Somewhat of a backhanded compliment to Watson, but a good read none-the-less.
Watson vs Wolfram
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Seirawan Chess, Where's the Computer Version?
Chess never stops changing, and this recent addition comes with what I love most, really cool new pieces!
I just got my chess set in the mail from House of Staunton and I'm dying to play. In this chess variant there are two new pieces introduced, the Hawk and the Elephant.
- The Hawk is nimble and quick and has the power of a Biship and a Knight.
- The Elephant is truly mighty with the powers of a Rook and a Knight.
This game is played on a regular chess board with only slightly modified rules for allowing the new pieces to enter the game. I haven't played, but can imagine all of the new and exciting mating patterns.
We need a computer version of this game!
-AlienDjinn
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Ghost of Dark Chess Future
I'm obviously not posting very often, but still playing Dark Chess. Like all online games, the eventual low tide sets in and the community shrinks. Inevitably it becomes harder to find games, even for the king of strategy games.
With hundreds of game under my belt, I'm content to keep playing with the devout dark chess fans and occasionally twisting my friend's arms. I'm also content knowing that Dark Chess breathes new life into Chess by trading the dominance of timeless strategies for cage mage tactical battles.
If I was to rattle the crystal ball and wish upon a possible future, it would look something like the following:
1) Someone needs to build a computer AI (that doesn't cheat) to train a new core of Dark Chess foot soliders. Here's a site that started the process but unfortunately stopped development. http://www.silvertreerpg.org/dark/
2) This fun varient needs to be included every online Chess game. The rules are almost identical and player vs player play should be simple to program.
3) There needs to be a Dark Chess championship. If #2 exists, why not? It can only serve to draw new players into the sport.
4) My ultimate wishlist. A "Battleship" style form factor electronic chess board where players can't see each others moves but would allow for boardgame like play.
Well that's my two cents. If you have any comments on the strategy guide, please feel free to post your feedback!
-KSR
xbox Gamertag: WarpedPositron
With hundreds of game under my belt, I'm content to keep playing with the devout dark chess fans and occasionally twisting my friend's arms. I'm also content knowing that Dark Chess breathes new life into Chess by trading the dominance of timeless strategies for cage mage tactical battles.
If I was to rattle the crystal ball and wish upon a possible future, it would look something like the following:
1) Someone needs to build a computer AI (that doesn't cheat) to train a new core of Dark Chess foot soliders. Here's a site that started the process but unfortunately stopped development. http://www.silvertreerpg.org/dark/
2) This fun varient needs to be included every online Chess game. The rules are almost identical and player vs player play should be simple to program.
3) There needs to be a Dark Chess championship. If #2 exists, why not? It can only serve to draw new players into the sport.
4) My ultimate wishlist. A "Battleship" style form factor electronic chess board where players can't see each others moves but would allow for boardgame like play.
Well that's my two cents. If you have any comments on the strategy guide, please feel free to post your feedback!
-KSR
xbox Gamertag: WarpedPositron
Friday, April 11, 2008
Broken Chess – The Ubisoft Chess Expansion for Xbox
When Ubisoft unveiled their chess expansion on Xbox Live it was expected to be a quantum leap forward for consoles and offer a new generation of chess players fun variants to get them interested the sport. Soon the chess community was amazed as the leader boards started being populated by chess immortals descending from the heavens to play amongst the denizens of Xbox Live. Then something strange happened as we got the chance to play with these highly ranked players, they just wouldn’t play back.
Unfortunately due to a major software bug with multiplayer ranked matches, Chessmaster Live has become prone to a host of people cheating to win games. The bug enables players who start a match, to automatically win if their opponent leaves before the game begins. That encourages these cheaters to never start the game in the hopes that the person they're playing against will eventually give up and quit.
Last night I joined a 1 hour Dark Chess match and my opponent wouldn't start playing. I sent him a message to please not cheat and I got the following response:
"wont start srry... not my kind game sorry only 4 achievement dont want to wasted r time"
With a few subsequent messages, he said he “was watching Lost” and would leave the game “running for the next 8 hours” in order to win. Yeah, thanks for being a cheater pal!
As the chess community started coming together to discuss the problems it became clear that what could have been one of the most feature rich XBox Live games ever, was released with several major software defects. (Summarized below)
A) Cheaters are able to win games by never moving after a ranked match has started, because they receive a victory if their opponent leaves the game.
B) Message Chess Hell - the feature to play chess via mail, is effectively non-functional. You can't invite friends to a message chess game (no one can believe that feature was omitted) and lots of people can't even open their Message Chess Inbox at all now.
After more research I confirmed online that people were actively posting on how to use these defects to win at chess. They call their exploits "Boosting." Nothing like a good sounding name to help them sleep at night!
Unfortunately the first issue is creating the perfect storm for achievement whores who not only want XBOX Achievements but also want to get a high Chess ELO and be known as a chess god. That issue has effectively ruined the leader boards by littering it with fake Grandmasters.
As the Xbox Chess community loudly clamored for a fix, an employee of Ubisoft (in a different group) unofficially reported on the forums that Ubisoft Europe had ported the game, but that there were not any immediate plans for a patch coming. He said he would try to ask for a fix internally but didn’t believe he would be very successful and recommended that everyone call support for help.
I contacted Ubisoft Support directly and their representative stated that they didn’t have a lot of information about Xbox Live Marketplace games, but that I should also encourage my friends to report the issue. Wow, two Ubisoft employees publicly instructing people to pound on their company! More people called and I was even able to get the moderator on Chessmasterlive.com to enquire if any fixes were coming.
The following weekend we thought our pleas were answered and were excited to see that a patch had finally been released for Chessmaster Live! However our hopes were crushed when we discovered that the patch was merely to sell 5 additional downloadable chess sets. The Chessmaster.com moderator confirmed this was the case, and gave us the appropriate condolences.
This weekend there is a promotion to reward players who are online. The contest is sponsored by the Hip-Hop Chess Federation. That’s somewhat encouraging news for the Xbox community, but ultimately these issues need to be addressed and the leaderboards wiped clean.
Overall I find it incredibly insulting that Ubisoft can be bothered to patch the game to make more money, but yet there's no time to do the tiniest of fixes to stop the blatant cheaters ruining this game. I've been a good Xbox citizen by trying to rally the troops to ask for help, but so far all of our efforts have been ignored. If these fundamental issues aren't fixed soon with Chessmaster Live, I think the only option left for the community will be to boycott the game and ask Microsoft for a refund due to a defective product.
-KSR
Unfortunately due to a major software bug with multiplayer ranked matches, Chessmaster Live has become prone to a host of people cheating to win games. The bug enables players who start a match, to automatically win if their opponent leaves before the game begins. That encourages these cheaters to never start the game in the hopes that the person they're playing against will eventually give up and quit.
Last night I joined a 1 hour Dark Chess match and my opponent wouldn't start playing. I sent him a message to please not cheat and I got the following response:
"wont start srry... not my kind game sorry only 4 achievement dont want to wasted r time"
With a few subsequent messages, he said he “was watching Lost” and would leave the game “running for the next 8 hours” in order to win. Yeah, thanks for being a cheater pal!
As the chess community started coming together to discuss the problems it became clear that what could have been one of the most feature rich XBox Live games ever, was released with several major software defects. (Summarized below)
A) Cheaters are able to win games by never moving after a ranked match has started, because they receive a victory if their opponent leaves the game.
B) Message Chess Hell - the feature to play chess via mail, is effectively non-functional. You can't invite friends to a message chess game (no one can believe that feature was omitted) and lots of people can't even open their Message Chess Inbox at all now.
After more research I confirmed online that people were actively posting on how to use these defects to win at chess. They call their exploits "Boosting." Nothing like a good sounding name to help them sleep at night!
Unfortunately the first issue is creating the perfect storm for achievement whores who not only want XBOX Achievements but also want to get a high Chess ELO and be known as a chess god. That issue has effectively ruined the leader boards by littering it with fake Grandmasters.
As the Xbox Chess community loudly clamored for a fix, an employee of Ubisoft (in a different group) unofficially reported on the forums that Ubisoft Europe had ported the game, but that there were not any immediate plans for a patch coming. He said he would try to ask for a fix internally but didn’t believe he would be very successful and recommended that everyone call support for help.
I contacted Ubisoft Support directly and their representative stated that they didn’t have a lot of information about Xbox Live Marketplace games, but that I should also encourage my friends to report the issue. Wow, two Ubisoft employees publicly instructing people to pound on their company! More people called and I was even able to get the moderator on Chessmasterlive.com to enquire if any fixes were coming.
The following weekend we thought our pleas were answered and were excited to see that a patch had finally been released for Chessmaster Live! However our hopes were crushed when we discovered that the patch was merely to sell 5 additional downloadable chess sets. The Chessmaster.com moderator confirmed this was the case, and gave us the appropriate condolences.
This weekend there is a promotion to reward players who are online. The contest is sponsored by the Hip-Hop Chess Federation. That’s somewhat encouraging news for the Xbox community, but ultimately these issues need to be addressed and the leaderboards wiped clean.
Overall I find it incredibly insulting that Ubisoft can be bothered to patch the game to make more money, but yet there's no time to do the tiniest of fixes to stop the blatant cheaters ruining this game. I've been a good Xbox citizen by trying to rally the troops to ask for help, but so far all of our efforts have been ignored. If these fundamental issues aren't fixed soon with Chessmaster Live, I think the only option left for the community will be to boycott the game and ask Microsoft for a refund due to a defective product.
-KSR
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Dark Chess Strategy Guide
Hi Chess Fans,
So far I have found 47 ways to not win at Dark Chess (my current # of multi-player losses).
Well the school of hard knocks doesn't come without a few transcripts and my copious notes & musings on this subject are below. I'm not formally trained in Chess strategy so please forgive my Genghis Khan style of describing what I'm sure are has been more eloquently defined countless times before.
Feel free to send me any additions, corrections, omissions or other feedback you have.
http://docs.google.com/View?docid=df72cxcs_20gj8jfvdm
I hope you enjoy!
-KSR
So far I have found 47 ways to not win at Dark Chess (my current # of multi-player losses).
Well the school of hard knocks doesn't come without a few transcripts and my copious notes & musings on this subject are below. I'm not formally trained in Chess strategy so please forgive my Genghis Khan style of describing what I'm sure are has been more eloquently defined countless times before.
Feel free to send me any additions, corrections, omissions or other feedback you have.
http://docs.google.com/View?docid=df72cxcs_20gj8jfvdm
I hope you enjoy!
-KSR
(This information is copywrited and should not be distributed publicly without express permission)
Dark Chess Introduction
Hi Everyone,
I just started playing chess again and I've become addicted to Dark Chess, a game where you only see those pieces which you can attack. What I enjoy most is that this game is the great equalizer. Your opponent doesn't know if they are playing Gary Kasparov or the kid next door.
This mind bending game is securely stuck in the middle of the fog of war. That fact makes the improbable made possible, and with a little strategy, luck, and daring you can beat anyone, anywhere, anytime.
-KSR
I just started playing chess again and I've become addicted to Dark Chess, a game where you only see those pieces which you can attack. What I enjoy most is that this game is the great equalizer. Your opponent doesn't know if they are playing Gary Kasparov or the kid next door.
This mind bending game is securely stuck in the middle of the fog of war. That fact makes the improbable made possible, and with a little strategy, luck, and daring you can beat anyone, anywhere, anytime.
-KSR
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