GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 731310
gnuchess difficulty
Last modified: 2018-05-22 12:23:56 UTC
seems that gnuchess is insanely difficult, and has options to dial down its difficulty. http://www.gnu.org/software/chess/manual/gnuchess.html this says you can generate a book and make it use random moves. i also request a mode to make engine go against engine or another engine. i also request board editing mode.
(In reply to comment #0) > seems that gnuchess is insanely difficult, and has options to dial down its > difficulty. What versions of GNOME Chess and GNU Chess are you using? We use different difficulty settings in 3.12 and I'd really appreciate your feedback on them, since they are mostly guesses based on a little bit of experimenting. The only really important one is Material, which makes it more likely to lose pieces. To use these settings in an older version of GNOME Chess, place these in /usr/share/engines.conf (GNOME Chess 3.8) or /etc/chess-engines.conf (GNOME Chess 3.10), replacing the content beneath the GNU Chess header that should already be there. (Apologies for the moving configuration file. Fair warning: in 3.12 it will instead check ~/.config/gnome-chess/engines.conf and then /etc/gnome-chess/engines.conf.) These settings require GNU Chess 6.0 (for UCI support) or they won't work at all. (Warning: GNU Chess prior to 6.1.0 has a bug that causes it to use 100% of your CPU in UCI mode.) protocol=uci binary=gnuchess arg-easy-0=--uci arg-normal-0=--uci arg-hard-0=--uci option-easy-0=Material 10 option-easy-1=Quiescence Check Plies 0 option-easy-2=NullMove Pruning var Never option-easy-3=Verification Search var Never option-easy-4=History Pruning false option-normal-0=Material 30 option-normal-1=Quiescence Check Plies 0 option-normal-2=NullMove Pruning var Never option-normal-3=History Pruning false If you are using GNOME Chess 3.8 (but not 3.8.0 or any lower version, which will be broken), the format for the options is a bit messier than that: option-easy-0=name Material value 10 option-easy-1=name Quiescence Check Plies value 0 option-easy-2=name NullMove Pruning var value Never etc. > i also request a mode to make engine go against engine or another engine. This is outside the scope of GNOME Chess, sorry. > i also request board editing mode. Feel free to file a different bug for this (importance: enhancement), though I'm not planning to implement it in the near future.
gnome chess 3.10.3 GNU Chess 6.1.1 seems as if the difficulty settings are not respected for most engines. board editing as in i setup scenarios. engine vs engine make the engines battle to the death, as i observe them. thanks for your prompt response. paths: i do not have any of those files under any of those paths. im funtoo linux and dont actually have gnome installed as i am -systemd
(In reply to comment #2) > gnome chess 3.10.3 > > GNU Chess 6.1.1 > > seems as if the difficulty settings are not respected for most engines. A lot of the settings we pass in 3.10 are not actually used, but these should be mostly all fixed in 3.12. > board editing as in i setup scenarios. engine vs engine make the engines > battle to the death, as i observe them. I understood these requests, but they're not related to this bug, so I was asking you to file a different bug report for one of them rather than lumping all three into this one bug. I was thinking that we don't want to add engine-vs-engine since that's not really interesting to a normal user, only to engine developers, but actually we might be able to hide that behind a command-line switch, so you can file a bug for that one as well. > i do not have any of those files under any of those paths. Are you sure? If you're using 3.10 then you are looking for /etc/chess-engines.conf. There is no way that GNOME Chess would be able to detect any chess engines without that file, so you should not be able to play against a computer at all if you don't have it. It's possible, though unlikely, that Funtoo has chosen to use a sysconfdir other than /etc. This would be quite unconventional. Can you please start gnome-chess in a terminal like so: G_MESSAGES_DEBUG=all gnome-chess Then close gnome-chess once it has loaded, and paste the debug output you see here.
i checked /etc/conf.d & /etc/default and neither had any chess configuration files. funtoo is downstream from gentoo, and gentoo has several funky things going on to centralize configurations. mkultra@spaceball-1 ~ $ G_MESSAGES_DEBUG=all gnome-chess (glchess:4558): Gtk-DEBUG: Connecting to session manager ** (glchess:4558): DEBUG: ai-profile.vala:50: Loading AI profile Amy ** (glchess:4558): DEBUG: ai-profile.vala:50: Loading AI profile BBChess ** (glchess:4558): DEBUG: ai-profile.vala:50: Loading AI profile Boo's Chess Engine ** (glchess:4558): DEBUG: ai-profile.vala:50: Loading AI profile Crafty ** (glchess:4558): DEBUG: ai-profile.vala:50: Loading AI profile Diablo ** (glchess:4558): DEBUG: ai-profile.vala:50: Loading AI profile Faile ** (glchess:4558): DEBUG: ai-profile.vala:50: Loading AI profile Fairy-Max ** (glchess:4558): DEBUG: ai-profile.vala:50: Loading AI profile Fruit ** (glchess:4558): DEBUG: ai-profile.vala:50: Loading AI profile Gambit Fruit ** (glchess:4558): DEBUG: ai-profile.vala:50: Loading AI profile Glaurung ** (glchess:4558): DEBUG: ai-profile.vala:50: Loading AI profile GNUchess ** (glchess:4558): DEBUG: ai-profile.vala:50: Loading AI profile HoiChess ** (glchess:4558): DEBUG: ai-profile.vala:50: Loading AI profile Octochess ** (glchess:4558): DEBUG: ai-profile.vala:50: Loading AI profile Phalanx ** (glchess:4558): DEBUG: ai-profile.vala:50: Loading AI profile Shredder ** (glchess:4558): DEBUG: ai-profile.vala:50: Loading AI profile Sjeng ** (glchess:4558): DEBUG: ai-profile.vala:50: Loading AI profile Stockfish ** (glchess:4558): DEBUG: ai-profile.vala:50: Loading AI profile Toga II ** Message: gnome-chess.vala:198: Detected AI profile Crafty in /usr/games/bin/crafty ** Message: gnome-chess.vala:198: Detected AI profile Fruit in /usr/games/bin/fruit ** Message: gnome-chess.vala:198: Detected AI profile GNUchess in /usr/games/bin/gnuchess ** Message: gnome-chess.vala:198: Detected AI profile Phalanx in /usr/games/bin/phalanx ** Message: gnome-chess.vala:198: Detected AI profile Sjeng in /usr/games/bin/sjeng ** (glchess:4558): DEBUG: chess-engine.vala:206: Writing line to engine: 'xboard' ** (glchess:4558): DEBUG: chess-engine.vala:206: Writing line to engine: 'random' ** (glchess:4558): DEBUG: chess-engine.vala:206: Writing line to engine: 'easy' ** (glchess:4558): DEBUG: chess-engine.vala:206: Writing line to engine: 'depth 1' ** (glchess:4558): DEBUG: chess-engine.vala:206: Writing line to engine: 'go' ** (glchess:4558): DEBUG: chess-engine-cecp.vala:53: Read from engine: 'Chess' ** (glchess:4558): DEBUG: chess-engine-cecp.vala:53: Read from engine: 'TimeLimit[0] = 0' ** (glchess:4558): DEBUG: chess-engine-cecp.vala:53: Read from engine: 'TimeLimit[1] = 0' ** (glchess:4558): DEBUG: chess-engine-cecp.vala:53: Read from engine: 'TimeLimit[0] = 0' ** (glchess:4558): DEBUG: chess-engine-cecp.vala:53: Read from engine: 'TimeLimit[1] = 0' ** (glchess:4558): DEBUG: chess-engine-cecp.vala:53: Read from engine: 'Command 'random' is currently not supported.' ** (glchess:4558): DEBUG: chess-engine-cecp.vala:53: Read from engine: 'TimeLimit[0] = 0' ** (glchess:4558): DEBUG: chess-engine-cecp.vala:53: Read from engine: 'TimeLimit[1] = 0' ** (glchess:4558): DEBUG: chess-engine-cecp.vala:53: Read from engine: 'TimeLimit[0] = 0' ** (glchess:4558): DEBUG: chess-engine-cecp.vala:53: Read from engine: 'TimeLimit[1] = 0' ** (glchess:4558): DEBUG: chess-engine-cecp.vala:53: Read from engine: 'Search to a depth of 1' ** (glchess:4558): DEBUG: chess-engine-cecp.vala:53: Read from engine: 'TimeLimit[0] = 0' ** (glchess:4558): DEBUG: chess-engine-cecp.vala:53: Read from engine: 'TimeLimit[1] = 0' ** (glchess:4558): DEBUG: chess-engine-cecp.vala:53: Read from engine: '1. ... b1c3' ** (glchess:4558): DEBUG: chess-engine-cecp.vala:53: Read from engine: 'My move is : b1c3' ** (glchess:4558): DEBUG: chess-engine-cecp.vala:61: Engine moves b1c3
absolutely positive they do not exist root@spaceball-1 /home/mkultra # stat /etc/chess-engines.conf stat: cannot stat ‘/etc/chess-engines.conf’: No such file or directory root@spaceball-1 /home/mkultra # stat /usr/share/engines.conf stat: cannot stat ‘/usr/share/engines.conf’: No such file or directory root@spaceball-1 /home/mkultra # stat ~/.config/gnome-chess/engines.conf stat: cannot stat ‘/root/.config/gnome-chess/engines.conf’: No such file or directory root@spaceball-1 /home/mkultra # exit exit mkultra@spaceball-1 ~ $ stat ~/.config/gnome-chess/engines.conf stat: cannot stat ‘/home/mkultra/.config/gnome-chess/engines.conf’: No such file or directory
3.12.1 is also very difficult but i can tell its been rolled back a touch in difficulty. all files missing again from said locations. again root@spaceball-1 /home/mkultra # ls /etc/conf.d/ | grep -i chess root@spaceball-1 /home/mkultra # ls /etc/default/ | grep -i chess no configurations in the usual config directory. ill see if i have other versions of gnuchess available. mkultra@spaceball-1 ~ $ G_MESSAGES_DEBUG=all gnome-chess (gnome-chess:28949): Gtk-DEBUG: Connecting to session manager ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: ai-profile.vala:52: Loading AI profile Amy ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: ai-profile.vala:52: Loading AI profile BBChess ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: ai-profile.vala:52: Loading AI profile Boo's Chess Engine ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: ai-profile.vala:52: Loading AI profile Crafty ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: ai-profile.vala:52: Loading AI profile Diablo ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: ai-profile.vala:52: Loading AI profile Faile ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: ai-profile.vala:52: Loading AI profile Fairy-Max ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: ai-profile.vala:52: Loading AI profile Fruit ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: ai-profile.vala:52: Loading AI profile Gambit Fruit ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: ai-profile.vala:52: Loading AI profile Glaurung ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: ai-profile.vala:52: Loading AI profile GNU Chess ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: ai-profile.vala:52: Loading AI profile HoiChess ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: ai-profile.vala:52: Loading AI profile Octochess ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: ai-profile.vala:52: Loading AI profile Phalanx ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: ai-profile.vala:52: Loading AI profile Shredder ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: ai-profile.vala:52: Loading AI profile Sjeng ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: ai-profile.vala:52: Loading AI profile Stockfish ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: ai-profile.vala:52: Loading AI profile Toga II ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: gnome-chess.vala:190: Detected AI profile Crafty in /usr/games/bin/crafty ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: gnome-chess.vala:190: Detected AI profile Fruit in /usr/games/bin/fruit ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: gnome-chess.vala:190: Detected AI profile GNU Chess in /usr/games/bin/gnuchess ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: gnome-chess.vala:190: Detected AI profile Phalanx in /usr/games/bin/phalanx ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: gnome-chess.vala:190: Detected AI profile Sjeng in /usr/games/bin/sjeng ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine.vala:208: Writing line to engine: 'uci' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine.vala:208: Writing line to engine: 'ucinewgame' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'id name GNU Chess 6.1.1' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'id author GNU Chess team' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'option name Hash type spin default 16 min 4 max 1024' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'option name Ponder type check default false' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'option name OwnBook type check default true' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'option name BookFile type string default book_small.bin' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'option name NullMove Pruning type combo default Fail High var Always var Fail High var Never' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'option name NullMove Reduction type spin default 3 min 1 max 3' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'option name Verification Search type combo default Endgame var Always var Endgame var Never' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'option name Verification Reduction type spin default 5 min 1 max 6' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'option name History Pruning type check default true' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'option name History Threshold type spin default 60 min 0 max 100' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'option name Futility Pruning type check default false' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'option name Futility Margin type spin default 100 min 0 max 500' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'option name Delta Pruning type check default false' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'option name Delta Margin type spin default 50 min 0 max 500' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'option name Quiescence Check Plies type spin default 1 min 0 max 2' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'option name Material type spin default 100 min 0 max 400' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'option name Piece Activity type spin default 100 min 0 max 400' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'option name King Safety type spin default 100 min 0 max 400' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'option name Pawn Structure type spin default 100 min 0 max 400' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'option name Passed Pawns type spin default 100 min 0 max 400' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'uciok' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine.vala:208: Writing line to engine: 'setoption name Material value 10' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine.vala:208: Writing line to engine: 'setoption name Quiescence Check Plies value 0' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine.vala:208: Writing line to engine: 'setoption name NullMove Pruning var value Never' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine.vala:208: Writing line to engine: 'setoption name Verification Search var value Never' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine.vala:208: Writing line to engine: 'setoption name History Pruning value false' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine.vala:208: Writing line to engine: 'isready' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'readyok' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine.vala:208: Writing line to engine: 'position startpos' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine.vala:208: Writing line to engine: 'go wtime 30000 btime 30000 ' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'info depth 1' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'info depth 1 seldepth 1 score cp 26 time 0 nodes 2 pv b1a3' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'info depth 1 seldepth 1 score cp 54 time 0 nodes 3 pv b1c3' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'info depth 1 seldepth 1 time 0 nodes 21 nps 0' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'info depth 2' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'info depth 2 seldepth 2 score cp 0 time 0 nodes 44 pv b1c3 b8c6' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'info depth 2 seldepth 2 time 0 nodes 82 nps 0' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'info depth 3' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'info depth 3 seldepth 3 score cp 54 time 0 nodes 148 pv b1c3 b8c6 g1f3' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'info depth 3 seldepth 3 time 1 nodes 186 nps 0' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'info depth 4' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'info depth 4 seldepth 6 score cp 0 time 1 nodes 300 pv b1c3 b8c6 g1f3 g8f6' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'info depth 4 seldepth 6 time 2 nodes 958 nps 0' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'info depth 5' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'info depth 5 seldepth 9 score cp 48 time 3 nodes 1655 pv b1c3 b8c6 g1f3 g8f6 d2d4' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'info depth 5 seldepth 9 time 3 nodes 1829 nps 0' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'info depth 6' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'info depth 6 seldepth 10 score cp 0 time 6 nodes 3231 pv b1c3 b8c6 g1f3 g8f6 d2d4 d7d5' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'info depth 6 seldepth 13 time 10 nodes 8003 nps 0' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'info depth 7' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'info depth 7 seldepth 16 score cp 42 time 14 nodes 12486 pv b1c3 b8c6 g1f3 g8f6 d2d4 d7d5 c1f4' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'info depth 7 seldepth 16 time 15 nodes 13440 nps 0' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'info depth 8' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'info depth 8 seldepth 16 score cp 0 time 24 nodes 23070 pv b1c3 b8c6 g1f3 g8f6 d2d4 d7d5 c1f4 c8f5' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'info depth 8 seldepth 16 time 60 nodes 65759 nps 0' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'info depth 9' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'info depth 9 seldepth 18 score cp 19 time 93 nodes 102057 pv b1c3 b8c6 g1f3 g8f6 e2e3 d7d5 f1b5 c8f5 e1g1' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'info depth 9 seldepth 18 time 115 nodes 128690 nps 0' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'info depth 10' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'info depth 10 seldepth 21 score cp 6 time 191 nodes 209706 pv b1c3 b8c6 g1f3 g8f6 d2d4 d7d5 c1f4 c8f5 c3b5 a8c8' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'info depth 10 seldepth 24 time 496 nodes 548796 nps 0' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'info depth 11' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'info time 920 nodes 960000 nps 0 cpuload 1000' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'info hashfull 197' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:84: Read from engine: 'bestmove b1c3 ponder b8c6' ** (gnome-chess:28949): DEBUG: chess-engine-uci.vala:108: Engine moves b1c3
OK, you definitely do have that file installed somewhere, since it's loading chess engines. Try to figure out where your distro has placed it, so that you can replace the old difficulty levels with the new ones. One way to do this would be to run gnome-chess under strace and then wade through the massive output. It will try to open chess-engines.conf immediately before trying to find all the chess engines listed within, something like this: open("/etc/chess-engines.conf", O_RDONLY) = 11 fstat(11, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=2421, ...}) = 0 read(11, "# GNOME Chess will detect any en"..., 4096) = 2421 read(11, "", 4096) = 0 close(11) = 0 access("/usr/lib64/ccache/Amy", X_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) access("/usr/local/bin/Amy", X_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) access("/usr/bin/Amy", X_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) access("/bin/Amy", X_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) access("/usr/local/sbin/Amy", X_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) access("/usr/sbin/Amy", X_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) access("/home/mcatanzaro/.local/bin/Amy", X_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) access("/home/mcatanzaro/bin/Amy", X_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) access("/usr/lib64/ccache/BBChess", X_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) access("/usr/local/bin/BBChess", X_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) access("/usr/bin/BBChess", X_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) access("/bin/BBChess", X_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) access("/usr/local/sbin/BBChess", X_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) access("/usr/sbin/BBChess", X_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) access("/home/mcatanzaro/.local/bin/BBChess", X_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) access("/home/mcatanzaro/bin/BBChess", X_OK) = 0 getuid() = 1000 stat("/home/mcatanzaro/bin/BBChess", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0775, st_size=135432, ...}) = 0
mkultra@spaceball-1 ~ $ locate -i chess-engines.conf /etc/games/chess-engines.conf forget all that noise =D that's for 3.10.x series, 3.12.1 moved to /etc/games/gnome-chess/engines.conf my current configuration matches that suggested in https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=731310#c1 still much too difficult. any way to dial it back further? many thanks for helping me on my quest =D https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Chess
(In reply to comment #8) > still much too difficult. any way to dial it back further? By playing with these configuration options: http://www.gnu.org/software/chess/manual/gnuchess.html#Options I guess the most obvious approach would be to lower the value of material even more, down to 5 or even lower if necessary. Values that low should cause GNU Chess to basically throw pieces away. I was hoping to avoid making it that stupid, but I really want Easy to be easy so we might have to. Other approaches would be to reduce the emphasis on king safety or pawn structure, but I suspect that reducing those would increase the relative value of material, so that might backfire. If you find values that you think work well, I'd be happy to use them for 3.14.
ok i moved it to 0..... it does make it throw pieces away right away.... sort of.... if i take out the queen and rooks right away, i can beat it. if i dont take those out right away it goes back to brutal difficulty at 0 it needs the other tweaks & like 2 would be ok.... its the other stuff that definitely needs dialing back.
The problem, as I see it, looking at the configuration options for the different chess engines, that the configurations do not readily fit in the easy, medium, hard categories. Looking at different engines, doubly so. The engines have a lot of dials but we want only one dial in gnome-chess. In short: we are thankful for any feedback on difficulty and for ideas on how to make the different engines fit within our difficulty spectrum. As you describe it, lowering the value of material is not sufficient to create a much easier game, when not using the strategy of taking out important pieces right away. Maybe, if you've got the time, you can look at the other options for something to tweak. Maybe something that has more impact on mid- and endgame. :)
-- GitLab Migration Automatic Message -- This bug has been migrated to GNOME's GitLab instance and has been closed from further activity. You can subscribe and participate further through the new bug through this link to our GitLab instance: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-chess/issues/18.