I’ve been working on my chess game lately, in an attempt to improve my logic skills. It has apparently worked… previously, any computer chess game would mop the floor with me on any but the absolute lowest skill setting (and sometimes even then). Now I can beat the Caissa Chess program on my iPod Touch at level two most of the time (though level three still beats me easily), and I’ve made some large strides on Project X as well. 🙂
But that isn’t the purpose of this post, which is to point out this page of fun facts about chess that I stumbled onto recently.
Chess geeks tend to recommend rebel (rebel.nl) because of it having play that’s human-like as well as good. Most chess programs play differently than human beings once you get past the opening moves library. At least, that’s what chess geeks seem to have said several years ago when I last was into computer chess in a significant way. (OS X includes a 3d graphics front end to GNU Chess which is a good and free chess program, which I’m satisfied with for my now-rare forays into computer chess playing. I think I might want to get more into it though if it really improves programming skills. The thing is I used to love chess, then I met someone who was good enough to be nationally ranked who tried to teach me how to play on a really good level; and I realized it required too much study to do that for something that was “just a game.” It was fun playing him though, I learned just from losing to him. (Though I once beat him in a simultaneous chess tournament where he beat a room full of people except me and one guy who came in from out of town who was a ranked player. I think I beat him though because I had some help from someone looking over my shoulder; so I really shouldn’t take the credit.)
Uh oh.. I think I may have my work cut out for me next time we play…
Glad to hear about the Project X progress. Best o’ luck!
I hope you have your work cut out for you, you’ve beaten me in the majority of chess games we’ve played in the last year or two. 🙂 But I find it very difficult to keep myself thinking the way I need to… I keep backsliding into my old habits of thought again, and whenever I do that, I lose. I’m hoping that enough practice will let me overcome that, but so far I’ve had only moderate success — which is why Caissa Chess can still mop the floor with my face on level three or higher. 🙂
Thanks for the well-wishes!