K3Chess - free open-source chess for Kindle

[George's Kindle]

Originally Posted by Vitel

Thanks for the feedback, I am glad you liked the app. I guess the easiest setting would be "Crafty" in "Weak" mode, but you can make the engine even dumber by editing the "engine.ini" file in the "engines/crafty" directory. There is a command called "sd 5" there. This is the search depth (how far the engine searches from the current position, in halfmoves). Try to change that to "sd 4" or even "sd 3". After getting some experience at that setting, you can change it back to "sd 5".

Thanks for the response, Vitel. I will try the editing of the ini file.

Keep up the good work.

George

[K3w]

@George's Kindle: I have made in the ini a new Profile:

[Profile3]
Name=Beginners
CommandCount=9
Command1=book off
Command2=sd 3
Command3=st 1
Command4=hash 64K
Command5=hasp 16
Command6=extension check 0
Command7=extension recapture 0
Command8=extension 1reply 0
Command9=null 0

Then you can select "default", "weak" and new "Beginners".

[George's Kindle]

@k3w - thanks for the script. I changed it accordingly. I think I still need some more practice.

@vitel - if there is something like a 'beginner engine' that can be included in the programme, it would certainly make the game more attractive and more fun for people that just start to learn the game.

[Vitel]

Kindlevarazs, George's Kindle
Basically, chess engines are designed for maximum playing strength. Something like 2800-3000 ELO, which is on par or even higher than International Grandmasters'. So they are suitable for game analysis and training, when you want to find your mistakes. There are some chess engines which allow direct setting of strength to something like 1000 ELO, but they are not free and open-source. Actually, some people recommend setting Crafty to "sd 5" to make it weak, and we are talking about "sd 3" here, which is even weaker. There is a chess engine called Delfi, which can be tuned to play at 1000 ELO, but it is written in Pascal, contains PC-specific code and its license prohibits distribution. But it is available for use with Winboard or other chess interface, and you can try it on a PC and set it to 1000 ELO (via the ini-file) to see if it is weaker than Crafty at depth 3.

[Kindlevarazs]

Vitel,
it was a joke only:-)
When I was an active player, I had been over 2200 Elo, so I enjoy very much
to play again very strong opponents/engines.
Nice work!

[Kindlevarazs]

Today I have win a very strange game:
I have played againg TogaII, time control: 15 vs. 5
After 12nd move (near end of Book variation) TogaII was thinking a lot, and lost with time out... I think it is a program failure.

[Doitsu]

@Vitel: I still suck at Chess. How about porting GNU Backgammon to the Kindle? It's Open Source and they have a working Linux version.

[Vitel]

Originally Posted by Kindlevarazs

Today I have win a very strange game:
I have played againg TogaII, time control: 15 vs. 5
After 12nd move (near end of Book variation) TogaII was thinking a lot, and lost with time out... I think it is a program failure.

Hmm... If you haven't played any games after that strange game, the logs can help see what had happened. Maybe the engine sent an unexpected message which was not parsed. If you notice any strange delay while playing, the best thing to do is quit immediately by pressing Alt-Back, then zip the logs folder and the 'lastgame.dat' file and send them to me (or post them together with a bug report on the project page). Since the last game gets saved, quitting and immediately reopening K3Chess may help solve the issue (as a workaround).

[Vitel]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

How about porting GNU Backgammon to the Kindle?

Interesting, thanks. I thought about porting other board games to Kindle, but unfortunately I don't have enough time to do that. BTW I don't know how to play backgammon However, if someone can tune this backgammon project (which uses QT) to include proper graphics, layout and keyboard control on a PC, I can help compile it for qtKindle.

[K3w]

If the Display changes to Landscape, the Cursorpad-function don't change too. It is still in Portrait-mode. Its a little Bug.

[Vitel]

Originally Posted by K3w

If the Display changes to Landscape, the Cursorpad-function don't change too. It is still in Portrait-mode. Its a little Bug.

Actually, landscape mode is not supported. I don't know how to detect it programmatically to adjust navigation controls.

[K3w]

The board is correctly turned. Possibly you can make a menu option in the options for it, so that one can change it over at least manually.

[Vitel]

Originally Posted by K3w

The board is correctly turned. Possibly you can make a menu option in the options for it, so that one can change it over at least manually.

The board may be displayed in landscape mode because K3Chess code is platform-independent and supports drawing with various window proportions, but the program does not know anything about screen 'orientation'. Currently I am trying to implement several features that were requested by some members earlier, including an in-game clock, captured pieces display and adjustable board size.

[Vitel]

Version 0.1.6b is available (see the updated links in the top post).

Changes in version 0.1.6:
- Added player timers and captured pieces display (toggled by pressing T or U respectively)
- Added an option for adjusting board size (via setting board margins)
- Added new chess engines (Stockfish and Fruit)
- Added new piece styles (Cases and Mark)
- Fixed bug related to suspeding a game after receiving a "Draw" command
- Added auto screen refresh on game start

Changes in version 0.1.6b:
- Fixed a bug with window resizing upon refresh

[lukjad]

Are you able to save a game you are playing? I sometimes would like to stop and read or do something else during the game without aborting...

EDIT: I found it. To save a game and continue later, hit Alt+Back.