Thanks a lot for this very useful feedback!
What sort of Mac is this? 7000 nodes/second is slow. On my 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo, Glaurung does about 60,000 nodes/second at ratings below 2200.martinus wrote:1. From 1000 to 1800 rating (the range I tested it playing some 1 minute + 8 second increment games) the program works at 7000 nodes/second. This produces a credible rating in the range 1500-1800 but its too much to play below 1500 rating.
Yes, if the nodes/second slowdown were the only way in which it was crippled, but it isn't. More about this below.2. At 1000 rating 7000 nodes/second is too much and it looks like playing a 1500-1700 player.
Serious tactical blunders is what I have tried to achieve: Below 2200, the program starts pruning moves randomly. The probability that a move is pruned is not uniform, but depends on the strength (lower strength means that more moves are pruned), and on how hard the move would be to spot for a human player. For instance, the probability that a move is pruned is very big for moves which appear to lose material, and for underpromotions. Long diagonal moves are also pruned quite frequently. On the other end of the spectrum, obvious recaptures are almost never pruned.3. In the 1000 to 1200 rating some serious tactical blunders could be expected, kind of random moves, but I didn't saw any. I had to win based on positional knowledge and in tactical maneuvers that go beyond the horizon of the program.
Based on what you say, it seems I should increase the probability of blunders much more, especially at the weakest levels. Good to know; that's what I need this form of feedback for. Thanks again!
Testing against Shredder and Hiarcs at weaker levels to calibrate the strength is perhaps not a bad idea. I'll do some experiments when I have some CPU time to spare.4. I would try to cripple more the engine in the 1000-1200 range to give a player to beginners. I made Glaurung play at 1000 versus Shredder Classic 3 at 1500 and they draw a two games match 1-1.
Not really, unless you count the "tournament mode" which I have implemented for use when I operate Glaurung myself in tournaments. If you press Control+Option+Shift+T (a deliberately complex key combination, just to prevent users from typing it by accident), Glaurung will beep every time it makes a move, and also change the color of the board to an angry red, and print the text "Please adjust my time if necessary" in light green across the board. Needless to say, this feature isn't meant for end users.5. I couldn't make the program beep, or make any sound, after the move. There is a way?
An optional beep when the computer makes a move is trivial to implement, of course. I'll include it in the next version.
Actually, there are two books included: An engine book, and a GUI book, intended for use with UCI engines without a book of their own. By default, the engine book is used, but the GUI book is bigger and more varied. You can switch to the GUI book in the engine configuration window.6. A bigger and more varied book would be better to play the engine. Small books are suited for engine vs engine matches.
Yes, the current situation is quite sad. There are still no good free UCI compatible GUI for Mac OS X, and even the commercial options leave a lot to be desired. I hope the situation will improve.Its nice to see things moving on in the mac chess scene. The Glaurung GUI development is also very good news, since we have few UCI interfaces for mac.
Well, based on your comments above, it seems I still haven't been able to cripple it quite enough. But thanks to your generous advice, I should be able to do better next time.Same for the arriving of another chess engine, now able to play games at our human level.
For the moderators: This subthread is beginning to look seriously off-topic for the "Hiarcs Customer Support & Announcements" forum. If possible, perhaps it should be moved to another forum? For instance, to the new "Macintosh chess forum" we would all like to see created?
Tord
