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Subject: Winboard Is Actually Quite Easy To Use!

Author: Graham Laight

Date: 10:13:57 02/25/00

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On February 25, 2000 at 10:56:58, Pete Galati wrote:

>On February 25, 2000 at 06:20:17, Graham Laight wrote:
>
>>On February 24, 2000 at 19:18:07, Pete Galati wrote:
>>
>>>On February 24, 2000 at 18:59:48, Graham Laight wrote:
>[.....
>>>
>>>What kind of tablebases were you allowing Bringer to use?  Bringer's a very cool
>>>little program, but on it's own without any tablebases, I don't think it plays
>>>such a great endgame, it is stronger than me however.
>>
>>I don't have a problem with Bringer's endgame - I think it is very good in this
>>respect.
>>
>>In fact, Bringer is really very good in general. However, in the situation of
>>being a queen down, it's strength seems to be a handicap - it prevents it from
>>playing aggressive looking (but unsound) tactical moves that might induce panic
>>in the opponent.
>>
>>If you want to see a bad endgame, try  playing Travel Champion 2100! TC-2100
>>really relies on having the game already won before it gets to the endgame. This
>>it can achieve against most of us - Franz Morsch seems to have programmed it to
>>tactically "mix it" like crazy! However - if you can survive the middle game
>>mayhem, the endgame is astonishingly easy to win.
>>
>>>Try Winboard, the Winboard Comet, and Crafty, and if you don't have them yet,
>>>get yourself a collection of endgame tablebases at
>>>ftp://ftp.cis.uab.edu/pub/hyatt/  There's also several other Winboard engines
>>>that are stronger than Bringer, try SOS, AnMon, Little Goliath, and The Crazy
>>>Bishop is such a tactical masterpiece yet it doesn't get mentioned often enough,
>>>I didn't use it for the longest time because I didn't understand how to set up
>>>TCB, this was a mistake on my part, TCB is great.
>>
>>I have tended to avoid Winboard programs because of comments I have read on this
>>forum.
>>
>>The impression I get is that the interface precludes access to many features
>>(e.g. mainline analysis).
>
>Depending on your perspective on Winboard, it is or isn't filled with features,
>many of us will say that it's the best because it has no fluff.  The problem
>with avoiding Winboard is that you prevent yourself from using the _best_
>download engines.  Being a Queen up isn't enough to win a game for me, but if
>you're at all a strong player, then you're probably looking for the strongest
>download engine to go against, that's why Winboard's interface should interest
>you, it'll allow you to play against strong programs like Crafty, Comet, TCB,
>LGol, etc., and those programs are partly crippled if you try to interface them
>through the great Chessbase interfaces, so the Winboard bare-bones interface
>gives them the most strength.

Hey - I've just downloaded Winboard and used it to play against The Crazy Bishop
- it wasn't really difficult!

The disappointment was TCB's ability to play a queen down - like Bringer, it
allowed me to exchange down the pieces rather too easily.

Let's face it - most chess computers are really brilliant wonders - but to be
able to play the right way in all situations, they are going to need huge
amounts of knowledge.

-g

>>
>>With a Winboard program, is it possible to set the clocks for a program to G/5?
>>
>>Is it possible to set different times for each player?
>
>Not that I know of, you can set it so that the flag doesn't drop and call you on
>time though.
>
>>
>>-g
>>
>>>See the Winboard page for some of the download locations for these programs
>>>http://www.research.digital.com/SRC/personal/Tim_Mann/chess.html
>>>
>>>Pete



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