. Ld3 e5
10.0-0 Sf6
11.Lc4 Db6
12.Tad1 Dxb2
13.Lg5 Sb6
14.Lxf7 Kxf7
15.Lxf6 Ke7
16.Lxd5 Dxc2
17.Df7 Kd8
18.Lc7 Kc8
19.De8 Kxc7
20.Tf7 Le7
21.Dxe7 Sd7
22.Dxd7 Kb6
23.Dc7 Kb4
24.a3 Kxa3
25.Da5 Kb2
26.Db4 Db3
27.Tf2 - end
I didn't score the two games I played, but it plays rather weakly for a computer... by which I mean that I was able to beat it even though I made at least one mistake that any good player (or a better program) would have easily capitalized on. It did not play standard openings in either of the two games, and a better player would probably have it beat much more quickly than I did on account of that. It does not make major tactical errors, of course, but it plays with no sense of strategy, and it was easy for me to take the initiative against it during the transition from opening to middle game both times. From there it defended accurately for a while, making me work a bit, especially when I made a mistake that dropped a pawn, but it delayed giving its king an escape from the back rank at the time I was pressing the attack, which forced it to keep a rook back for defense too long. It gave up a pawn to stop the attack, and a better player would have forced a draw at this point. I forced it to exchange down to a rook, knight and three pawns for me on the queen-side flank, versus a rook, bishop and one queen-side pawn and two king-side pawns. Then it made time-wasting moves that let me move a passed pawn up to the 6th rank before it seemed to realize that it was in any danger. A better player would have moved one of its own passed pawns earlier, forcing me to divert over to block it, and that probably would have led to a draw, but instead it ended up having to give up the rook for my knight and a pawn. I cleaned up his pawns easily at that point, and then it was just a matter of avoiding a stupid mistake to get to checkmate.
-rich
In the 'about' they state that the program only uses simplistic algorithms, nothing fancy.
So anybody with a good grasp of chess rules should be able to beat it (I am not one of them, but I thought it was fascinating to watch).
