GNUChess Match on Android

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I ran an engine-engine match between Michel Van den Bergh's two latest GNUChess engines in Chess for Android, playing 100 games (50 fixed book opening lines from both sides) on a Nexus One (1GHz Snapdragon), one second-per-move, Hash 16MB, TB cache 8MB, complete 3- and 4-piece Gaviota endgame tablebases on SD card (only 5.07.170.7b supports Gaviota).
            
1   GNU Chess 5.07.153.3b-32        +42/-33/=25 54.50%   54.5/100
2   GNU Chess 5.07.170.7b-libgtb-3  +33/-42/=25 45.50%   45.5/100



Comments

Anonymous said…
Great work Aart, having UCI engines on a small device is really exciting. Consider also this is the ONLY program with multi-engine support running on Android and, generally speaking, on an up to-date OS (the best programs are still on WMobile, but this platform has gone).

You have a great responsibility now!
:-)

Your application is perfectly suited for the casual player, but in my opinion something has to be done for the serious players that will be now attracted by the wide range of playing strenght.

Some suggestions and requests:
- It is a bit annoying to re-import the engine (and set again the parameters) every time you close the application. It
happens to me several times per game...
- I found only part of the engines described as available, nor i was able to handle i.e. the toga "binaries" in van der bergh site. What about making things easier for non programmers?
- Really missing an analyze option. An analysis with multi-PV option would be great: this would put your baby a step ahead of any mobile chess application (even commercial ones).
- An engine book path on the general UCI parameters would be welcome. Also other widely used parameters could be added, like contempt or selectivity.
- Different kind of levels, i.e. fixed time, fixed depth, blitz.
- PGN file saving and reading.
- Graphics is ok, but missing more choice on pieces (alpha and merida suggested).
February 14, 2011 at 8:13 AM
Aart Bik said…
Thanks for your detailed comments, which all make a lot of sense! Please note that I recently released a version that saves games as PGN to SD card (in addition to just to internal memory), while reading PGN from SD is soon-to-be-released. As for the other requests, please keep an eye on this blog.....
February 14, 2011 at 11:54 AM
Meg said…
Hi Aart,
Thats a gr8 app u hav there!! wonderful..I myself am a beginner with android development,...I would be so glad if you could help me out with just this problem i have..tel me how can I implement a board for a board game on android, with the board having click-able cells and movable pieces in it. I am trying to develop the stratego game on android,plz help.thank you.!
February 21, 2011 at 11:43 PM
Aart Bik said…
Hi Meg,
I actually did not make the individual squares click-able components. Instead, I simply display a single board in which I translate "touch events" to the corresponding square. Pieces are simple bitmaps. Hopes this gets you started.
Aart
February 23, 2011 at 9:43 AM
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