New chess software

Hello everyone playing chess :)

I'm a freelance programmer and I have created a sort of clone of Windows' Chess Titans, but one that works on XP and that has a lot more features.

Notably, the chess engine it uses lets it play at 2700 ELO, which is incomparably stronger than Chess Titans.

Also, it has many options, such as a game clock, a grid, a browseable game history, editable move comments, and the possibility to load and save games in standard abbreviated algebraic notation format (PGN). And in the next major release, it will allow you to play online on the FICS and ICS chess servers.

I intend to distribute it as "donate-ware". That is, you tell yourself how much it's worth and you pay what you want.

Here's a screenshot (here watching a PGN game of Karpov vs Kasparov) :

Don't worry if the menus and all are in french ; the software comes in two languages, French and English, and your language is detected automatically.

I would enjoy if you checked it out and told me what you think :)

You can get it here : http://pmbaty.chez.com/chess

I downloaded it last week good job  good program well wort downloading thanks.

Anyway to try this before we pay?

stwils

Well, it's donateware, so if you want to test it, you may just donate $.01 (everybody can spare one cent I suppose ?) and then come back later to make another donation, if you think it's worth more  (I'm highly confident you will.)

Thanks for the comment, hentener. But if you downloaded it last week, you probably got the previous version (1.3), which was not able yet to load and save PGN games and browse the game history. I uploaded the new one yesterday, and this one can. :)

Now I'll focus on finishing the internet play part. I hope you'll enjoy it.

if we donate once, would we need to donate again for the next version?

As you want. If you think the new version deserves it (for example, because you feel there's something significantly different from the previous one, or because you think you should have donated more in the first time), do. Else don't, and just throw a cent. It's up to you. I see donateware mostly as a means of distribution that relies on the fairness and responsibility of everyone, which I believe are two essential things that have gone missing nowadays in the common forms of trade.

But you were right to ask. I will add these two Q/A to the FAQ.

That's a beautiful looking UI!

Try selling it on ebay for auction

How did you come up with the 2700 elo?

Because my program uses now the Crafty chess engine. Read on :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crafty

http://www.craftychess.com/

It's second behind Rybka.

At first I didn't really know about chess engines and I started with GNU Chess. It soon appeared to me that this chess engine was poorly written, unstable and really impossible to integrate cleanly. I did a little research and I found Crafty. Since then, it's been a pleasure programming around it

Mmh.. while we're at it, to be perfectly honest it IS possible that the engine doesn't catch up the 2700 ELO in the way it's configured to work here. I disabled thinking on the opponent's time, so it'll probably be a little weaker. But come on, if you need a stronger engine than that, you're too tough of a chess player and you don't really need my software then :)

According to the SSDF rating list, the highest version of Crafty is 42nd. Only in America, where most engines apart from Rybka are weak, does Crafty score well.

*edit* I didn't know the SSDF page, the data looks recent, thanks. I was talking about the 2009 ACCA championship as mentioned on this page :

http://www.taccl.org/ACCAChampionships/ACCA2009Championships/2009ACCCResults.html

   1 Rybka          (2813) +w10  +b8   =w2   +b4   +w3   +b5     5.5   6
   2 crafty         (2692) +b6   +w4   =b1   Ww3   =b5   +w12    5.0   5
   3 ArasanX        (2542) +w7   +b9   +w8   Lb2   -b1   +w6     4.0   5
   4 NowX           (2000) +b12  -b2   +w9   -w1   +b7   =w11    3.5   6
   5 Gaviota        (2486) -w9   +b7   +w6   =b10  =w2   -w1     3.0   6
   6 Telepath       (2432) -w2   +b12  -b5   +w11  +w8   -b3     3.0   6
   7 Tinker         (2423) -b3   -w5   +w10  +b9   -w4   +b8     3.0   6
   8 Amateur        (2496) +b11  -w1   -b3   Ww12  -b6   -w7     2.0   5
   9 zct            (2230) +b5   -w3   -b4   -w7   -b11  +b10    2.0   6
  10 amyan          (1400) -b1   =w11  -b7   =w5   +b12  -w9     2.0   6
  11 Vincent D.     (2602) -w8   =b10  -w12  -b6   +w9   =b4     2.0   6
  12 MyrddinComp    (2000) -w4   -w6   +b11  Lb8   -w10  -b2     1.0   5

The ELO estimate for Crafty, if I read right, is 2692 here. But anyway, which engine is the best is not the point I think. Having the best engine ever has never been my goal, my goal was to have an efficient and reliable chess engine, and Crafty is proving to be the right choice day after day. :)

(P.S.: I was also talking about free engines, of which the source code is available. Obviously I won't pay a license to use an engine in a software that I give away for almost nothing. Does anyone know a better engine than Crafty that fits these characteristics ? )

http://www.computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/4040/

Crafty is 15th on this up-to-date list.

And so, umm... what do you think of my software, those who tried it ?

 scoring a 2800+ elo, i think thats good enough, dont you?

and pmbaty ill try it.. but im scared.. what if its full of viruses?

EDIT: Why not make it free and for people who want to donate can doanted.. trust me you will make more money this way, becuase people will think its a scam and wont donate to download.. and if alot of ppl download and as it comes popular it will get more donations, or as it comes more popular you can update it and make it back to donateware.. where those people that tried it can donate if they liked it.

If you read the foregoing posts, this was a response to the claim that Crafty was 2nd best, behind Rybka, not whether 2800 is adequate strength.

The OP has now acknowledged a different ranking.

Let me retract my claim then, I was far from thinking it could start an argument. I should have precised "... of the free chess engines, and according to the latest ACCA results".

Peace

@SerbianChessStar : My computer and my development tools are secure enough for me to guarantee you that it would be VERY surprising if someone found a virus or any sort of malicious software in my programs. Programming's been my job for 15 years ; although it is technically not impossible for my computer to have virus, it is almost as likely to occur as it would be for Microsoft's servers themselves. You only have my word, but honestly, you can trust me.

As for the question of why I don't make it freeware, well, know that it initially was. By 2 months after, I had 2,000 downloads and only one person gave $5. Meanwhile I was getting 5-10 emails a week telling me how cool the software was, how great it was for me to distribute it freely, how there should be more guys like me around, etc etc. All this one side... and $5 the other side. To tell the truth, I was shocked. I am not talking about making money here. I am just talking about a minimal thankfulness, an acknowledgment for my work. It's a pity, but I have come to the conclusion that in order for the donations to work, you have to drive people to the donation page, literally. All other sorts of incitation are simply ignored. I believe that people don't donate because it's a pain for them, and also because they don't care about me (which I think they are perfectly entitled to, but meanwhile I need to boil the kettle). They come to my webpage in a hurry looking for the download link, reading the text diagonally until they find it. Why would they donate ? They think someone else will do it for them. And in the end, nobody does. In order for a donation system to work, my experience told me that you have to show people that it's not easier to try to skip the donation than to donate something and get away with the software.

Frankly, what would you want ? You choose the price yourself. $.01 is a legitimate amount, that leads you to the download link. It's up to you to choose if you want to just cynically throw $0.01 at me and get away with the software like that, or pay the price you believe it's really worth and feel relieved and happy for it like a honest person.

It's all up to you.

I understand.

Just a fyi for anyone interested, there is also a list of the free engines, ranked, as well.

http://www.computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/4040/cgi/compare_engines.cgi?class=Free+engines&print=Rating+list&print=Results+table&print=LOS+table&table_size=12&cross_tables_for_best_versions_only=1

I'll be damned... is that a functional looking 3D interface? Unheard of!

A functional 3D interface, that's my goal.

And I'm willing to take in account any feedback you have for me to improve it even better. Any suggestion. I'm working on this software since september ; here's what it looks like so far.

Note that the software automatically selects between English and French according to the settings of your computer.

http://pmbaty.chez.com/chess