miniCHESS 2.0.8 review

miniCHESS is a chess game WindowMaker dockapp. miniCHESS was born out of boredom

License: GPL (GNU General Public License) File size: 24K Developer: Eric Davis

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miniCHESS is a chess game WindowMaker dockapp.

miniCHESS was born out of boredom. I warn you... if your a chess enthusiast and play a lot then please use xboard or some other chess gui.

Even though miniCHESS has that kinda cool factor, it does get hard on the eyes. I like using miniCHESS for games in which I'm in no hurry to finish and go on for a couple days.

Sorry but miniCHESS has no save/restore features yet.

Usage:

miniCHESS has a variety of options:

-h help
-t play text game (def = mouse game)
-r more random moves by the engine
-a hard, engine will also think on your time (def = no)
-d n max search depth used by the engine (def = 29)
-c n max time the engine gets to make a move (def = inf)
-T n size of the transposition table (def = 150001)
-C n size of the cache table (def = 18001)
-k #color background color for a checkmated king (def = #ff0000)
-b #color background color for the black pieces (def = #000000)
-f #color foreground color for the black pieces (def = #ffffff)
-1 #color color for the dark squares (def = #c8c365)
-2 #color color for the light squares (def = #77a26d)

If you specify a search depth (-d) to (say) 4 ply, the program will search until all moves have been examined to a depth of 4. If you set a maximum time (-t) per move and also use the depth option, the search will stop at the specified time or the specified depth, whichever comes first.

Gnuchess is a cpu hog while it's thinking. Be aware. When the hard option (-a) is specified then the engine thinks all the time and pins your cpu.

Also gnuchess can be a memory hog. Specifying the size of the transposition and cache tables will modify the memory used. See the memory usage excerpt from the gnuchess FAQ below.

White piece colors are the reverse of what is specified for the black pieces.