On Jan 3, 11:11*am, David Richerby
wrote:
Martin Brown wrote:

On Jan 2, 6:17pm, Chess Hack wrote:
I am a long time Chessmaster user, but for some reason my copy of
CM9 freezes up on my computer with TheKing.exe eating up 100% CPU
time! *This prompted me to look into Fritz as an alternative since
my level of play is not really novice or beginner, and yet I am not
really a great player either. *I don't even know my rating!

The "play rated game" option in Fritz8 will quickly fix that.

Not really. *The engine, playing on full strength, will hammer him
into the ground, every time. *The ECF (and possibly other rating
organizations) don't issue ratings to people who have scored either 0%
or 100% as the `rating' in question is neither an upper bound nor a
lower bound.

But in "play rated game" you can set the engine to play to a lower
nominal strength. The simulation isn't perfect but it does give its
weaker opponent a sporting chance. The ratings floor for a few engines
in this mode of play a
Turing 990
Comet 1540
Crafty 1590
Fritz8 1640
Rybka2 1690
Shredder10 1950

I think Comet is being a bit optimistic here, and Turing may well be
too slow to play against (although amusing to experiment with for
historical reasons). I grant you that even ELO 1500 might be a bit
stiff for casual players.

Even if Fritz does spit out a number and call it a rating, it won't
help him compare his strength with any human who hasn't played against
Fritz.

It is only a rough guide. But it is still useful. Arguably in the
quest for ever greater strength the top engines are now beyond hope of
playing down to the level of most club level players and their
simulation of lower rated play is poor. Something that the CM King
program does rather better.

I see that the program is up to version 11 now, but the reviews
seem spotty, claiming little if any real value to upgrading from an
interface standpoint.

No. The latest version still has at least as many bugs as the old
one.

With luck, they might be different bugs! *Though the problem there is
that I automatically work around the bugs I know about and it's
annoying to have to adapt to a new set.

You can use newer engines in the old UI (and old engines in the new
UI). I prefer the CP9 interface apart from when it crashes on me.

If you find you can beat Fritz8 too easily then maybe you will need
a better engine, but that would put you already at the GM or
anti-computer specialist level.

In the unlikely case that he can beat Fritz 8 easily, he's still going
to beat any other engine comfortably. *I suppose the current crop of
engines would push him a little harder. ;-)

The current crop are quite a bit stronger than Fritz8. But are
overkill for most club players. Fritz8 at full strength is still
beyond me to beat, but I might hold it to a draw on a good day if I
concentrate hard enough. I prefer Shredder. I usually spar against
engines set to play around ELO 2300 to practice and try out ideas.

Regards,
Martin Brown