Author: Richard A. Fowell
Date: 01:04:14 01/27/05
Go up one level in this thread
Appended is a review of mine from UseNet in 1996. At the end is this list of
some of the
chess programs availalble on the Mac at the time:
Software CCR test Maresch test Comments
6100/66 Quadra 610
Speed Dblr (Endings)
=====================================
HIARCS 1.0 63 25 *Commercial - $150
Sigma Chess 2.0 56 21 Commercial - $ 60
Sargon V 52 23 Commercial - $ 20
MacChess 2.5 45 18 *Freeware
Grandmaster Chess 45 15 Commercial, native
Psion Chess 1.6 43 12 Commercial - out of print
Crafty 9.30 38 15 *Freeware, source avail, native
Chessmaster 3000 36 10 Commercial, many features
CheckMate 1.05 14 ? Commercial, modem play
GNUChess 4.0b5 14 12 *Freeware, source avail, native
Rchess 2.01 ? ? *Freeware, says easy to beat
These aren't the oldest versions, of course.
MacChess 1.0 was written in Dec. 1994
MacChess 2.0 was released Dec. 1995 after playing in the Dutch Open that year on
a
20 Mhz Macintosh Centris 610.
Chessmaster 2000 and 2100 were released on the Macintosh
Richard A. Fowell
Sep 21 1996, 12:00 am show options
Review of Sigma Chess 2.0 for Macintosh
Sigma Chess 2.0 is a very strong chess program for the Macintosh.
It is distributed by Chessbase. The authors are Ole Kjaer Chistensen
and Kaare Danielsen, of LogiSoft ApS. I saw it advertised in Chess Life,
and bought it. Here's my review.
A list of other Mac chess programs, and sources, is at the end.
In particular, MacChess 2.5 is a very nice freeware chess program.
General Impressions:
Sigma Chess seems very strong. Based on the two problem tests I ran,
it is the second or third strongest publicly available Mac chess program
(weaker than HIARCS, but too close to call vs. Sargon V).
Overall, a nicely done program, too.
Minimum System Requirements:
Sigma Chess 2.0: 68020, System 7.X, 640x480 screen, 16 colors, 750Kb RAM.
Sigma Chess 1.3 (included) can handle small or b/w displays)
(PowerMac is fine, more memory helps with hash tables, openings)
Like all 680X0 Macintosh chess programs, it runs faster (ca. 3.4x faster)
on my PowerMac 6100/66 when I use the Connectix utility "Speed Doubler".
Description of Sigma Chess 2.0 display
The display is a single, non-resizable window. The bottom edge is a
full-length toolbar. The left 60% of the window has the board display with
time and name for each side above and below it. The right 40% has the game
record in a top pane, a middle pane with the Main Line (Principal Variation)
and Search Tree, and a bottom pane with score, ply/number of candidates
considered at this ply, current candidate, and number of nodes searched.
A slider lets you reallocate the relative height of the top and middle panes.
The toolbar has four sections:
* 5-button VCR-style set of controls for replaying games.
* four buttons (New game, Save Game, Open Game, Edit Position).
* four buttons (Turn board, Load library, Edit library, Print game)
* Help display - Displays toolbar command name from the time the mouse is
depressed on a toolbard button until the mouse button is released.
All toolbar button commands are duplicated in the application menus.
Above and below the board are a time display (00:00:00), and the player
names, which are set by a menu dialog box. The board is also bordered on
the left by rank numbers, and on the bottom by file letters. The board
squares are 42x42 pixels, and the pieces (defined in a PICT resource) are
profile views of a Staunton set. I prefer "diagram" style pieces, but this
set is quite usable and attractive. The board squares are brown and white
in 16-colors, brown and butter at 256-colors or higher. There are 6
selectable color schemes, but they affect the colors of the window and the
board border, not the board square colors. Odd.
All move displays use long algebraic notation. The game record is in a
scrollable window. The main line and search tree are in fixed windows.
The search tree is largely a blur, since moves are considered so fast,
but at deeper search depths, the early moves in the tree are readable.
The score appears to be in "pawns" to two decimal places.
Search speed (nodes/second) varies with position and search depth, but
searching to 8 ply in response to 1. a3:
7,000 nodes/second on a 6100/66 w/o Speed Doubler
13,000 nodes/second on a Quadra 610 (25Mhz 68040),
23,500 nodes/second on a 6100/66 with Speed Doubler
Noteworthy features (present in no more than one other Mac chess program)
* editable opening book, compatible with Fritz opening books
* tool bar with a "what this button does" display at the right.
* Window color selectable
* Includes two versions: Sigma Chess 1.3 (b/w) and Sigma Chess 2.0 (16-color).
Sigma Chess 1.3 has a smaller display, with 3 movable windows, b/w.
- Computer resignation can be enabled
- Computer mate announcement can be enabled
- Displays search tree
- Cursor takes on color of side to move (as in MacChess)
- Game replay controls are "VCR-style" buttons (as in MacChess 2.5)
More common features
- displays number of nodes searched
- Piece move is by click & drag
- Piece pictures are "side view of Staunton set"
- Computer thinking can be set by "X minutes for Y moves", or search depth
- Special mate finder module (as MacChess)
Expected features:
(These features were present in all six Mac chess programs
I recently reviewed, so these are expected - omissions are noteworthy.
Sigma Chess lacks one - the "Hint" command.)
- 2D board display
- read/write games in own format
- Displays:
white pieces at top or bottom of board
time for both sides
move listing
principal variation
principal variation score
- Position setup
- "infinite" time mode
- can disable opening book
- can disable thinking on opponents time
- either human or computer can take either side
- "hint" command *** MISSING ***
- moves can be forced or retracted
- time and player displayed for both sides
- move listing displayed
Noteworthy omissions:
- multiple piece sets (the one provided is nice, though)
- native PowerMac code
- PGN/EPD support
- batch problem analysis
- game annotation
- "hide computer thinking" (fix: position window so thoughts are off-screen)
- pause command
- hint command
- modem support (fairly rare, anyway)
Technical stuff from the manual
Selective search with many extensions.
Ending knowledge: rule of the square, opposite colored bishops, other,
KPK info, KBNK info. (it plays out KBNK fine, but it's KPK info doesn't
seem to be that of a full tablebase). Supports hash tables up to 20Mb.
10bytes/position, 80kb or power of two times 80Kb. Uses four tables,
two/side. Recommends against large (10-20Mb) tables on slow machines
and/or blitz games.
Test results from problem tests I've run:
(Higher scores are better. Crafty's scores unusually low on the CCR test -
on the Louguet and BT2630 tests it scores above MacChess on PowerMacs
{but lower on 680X0 machines})
Software CCR test Maresch test Comments
6100/66 Quadra 610
Speed Dblr (Endings)
==================================================================
HIARCS 1.0 63 25 *Commercial - $150
Sigma Chess 2.0 56 21 Commercial - $ 60
Sargon V 52 23 Commercial - $ 20
MacChess 2.5 45 18 *Freeware
Grandmaster Chess 45 15 Commercial, native
Psion Chess 1.6 43 12 Commercial - out of print
Crafty 9.30 38 15 *Freeware, source avail, native
Chessmaster 3000 36 10 Commercial, many features
CheckMate 1.05 14 ? Commercial, modem play
GNUChess 4.0b5 14 12 *Freeware, source avail, native
Rchess 2.01 ? ? *Freeware, says easy to beat
* The freeware programs (and the demo for HIARCS) are available through
the Info-Mac internet archives and their mirrors.
One easy way of obtaining these is on the Web. Go to:
<http://hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/HyperArchive.html> and search for "chess"
Where to buy Sigma Chess:
Chessbase USA ($60 + S&H) 1-800-524-3527, 301-733-7541, luz...@intrepid.net
Chessbase GmbH (Germany) 040-630 10 63, 100433.2...@compuserve.com
fow...@netcom.com (Richard A. Fowell)
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