So now I’m lying in bed with my laptop. How does one enjoy one’s chess when sick?

Well, there are things which can be done. For example, I call up Fritz 12 and run it in “Friend Mode.” Fritz has various training capabilities. Among them are “Sparring Mode” and “Friend Mode.”

Training modes in Fritz 12

In Sparring Mode (as I understand it,) Fritz will occasionally make deliberate moves which will allow the human to take tactical shots.

“Friend Mode” adjusts the playing strength of Fritz according to your wins and losses. On choosing the option, a window opens:

The "Friendly Game" Mode of Fritz

What this window tells me is that I have played 37 “Friend Mode” games against Fritz, and my win percentage is 39%. It also shows my current handicap. While I can adjust this up or down, it keeps track for me. If I win, it decreases the handicap and Fritz plays stronger. If I lose, it increases the handicap and Fritz plays weaker. While this can lead to some odd situations (like when I see Fritz has a win on the board I can see, but it intentionally plays a move by which I can draw,) it nevertheless allows me to not have to always experience the futility of playing a computer.

The mode is designed to be a “friend” against whom you both win and lose against. (It also has the side effect of ‘progressive resistance’ training – building up a player’s strength by presenting challenges just above one’s current playing level.)

So, even when down-and-out, I am able to enjoy my chess. Until I return from my sickness, I hope that you’re able to find ways to

Enjoy your Chess!

What I wanted to do was have a screen saver that would present games where the moves would be animated on a board. (Historically significant games, games with openings /tactics / endgames I’m working on, my own games, whatever.)

ChessBase has the capability to take a game and create an HTML/javascript replay, and an option to animate the board in replay. (For an example: http://laughingvulcan.org/chess/games/testss/base.htm )

Then a bit of careful Googling led me to Web Screen Saver 2010. A quick install later, using ChessBase to create 50 games from 1700-1863 to start with for display, pointing the screensaver to them, a little more configuration, and voila! I now have my chess screen saver.

When running, you don’t see the browswer frame – it’s all full screen. It’s also interactive – I can click on the moves and replay them from that point. (And I’m not sure if it’s bug or feature, but clicking correctly stops the replay until the next game in the screen saver loads or one manually refreshes the page – I can actually manually step through the game. I’ve configured the program that mousing and mouseclicks don’t wake it up, but pressing any keyboard key.)

The screen saver program is good enough that I’ll be coughing up the $19.99 for it.

Having historic games replay on my computers when they’re idle is another way I’ve found to enjoy my chess. Creatively adapting existing solutions is yet another way to

Enjoy your Chess!

But my copy of Fritz 12 arrived today. It installed without a hitch, and it is at least as excellent as I’d hoped for. (In fact, moreso after a few minutes usage.) I won’t be trying to install it to my old laptop. (That machine is heading towards a full-on install of Ubuntu Linux.)

Full review coming to this blog, soon!

I also heard back from ChessBase support today. Sadly, what I had all-but-proven is true: ChessBase 2007 won’t install to my new system. The support I’ve received, however, has been most excellent. It, in part, has caused me to purchase the Premium version of ChessBase 2009 Light.

While I could probably suvive with alternatives, there were several factors that went into my deciding I needed the ChessBase. The excellent service I’ve received is one. Second is that ChessBase really does manage to improve their products significantly with each new release. I can count on the folks at CB to keep improving their products to keep up with the state of the art. One clincher is how easy I have found both preparing diagrams and generating the full replay boards using ChessBase – a very handy tool for a budding Chess Blogger. Next to last, I anticipate no problems with the new software and adding in the Fritz 12 that I just got as a UCI engine. Finally, ChessBase also provides chess world news and information – check out the link in my sidebar to them. I like supporting companies that support Chess beyond what would be simply necessary to sell their product.

Add it all up, and I’m glad that I found the free version of ChessBase back at Version 6.

OK, off to other things, but I hope that you too can find the tools which help you best to

Enjoy your Chess!

But first: Get screen protectors for your device. Without screen protectors your PDA’s touchscreen will have a limited life. (Especially if you’re using it to record Blitz games.) I know whereof I speak in this. Like the song that advises you to use sunscreen, this is an essential protection need!

As a professional, I have managed to take an iPhone screen protector and cut it down for my PDA – and it looks like it’s working well so far. (Time will tell, and I do not advise trying that at home!)

Other less essential items to have: A spare battery for the unit (if your unit’s battery can be replaced by user.) Mine can – and I intend to get a spare one. I may start using an SD external card – still thinking on that one. The Axim I have does have a CF slot, and I have an old CF based WiFi card – not as sure about that one. I will still have a backup manual scorekeeping method. My old equipment case is up to the challenge I have found, but one does have to account for that, also. Additional power adapters may help, as well, for on-site charging if necessary.

But there is one other essential: A case to carry it in. (This assumes that one doesn’t come with it.) The MonRoi does have a hard plastic screen protecting cover. My Axim didn’t come with case – though that might change with future runs, Sevan tells me.

So… what to do? Answer: Trip to Hobby Lobby! I spent an hour plus finding primary components to build my own box from. I had settled on an unfinished card box, some tools, felt, etc. to convert it. Then I found something that with some modding will work better.

My picture-intense solution after the cut!

I came across one of these decorative boxes, and I had a flash of inspiration:

Thank you Hobby Lobby!

Looks like a book, but it's not!

A nice soft bed a PDA can fit in!

I also drilled a small hole in the thick rim to act as a PDA stylus holder. Here’s the inspiration I had: I can not only use this as a storage case, but it also can be used during the game to hold the device at a readable angle! (My father had once helped me build a similar desk stand for my first PDA, an Apple Newton.)

Then I had to solve the hold-it-closed problem. Taking inspiration from the ‘book’ look of the case I decided I could rig up an “old school” ribbon-and-button closure. And now my brain is clicking: Why not use a sawed-down bolt, nut, and washer as the button? How steampunk!

Now I’m in full steampunk-creativity mode. If I’m adding the ribbon and peg closure (which is actually functional,) why not add a “label,” akin to old-school journals? Consultation with the wife helped, as she provided me with ribbon and a photobox with a riveted pot-metal label holder. (She actually wanted the label holder off the photobox, so it’s win-win!)

A couple minutes with OpenOffice and printer, drill out rivets from label holder, recycling the rivet heads, and Elmer’s Glue to actually glue the “removable” label to the frame of the holder.

And finally, a bit of JB-Weld to put it all together. And the result is:

A Steampunked PDA Case!

Now everybody shall know whose this is and what it is for!

And opening it up reveals….

Snug in its bed, while visions of Digital Pawns dance in its head!

It works!

It really works!

It really, really works!

Yes, that is a e-Scoresheet case in my hand, and I *am* happy to play you!

The case fits at the right, just barely but it does! All ready for tourney play!

Enjoy your Chess!

More specifically, I forgot to read that little paragraph in many ads and sites for software. The paragraph that starts, “System Requirements.” And this turns out to be a problem…

I mentioned yesterday that I had ordered Fritz 12 from USCF via Amazon. But while glancing at December’s “Chess Life” I looked at the Fritz 12 ad on the back cover. The system requirements paragraph there reads, “Pentium III 1GHz, 512 MB RAM, Windows Vista, XP (Service Pack 3), Direct X9 Graphics card with 256 MB RAM, DVD-ROM drive, Windows-Media Player 9 and Internet access for activation and updates.” And ChessBase’s site and elsewhere confirms this.

My problem: My aged laptop is 256 MB RAM. *Grr* *Facepalm.* And it’s the only machine I have left. This is the first time I’ve ever noticed a higher-than-256MB requirement in a playing program. Fritz 11 simply required 64 MB minimum.

Rybka, the leading competitor, has the same requirement for RAM.

So now I’m left with four choices, as best as I can figure. Four “candidate moves”:

• Call my local computer shop and see if they can get RAM cards memory for this beast. I’ve already popped the memory access on the laptop and done some online research… This laptop can be upgraded to a total 1GB memory, or I could just replace the current main RAM from 256 to 512 MB. If I can get a compatible SODIMM. Expected cost: $40-$60, that I don’t have.
• Call USCF Sales and leave a message to see if I can kill the Fritz 12 order. *Grr.* Subplan: See if I can obtain Fritz 11 through Amazon, or re-evaluate the current crop of playing programs and find an alternative.
• Time to buy a new computer. But if I don’t have $60, then how can I finance a new computer? (Actually, I’m hoping that following taxes this year we might actually have a little surplus that could be applied…)
• Accept the order, then see just how tight that 512MB requirement is… (And/or contact ChessBase to ask them.)

As if that wasn’t enough, the Sys Reqs also list needing 256 MB video RAM. My laptop is 32MB video RAM according to CNET’s specs.

But my main interest is not to buy a program to play with, but rather to have a better and improved engine for my analysis. (Come to that, if I can get the thing installed and running for analysis under ChessBase, I know I could install and use WinBoard as the control interface to play the engine itself. ) Sidenote for future tools of the trade… One needs to ask what the end use of a playing program is. Yes, F12 looks very cool. But that’s not very helpful if you don’t care about how it looks.

The grand lesson to derive from this, dear reader, is to read the system requirements for a program before you actually click “Buy,” and make sure your system meets those requirements.

But, in one of those fun and interesting coincidences, my MP3 player just started playing the song “Only Solutions” by Journey. “Only Solutions… Don’t pull me down, I just want to hear Only Solutions. It won’t be long, it won’t take me too long…” Not to mention it’s the end credits music to the original movie Tron. Only Solutions… yeah!

UPDATE 1: Left a message for ChessBase technical support asking them if it was possible to get around the minimum sys reqs. Prepped messages to kill the order, if necessary. I decided to not call to see about memory price / availability (since the Video Memory kills the deal as well.) But I’ve also noted that Fritz 11 looks like it would run on my system. Hmm…..

UPDATE 2: I have been able to install the free Rybka 2.2 for analysis. (Rybka 3 is the current version.) Although I’m waiting to (hopefully!) hear back from ChessBase, I am now more inclined to cancel that order and work something else out.

Update late morning 12/26: Tomorrow’s blog post will detail some of my troubles – it turns out I may or may not be able to use the Fritz 12 I ordered.

The rest of this post may not be quite oriented to the beginning player – we’ll have to see! I am discussing theoretical options in regards to computer postmortem analysis for weaker players below the cut.

Chess Databases (such as my ChessBase 2007 Light Premium) allow one to activate a playing program to analyze positions in a game. It can be a powerful tool to help you see where you went wrong, where you went right, and where you made a solid move but there is something better. (Not to mention that if you’re a Club Player writing a Chess Blog, it helps you to avoid recommending blunders!)

But one has to use them intelligently. If your goal is improvement, you can’t simply let the program analyze for you, look at it and move on and think you have actually learned something to help you in your game. I believe chess improvement is in part a combination of memorization, variation conditioning via positive and negative feedback, and learning to think differently while playing your game. Letting a computer figure things out for you can sabotage the last of these. (Arguably the most important of the three.)

It is still useful, and probably necessary at some level of play, to allow your computer to help you analyze positions.*

One problem, though, is that the advice isn’t always helpful. It is all well and good that moving White pawn to a3 on move 18 cements a positional advantage that comes to fruition with best play by both sides on move 32… Which is useful only if you reach that position itself, or a position in a future game that matches the need to put a3 with a positional advantage 18 moves later.

And that is if the player can even figure that out. There are many times I cannot figure out why the program decided a next move makes sense. Sure, you get to the end of the recommended line and things look good. But I can’t figure out how to apply the program’s reasoning the next time I am in a game. (The same can apply to studying Grandmaster games.) Or there is a different move, still good, but not the program’s first choice that I can understand.

One method that may help bridge the gap: Cripple the program a little. No, seriously. Let the program calculate out on only a certain number of plies** ahead. This method is actually used by some playing programs to reduce their playing strength and give a weaker player a “fighting chance.” But limiting the ply depth of the search algorithm might also limit the program to the best options possible at the limit of your depth to understand.

Another advantage: If your program is searching to a reasonably low fixed ply depth, it may possible for it to calculate all possible board positions!*** Or at least, the reasonable positions.

Edited to add 12/26 11AM: As I was adding Rybka 2.2 to ChessBase this morning I discovered that one of its parameters is a way to adjust the Elo performance of the Engine. This may be a more efficient way to ‘dumb down’ the computer analysis to a more understandable level. I’m not sure if this is a general parameter for UCI engines or if it is something particular to Rybka. (Though I still think my fixed-ply idea has a little better merit.) It still carries the same risk as below in so far as limiting the computer’s strength may provide less-than-optimal analysis.

This has a risk as well, depending on how much you limit the search depth. If you limit to 8 ply, for instance, and the 8th ply looks cool but leads to a forced mate just outside the ply depth… Not good!

There is no single method that I’m aware of that can make this perfect. Another big factor: How far do you currently look ahead? (Both generally and in depth on candidate moves.) I think setting the engine to that level (or that level plus one) might lead to the most rapid improvement to the next level of one’s play, as well as allowing for increasing that ply depth over time as one’s strength improves.

I’m toying with the following concept for my own study:

ChessBase allows one to open multiple engines to analyze a position with. My poor and aged laptop isn’t quite up to snuff for this, but I have done it and it is possible. What I might start doing: Engage one engine in a full-power analysis mode, and then engage the other engine in a fixed-ply mode. (Maybe use different engines, maybe use two parallel-running copies of the same – don’t know yet.)

My immediate challenge is in learning how to issue the instructions via the UCI interface to limit the program to the ply depth I want.

This is one avenue I’ll be testing in the next few weeks and months to help me improve and thus better enjoy my chess. I’ll post the technical details as I am able to make it occur, and I hope the above might help you to better

Enjoy your Chess!

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Footnotes

* Another method that some find useful: Run through the game manually the first time through. As you identify various candidate moves and variations – better and worse – in your manual analysis, enter them as new variations. Then use the program to either confirm or refute your judgment. This is also a powerful improvement method.

** A “ply” is a single move by a player. 1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 would be “3 plies.” 1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 is 4 ply. But if you’re starting out from Black’s first move through Black’s second move (1. …e5 2. Nc3 Nf6,) you have returned to 3 ply. It is a common term in the field of computer chess.

*** (I haven’t done the math on this – I’m first guessed the number of fixed ply positions should be n*(p!), where n is the number of possible moves for the player and p! is the factorial of the ply depth. An awesome number, but reachable.

Actually, on second thought as I type this, the actual equation would probably be a sum iteration of the possible candidate moves for each side in a given position multiplied by the factorial of the ply depth remaining. I’m not sure how to write that mathematically, but I’ll learn to just for the joy of learning! This is an even larger awesomely huge number unless there are very few possible move candidates and also the ply depth is extremely limited.

But, from experience, I know that my playing programs get up to 12 or 13 ply depth fairly quickly by using various pruning and candidate move selection methods. I think my proposal is still sound, though the math in a brute force analysis does not add up.)

I absolutely love running the computer. And, aside from a recording error that happened on the floor in one round and some people who failed to register their teams or registered the wrong team, I think I had an error-free run.

This is what I want to do as a TD. (Though eventually I would like to floor direct, also, just for the experience.)

More later. Bed now.