Chess Program Released for Linux and Mac

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Chess Program Released for Linux and Mac

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Saturday October 1, 2005 @10:37AM from the still-waiting-for-windows-vs-linux-chess-match dept.

lrnzcpmn writes "Today, the world champion chess program Schredder released a version for Mac and Linux. This is important because it is the first time a major software player in the chess world has released a version of its chess engine for Linux and the general public. You can download a demo version on shredderchess.com."

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Zappa engine by whovian · 2005-10-01 10:48 · Score: 5, Interesting

Zappa has beaten Shredder in competition, but not during speed chess. Five days later, Zappa was named the 2005 World Computer Chess Champion.

Download earlier Zappa engines from here

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In other news: by WhatAmIDoingHere · 2005-10-01 10:48 · Score: 4, Funny

Overnight the number of games for OSX doubled! First photoshop now this!

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1. Re:In other news: by generic-man · 2005-10-01 11:00 · Score: 1
  
  Tragically, Mac OS X actually has a chess program: Chess.app, which comes bundled with the OS.
  
  (You even get "that puzzle game with the Apple logo" as a Dashboard widget in 10.4, the first time it's been bundled with Mac OS since OS X came out.)
  
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2. Re:In other news: by Anonymous Coward · 2005-10-01 12:18 · Score: 0
  
  OSX comes with a chess program, while Windows comes with minesweeper.
  
  I wonder what this says about their respective users...
3. Re:In other news: by generic-man · 2005-10-01 16:54 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  Windows users aspire to rid the world of land mines, while OSX users are obsessed with regicide.
  
  (TWAJS)
  
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4. Re:In other news: by couch_potato · 2005-10-02 19:21 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  I wonder what this says about their respective users...
  
  Um... absolutely nothing?
what?! by XO · 2005-10-01 10:49 · Score: 3, Funny

You mean GNUChess isn't considered the cream of the crop?!

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1. Re:what?! by Kawahee · 2005-10-01 10:57 · Score: 1
  
  You'll find that many GNU***** apps still have a long way to go before being #1.
  
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2. Re:what?! by Anonymous Coward · 2005-10-01 21:21 · Score: 0
  
  Let me finish that sentence for you : until you're on a solaris box.
  Maybe it has improved, but why do they stick to outdated tools and make the gnu tools optional? It should be the other way round.
FYI: not free by vistic · 2005-10-01 10:58 · Score: 4, Informative

It's not free... can download a 30-day restricted version to try out.
1. Re:FYI: not free by Anonymous Coward · 2005-10-01 15:26 · Score: 0
  
  Hence the word "demo" in the article summary. Not everything made for Linux is free, nor does it have to be.
2. Re:FYI: not free by vistic · 2005-10-01 22:30 · Score: 1
  
  Well I hate software that dies after 30 days... so it stopped me from downloading it. Thought it might be useful info for other people too, so they don't waste time like I did.
3. Re:FYI: not free by Dot.Com.CEO · 2005-10-02 02:18 · Score: 1
  
  It doesn't "die". You have to buy it.
  
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4. Re:FYI: not free by vistic · 2005-10-02 12:52 · Score: 1
  
  If you don't have the spare cash to spend on a chess game... then it IS, for all intents and purposes, as good as dead.
Linux? No need! by alan_dershowitz · 2005-10-01 11:37 · Score: 4, Funny

For Linux? If I wanted to play with a program with 119,060,324 possible variations within six steps, I'd just go configure Sendmail.
Test arena for linux by gmuslera · 2005-10-01 14:12 · Score: 1

Now if Linux is too hard for a Chess Grand Mater, we are in trouble.
1. Re:Test arena for linux by Donniedarkness · 2005-10-01 16:24 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  Now if Linux is too hard for a Chess Grand Mater, we are in trouble.
  Does such a species exist? Very few chess players know how to mate...I'd be surprised if there were any masters.
  Anyways, I don't see why people even bother with chess programs for the computer. It's a completely different experience than playing REAL chess (at least at the tournament level). Computers tend to play very... illogically at times, as odd as that may sound.
  A few years ago, when I was rated 1200 (USCF), I had played so many chess programs so much that, while I could not achieve a 1300 rating, I was getting progressively better against the computer... and moving on to tougher and tougher levels.
  
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Am I the first to say Baduk? by Fen14 · 2005-10-01 16:22 · Score: 2, Funny

Or...Go. Go Go Go Go Go. Gotta mention it in a chess article as a /. meme.
1. Re:Am I the first to say Baduk? by hunterx11 · 2005-10-01 16:35 · Score: 1
  
  Somehow I imagine the sort of Korean who reads /. is more likely to play Starcraft than Go. In fact, more of them play Janggi than Baduk anyway, but Westerners always hear more about Go; maybe the Hanja are too scary.
  
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Grammar Nazi Ahoy by TychoCelchuuu · 2005-10-01 16:22 · Score: 1

I hate to be a grammar Nazi (who am I kidding; I love it), but you guys used the wrong "its." The apostrophe is woefully out of place.

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1. Re:Grammar Nazi Ahoy by Anonymous Coward · 2005-10-02 11:11 · Score: 0
  
  No they didn't.
  
  This is important because it is the first time a major software player in the chess world has released a version of its chess engine for Linux and the general public. ... Perfectly fine.
  
  Way to be a stupid Nazi.
2. Re:Grammar Nazi Ahoy by KWTm · 2005-10-02 18:23 · Score: 1
  
  I hate to be a grammar Nazi ( who am I kidding ; I love it),
  
  I don't know -- whom are you kidding?
  
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Crafty, Rebel, Fruit, Ruffian by alito · 2005-10-01 16:37 · Score: 5, Informative

First major player!?
Crafty's been available for linux for over a decade. It has always been a major player and still wins the occassional tournament (including CCT6). It's free and source is available to boot.
get from ftp://ftp.cis.uab.edu/pub/hyatt

Rebel's been available for linux for a couple of years

Fruit came second in the latest WCCC (above shredder). It was GPL (decided to go commercial after that result), but the GPL version from a couple of weeks before the tournament can be gotten from http://wbec-ridderkerk.nl/ (download section)

And as mentioned in a prior comment, version 1.1 of Zappa (version 2 is current WCCC champion) is available free for linux.

Ruffian is another very strong (top 10) engine, also available for linux.

(btw, it's Shredder, not Schredder)
Spelling lesson by tsa · 2005-10-01 17:48 · Score: 0, Offtopic

...has released a version of it's chess engine for Linux ...

This is a common error that I see more and more on the Interweb. It's getting annoying, so I will explain:

A ' replaces something that we are too lazy to type, so it's means it is. If you are talking about a part or a property of something, you use its, not it's.

I hope this is clear to everybody. This was a free lesson to improve your English, brought to you by tsa from Holland.

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1. Re:Spelling lesson by oirtemed · 2005-10-02 08:28 · Score: 1
  
  ummm...while your efforts are noble the confusion comes from the fact that for most words 's denotes possesion. It's better to explain it as a special case than to try to explain ' as denoting a replacement, as its use is not always that way.
First link is empty by idonthack · 2005-10-02 10:41 · Score: 1

First link (ftp://ftp.cis.uab.edu/pub/hyatt) is entirely empty.
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1. Re:First link is empty by alito · 2005-10-02 22:01 · Score: 1
  
  hmm, so it is. It's still pointed everywhere as the main source of crafty, so i don't know if this is a permanent void. You can email Robert Hyatt, or you can just download it from one of the distributions (gentoo, at least, carries it).
2. Re:First link is empty by Anonymous Coward · 2005-10-03 21:53 · Score: 0
  
  An empty directory may actually be an improvement from not being able to log in at all. Apparently they've been having hardware problems for some time now:
  
  220-Welcome to the UAB CIS ftp server 220- 220-IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT - Sep 7th, 2005 220- 220-Unfortunately, despite trying to debug the problem 220-from every available angle, the disk array which 220-houses the ftp files continues to fail. We have 220-made every effort to diagnose and fix the 220-problem. Among the steps taken, we have tried 220-three different SCSI cables, three different 220-servers with three different OSes, three separate 220-SCSI controller cards, and have swapped out the 220-SCSI controller inside the disk array. We've also 220-direct-attached the SCSI disk array to the ftp server 220-to remove NFS from the setup. Unfortunately, 220-each of these provided only temporary relief at best. 220- 220-The only option remaining is to move the files to a 220-different storage. However, the current storage is a 220-1.5 terabyte disk array, which does not come cheap. 220-It is beyond our means at this time. We continue to search for a 220-solution. However, in the meantime, the files will not 220-be available. We recognize that many have been 220-inconvenienced by the instability of the system, and we 220-are not happy with the level of service we can provide 220-with the current hardware. We want you to know that we 220-are attempting to find a solution, and will post updates 220-as they become available.