Chess software with the lowest ELO rate

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Date: 15 Dec 2006 00:50:05
From: RDNZL
Subject: Chess software with the lowest ELO rate

Hi there,

I'm a chess newbie and would like to use a chess program which ELO rate
can be adjusted to absolute monkey level.

I've been looking to Delfi Trainer, which looks wonderful, and can be
set from 900 ELO.

Furthermore I recognized that Deep Sjeng can be adjusted to play from
700 ELO.

Are there any other chess apps (Mac or Windows) which can be set to
fairly low ELO rates?

Thanks!

Date: 16 Dec 2006 00:58:18
From: Terry O'Neill
Subject: Re: Chess software with the lowest ELO rate

Shredder Classic for Mac is adjustable from 1000 to 2400+. I usually
play it on about 1800 level, where it seems to play pretty human like.
Terry O'

Date: 15 Dec 2006 22:03:46
From: johnny T
Subject: Re: Chess software with the lowest ELO rate

Unfortunately...

This has not been done well yet. Just as acting badly takes even
better than average acting skills to do well, playing poorly is also
difficult.

There are several different approaches, but unfortunately none of them
work well.

I believe that there was work towards that, but it got placed on the
back burner because of the man v. machine match, and the left field
appearance of Rybka that demonstrated that there was a whole new level
of "good" chess that had yet been discovered. Most of the current work
has been around these two areas.

So it may be another 5 years or so before we see a breakthrough approach
to poor play.

In the interim, probably one of the best, is the friend mode in
Chessbase products like Fritz. This attempts to dial in to your level.
However, the way to cheat at friend level is to give up material and
don't recover material until you are ready to kill the opponent. The
opponent will continue to degrade it's position in an attempt to
equalize. This is satisfying from an ego standpoint, but really not
what one looks for in bad play.

Date: 16 Dec 2006 03:35:24
From: Guy Macon
Subject: Re: Chess software with the lowest ELO rate

RDNZL wrote:
>
>Hi there,
>
>I'm a chess newbie and would like to use a chess program which ELO rate
>can be adjusted to absolute monkey level.
>
>I've been looking to Delfi Trainer, which looks wonderful, and can be
>set from 900 ELO.
>
>Furthermore I recognized that Deep Sjeng can be adjusted to play from
>700 ELO.
>
>Are there any other chess apps (Mac or Windows) which can be set to
>fairly low ELO rates?
>
>Thanks!

Just having a low level isn't good enough for your purposes.
Many programs become quite machine-like at the owest levels,
yet still never make huge blunders like leaving a rook free
for the taking. You need more human-like bad play, and in
my opinion Chessmaster does that best.

Guy Macon
<http://www.guymacon.com/ >

Date: 15 Dec 2006 05:50:20
From: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Chess software with the lowest ELO rate

Fritz also has a "friend" mode that adjusts strength to you. It is
very effective because as you get better, it notches up automatically.

Date: 15 Dec 2006 16:28:12
From: David Richerby
Subject: Re: Chess software with the lowest ELO rate

[email protected] <[email protected] > wrote:
> Fritz also has a "friend" mode that adjusts strength to you.
> It is very effective because as you get better, it notches up
> automatically.

I strongly dislike `Friend mode'. It works not by dumbing down the
engine but by giving you odds. It's not formally described as such
but that's what it will do: early in the game, it will blunder a
certain amount of material (say, two pawns) and then proceed to play
like a grandmaster.

`Handicap mode' is much better: it dumbs down the engine to a
specified Elo level, but it doesn't go down very far. The minimum is
described as being 1350, though I've no idea how well this would match
a 1350 human player.

Dave.

--
David Richerby Generic Adult Dictator (TM): it's like
www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~davidr/ a totalitarian leader that you won't
want the children to see but it's just
like all the others!

Date: 15 Dec 2006 17:58:34
From: Ruud
Subject: Re: Chess software with the lowest ELO rate

"David Richerby" <[email protected] > schreef in bericht
news:iMu*[email protected]...
> [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Fritz also has a "friend" mode that adjusts strength to you.
>> It is very effective because as you get better, it notches up
>> automatically.
>
> I strongly dislike `Friend mode'. It works not by dumbing down the
> engine but by giving you odds. It's not formally described as such
> but that's what it will do: early in the game, it will blunder a
> certain amount of material (say, two pawns) and then proceed to play
> like a grandmaster.

It could still be usefull. It could still be a challenge to beat it then.
When I started playing, I had a small chesscomputer, that had an elo of
about 1300.
After a while it was easy to beat.
To get a new challenge, I started to sack pawns, and later pieces, to get a
tough game (I didn't want to buy a new computer straightaway).
After all, a computerprogramm that sacks pawns, and then plays like a GM,
still has an elo of no more than 1700 or something.
> `Handicap mode' is much better: it dumbs down the engine to a
> specified Elo level, but it doesn't go down very far. The minimum is
> described as being 1350, though I've no idea how well this would match
> a 1350 human player.
>
>
> Dave.
>
> --
> David Richerby Generic Adult Dictator (TM): it's
> like
> www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~davidr/ a totalitarian leader that you
> won't
> want the children to see but it's
> just
> like all the others!

Date: 18 Dec 2006 13:07:24
From: David Richerby
Subject: Re: Chess software with the lowest ELO rate

Ruud <[email protected] > wrote:
> After all, a computerprogramm that sacks pawns, and then plays like
> a GM, still has an elo of no more than 1700 or something.

Depends how many pawns it sacs! I reckon Fritz could give any 2000
player pawn odds and still win an awful lot of games.

Dave.

--
David Richerby Erotic Fluorescent Composer (TM): it's
www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~davidr/ like a pupil of Beethoven but it'll
hurt your eyes and it's genuinely
erotic!

Date: 15 Dec 2006 11:04:51
From: Folkert van Heusden
Subject: Re: Chess software with the lowest ELO rate

Take a look at: http://www.vanheusden.com/pos/
You'll definately win.

"RDNZL" <[email protected] > wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Hi there,
>
> I'm a chess newbie and would like to use a chess program which ELO rate
> can be adjusted to absolute monkey level.
>
> I've been looking to Delfi Trainer, which looks wonderful, and can be
> set from 900 ELO.
>
> Furthermore I recognized that Deep Sjeng can be adjusted to play from
> 700 ELO.
>
> Are there any other chess apps (Mac or Windows) which can be set to
> fairly low ELO rates?
>
> Thanks!
>

Date: 15 Dec 2006 01:29:52
From: MaximRecoil
Subject: Re: Chess software with the lowest ELO rate

RDNZL wrote:
> Hi there,
>
> I'm a chess newbie and would like to use a chess program which ELO rate
> can be adjusted to absolute monkey level.
>
> I've been looking to Delfi Trainer, which looks wonderful, and can be
> set from 900 ELO.
>
> Furthermore I recognized that Deep Sjeng can be adjusted to play from
> 700 ELO.
>
> Are there any other chess apps (Mac or Windows) which can be set to
> fairly low ELO rates?
>
> Thanks!

Chessmaster 9000 and the 10th Edition (maybe other versions as well,
I'm only familiar with those 2) have a lot of different "personalities"
you can play against, going all the way down to "Cassie" with a rating
of 23, who simply makes random moves, the only criterium being that the
moves are legal.