I have copied the source programs and
compiled micro-Max 4.0 and 4.8 on
my Mac OS X. These cute C programs,
pearls of programming, can be copied
from:

http://home.hccnet.nl/h.g.muller/dwnldpage.html

or more precisely, from:

http://home.hccnet.nl/h.g.muller/umax4_0.c

and

http://home.hccnet.nl/h.g.muller/umax4_8.c

***

I ran these two programs in the so-called
terminal window. They printed the initial
position, they accepted my first move, they
printed the position after my first move, and
.... nothing! How frustrated!

I'd like to enjoy these miniatures. Thus I would
appreciate any helpful comments, which would
result in a nice game of chess by the said two
programs.

Best regards,

Wlod

On Sun, 20 Jul 2008 13:42:58 -0700 (PDT), Wlodzimierz Holsztynski
wrote:

I have copied the source programs and
compiled micro-Max 4.0 and 4.8 on
my Mac OS X. These cute C programs,
pearls of programming, can be copied
from:

http://home.hccnet.nl/h.g.muller/dwnldpage.html

or more precisely, from:

http://home.hccnet.nl/h.g.muller/umax4_0.c

and

http://home.hccnet.nl/h.g.muller/umax4_8.c

***

I ran these two programs in the so-called
terminal window. They printed the initial
position, they accepted my first move, they
printed the position after my first move, and
... nothing! How frustrated!

I'd like to enjoy these miniatures. Thus I would
appreciate any helpful comments, which would
result in a nice game of chess by the said two
programs.

Best regards,

Wlod

An empty input line is supposed to make the program enter thinking
mode. It should make the move and display an updated board.

Tony

"Wlodzimierz Holsztynski" wrote in message
...

I'd like to enjoy these miniatures. Thus I would
appreciate any helpful comments, which would
result in a nice game of chess by the said two
programs.

I'd suggest talking directly with Mr. Muller.

He's a regular at the TalkChess forums.

http://www.talkchess.com/forum/viewf...opic_view=flat





----== Posted via Pronews.Com - Unlimited-Unrestricted-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.pronews.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 100,000 Newsgroups
---= - Total Privacy via Encryption =---

On Jul 20, 2:05 pm, Tony M wrote:
On Sun, 20 Jul 2008 13:42:58 -0700 (PDT), Wlodzimierz Holsztynski



wrote:
I have copied the source programs and
compiled micro-Max 4.0 and 4.8 on
my Mac OS X. These cute C programs,
pearls of programming, can be copied
from:

http://home.hccnet.nl/h.g.muller/dwnldpage.html

or more precisely, from:

http://home.hccnet.nl/h.g.muller/umax4_0.c

and

http://home.hccnet.nl/h.g.muller/umax4_8.c

***

I ran these two programs in the so-called
terminal window. They printed the initial
position, they accepted my first move, they
printed the position after my first move, and
... nothing! How frustrated!

I'd like to enjoy these miniatures. Thus I would
appreciate any helpful comments, which would
result in a nice game of chess by the said two
programs.

Best regards,

Wlod

An empty input line is supposed to make the program enter thinking
mode. It should make the move and display an updated board.

Tony

:-) Thank you, :-)

Wlod

On Jul 20, 3:15 pm, "Guest" wrote:


I'd suggest talking directly with Mr. Muller.

He's a regular at the TalkChess forums.

http://www.talkchess.com/forum/viewf...opic_view=flat

Thank you, very much.
I have (almost) joined "talkchess",
and once my account is activated,
I'll ask Mr. Muller my questions
soon.

Regards,

Wlod

On Jul 20, 3:15 pm, "Guest" wrote:


I'd suggest talking directly with Mr. Muller.

He's a regular at the TalkChess forums.

http://www.talkchess.com/forum/viewf...opic_view=flat

I registered. I got a welcome emil letter,
including my user name and password, but
my account is still not activated. It's been
already two days. Is this delay standard?

Regards,

Wlod

"Wlodzimierz Holsztynski (Wlod)" wrote in message
...
On Jul 20, 3:15 pm, "Guest" wrote:


I'd suggest talking directly with Mr. Muller.

He's a regular at the TalkChess forums.

http://www.talkchess.com/forum/viewf...opic_view=flat

I registered. I got a welcome emil letter,
including my user name and password, but
my account is still not activated. It's been
already two days. Is this delay standard?

It wasn't when I registered, but I've been registered a long time.

But no, I wouldn't expect it to take this long.

The only thing I can think of is they are busy with personal stuff and just
haven't gotten around to it.

Sorry it's taken so long.

One of the current moderators is Ted Summers (tedsummers.com) but I don't
see an email address you could use to contact hime. (He's the only current
ones with a valid web site.)

I knew the direct email addresses of some of the previous moderators but not
the current ones.

One of the problems with these forums is that if there's a problem
registering, you have no good way to resolve it or even contact the admins.
It's like they go out of their way to hide.








----== Posted via Pronews.Com - Unlimited-Unrestricted-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.pronews.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 100,000 Newsgroups
---= - Total Privacy via Encryption =---

On Jul 22, 5:02 pm, "Guest" wrote:



It wasn't when I registered, but
I've been registered a long time.

But no, I wouldn't expect it to take this long.

I am already activated, and have posted my
question. Thank you again,

Wlod

Finally I managed to play against
micro-Max. One needs to enter
[Enter] or [Return] key twice,
after making a move. This is a neat
feature because it allows you to either
make moves for a while for both sides
(by entering [Return] just once after
each move) or making micro-Max to play
against itself. Very nice!

Anyway, here is my first game against
that way under 2KB tiny monster. We were
well matched (I'd play better but the
lighting was so horrible that it turned off
my chess lightnings :-) - enjoy:

white: wh (Elo - cosmic or gastronomic)
black: micro-Max 4.0 (Elo - astronomic)
date: 2008-07-22/23

1.d2d4 c7c5
2.Ng1f3 cd
3.Nf3d4 Nb8c6
4.c2c4 Nc6d4
5.Qd1d4 d7d6
6.Nb1c3 e7e5
7.Qd4d1 Bc8e6
8.e2e4 Qd8b6
9.Bf1e2 Ng8f6
10.O-O O-O-O
11.b2b3 Kc8d7
12.a2a4 Bf8e7
13.a4a5 Qb6-b4
14.Nc3b5 Nf6e4
15.Be2f3 a7a6
16.Bf3e4 a6b5
17.Bc1a3 Qb4c3
18.Be4b7 b5c4
19.a5a6? Qc3b3

I could play 19.b3b4!

20.Qd1b3 c4b3
21.a6a7 Rd8a8
22.Bb7a8 Rh8a8
23.Ba3b2 Be7g5
24.Rf1d1 f7f6
25.Kg1f1 Be6c4+
26.Kf1e1 Kd7e6
27.Ra1a4 Bc4d5
28.Ra4a6 Bg5f4
29.h2h3 Bf4g5
30.g2g3 f6f5
31.Rd1a1 Bd5g2
32.Ra6b6 Bg2h3
33.Rb6b8 Bh3g2
34.Rb8a8 Bg2a8
35.Ra1a6?! Bd8

I could play 35.Ra1a3!

36.Ke1d2 Bd8f6
37.Ra6b6 Bf6g5+
38.Kd2c3 Bg5f6
39.Kc3b3 Ba1d5+
40.Kb3c2 Bd5e4+
41.Kc2d1 Be4f3+
42.Kd1e1 h7h5
41.Rb6b8 h5h4
42.g3h4 Bf6-h4
43.a7a8Q Bf3a8
44.Rb8a8 Bh4g5
45.Ke1e2 Ke6d5
46.f2f3 Kd5e6
47.Ra8a6 Ke6d5
48.Bb2a3 Bg5e7
49.Ra6a7 Kd5e6
50.Ke2d3 Be7f6
51.Kd3c4 g7g5
52.Kc4b5 d6d5
53.Ra7a6+ Ke6f7
54.Kb5c5 e5e4
55.Kc5d5 e4f3
56.Ra6a7+ Kf7g6
57.Ba3c5 Bf6b2
58.Ra7a2 Bb2f6
59.Ra2a6 Kg6g7
60.Bc5d4 Bf6d4
61.Kd5d4 f3f2
62.Ra6a1 Kg7g6
63.Kd4e3 Kg6f7
64.Ke3g2 Kf7e6
65.Kf2e3 Ke6f6
66.Ra1a5 Kf6e6
67.Ke3d4 Ke6f6
68.Ra5a6+ Kf6f7
69.Kd4e5 f5f4
70.Ke5f5 ETC.

Regards,

Wlod

"Wlodzimierz Holsztynski (Wlod)" wrote in message
...

MicroMax is surprisingly strong for just 2k of C code.

As Mr. Muller points on in the forum, v4.8 is even stronger.

It's a little awkward to play, though. Hard coded node count control, etc.
That's why he also provides a larger xboard compatible version.

I think it's safe to say that MicroMax has become the modern day "TECH"
benchmark program.

Back in the 70's, Jim Gillogly came up with the idea of a very simple chess
program that could be used as a benchmark program to compare hardware and
other programs. A 'fixed point' in space, so to speak.

It never really caught on, but in spite of its simplicity, it was stronger
than many programs of the time. It wasn't very smart positionally, but it
was pretty good at tactics. And since chess *is* tactics at its heart....
The selective search programs and the "smart but slow" programs often had
major problems against Tech.

That's pretty much the way MicroMax is. In spite of its simplicity, it's
stronger than many programs. Only a little positional smarts, but it's very
good tactically.

If your 'more sophisticated' program can't match MicroChess 4.8 at
comparable time controls, then a programmer knows he has some work to do to
reach minimal acceptable playing quality.

You can dismiss it by saying your program has more positional knowledge or
plays differently or has a better Qsearch or some such, but since chess is
tactics, if you loose then you loose. It's just simply a diferent playing
style.






----== Posted via Pronews.Com - Unlimited-Unrestricted-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.pronews.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 100,000 Newsgroups
---= - Total Privacy via Encryption =---