Greetings chess friends,

My odyssey of discovery in today's chess world continues. After
checking out ICC, I am planning to next subscribe to playchess.com. I
have a few questions about playing at that site.

1) If I choose the Shredder 11 package, will I be able to create custom
opening books for the engine? Is there a link to a web document that
shows a beginner how to do it? (I have looked and not found one yet)

2) Does Shredder 11 support chess960 play?

3) Is there another setup that would work better at playchess.com? My
interest lies in exploring the concept of chess960 centaur chess with
user modified opening books.

Thanks in advance for any responses...
--

Cordially,
Rev. J.D. Walker, MsD, U.C.

J.D. Walker wrote:
My odyssey of discovery in today's chess world continues. After
checking out ICC, I am planning to next subscribe to playchess.com.
I have a few questions about playing at that site.

1) If I choose the Shredder 11 package, will I be able to create
custom opening books for the engine? Is there a link to a web
document that shows a beginner how to do it? (I have looked and not
found one yet)

With UCI engines (such as Shredder), it's the GUI, rather than the
engine that deals with the opening book. While the position on the
board is in the opening book, the GUI makes the moves, without asking
the engine. The reason I mention this is that it means that all
ChessBase engines deal with the opening book in the same way so, if
you can find an article about how to do it for Fritz or the ChessBase
database, that should tell you how to do it for Shredder.

I imagine that Steve Lopez has written such an article but I can't
find one after some very simple googling. But look for his articles
at chessbase.com and chesscafe.com (add site:chessbase.com to your
google search term to restrict to that domain).

Shredder does indeed support Chess960 -- in fact, it was Chess960
computer world champion in 2006! (And possibly other years, too.)

http://www.shredderchess.com/chess-n...mainz2006.html

I'd hoped this post would be more helpful but I hope it nudges you in
the right direction, at least.


Dave.

--
David Richerby Evil Chainsaw (TM): it's like a lethal
www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~davidr/ weapon but it's genuinely evil!

David Richerby wrote:
J.D. Walker wrote:
My odyssey of discovery in today's chess world continues. After
checking out ICC, I am planning to next subscribe to playchess.com.
I have a few questions about playing at that site.

1) If I choose the Shredder 11 package, will I be able to create
custom opening books for the engine? Is there a link to a web
document that shows a beginner how to do it? (I have looked and not
found one yet)

With UCI engines (such as Shredder), it's the GUI, rather than the
engine that deals with the opening book. While the position on the
board is in the opening book, the GUI makes the moves, without asking
the engine. The reason I mention this is that it means that all
ChessBase engines deal with the opening book in the same way so, if
you can find an article about how to do it for Fritz or the ChessBase
database, that should tell you how to do it for Shredder.

I imagine that Steve Lopez has written such an article but I can't
find one after some very simple googling. But look for his articles
at chessbase.com and chesscafe.com (add site:chessbase.com to your
google search term to restrict to that domain).

Shredder does indeed support Chess960 -- in fact, it was Chess960
computer world champion in 2006! (And possibly other years, too.)

http://www.shredderchess.com/chess-n...mainz2006.html

I'd hoped this post would be more helpful but I hope it nudges you in
the right direction, at least.


Dave.


Thanks Dave. That was helpful. I sent off an email to the support crew
at that site. Hopefully they will have the answers I need.

On opening books, I did find a document by a Dagh Nielsen that is
somewhat helpful. I will keep looking.
--

Cordially,
Rev. J.D. Walker, MsD, U.C.

On Mar 12, 2:46*pm, David Richerby
wrote:
J.D. Walker wrote:
My odyssey of discovery in today's chess world continues. *After
checking out ICC, I am planning to next subscribe to playchess.com.
I have a few questions about playing at that site.

1) If I choose the Shredder 11 package, will I be able to create
custom opening books for the engine? *Is there a link to a web
document that shows a beginner how to do it? *(I have looked and not
found one yet)

With UCI engines (such as Shredder), it's the GUI, rather than the
engine that deals with the opening book. *While the position on the
board is in the opening book, the GUI makes the moves, without asking
the engine. *The reason I mention this is that it means that all
ChessBase engines deal with the opening book in the same way so, if
you can find an article about how to do it for Fritz or the ChessBase
database, that should tell you how to do it for Shredder.

You can create custom opening books using the free version of
ChessBase lite available from the following URL:
http://www.chessbase.com/download/cblight2007/index.asp

They call it merge games into opening tree.

Shredder is definitely one of the more interesting engines as its own
brand of super compressed in ram fast tablebases for 34 and 345 pieces
are included in the package.

Regards,
Martin Brown

Martin Brown wrote:
Shredder is definitely one of the more interesting engines as its
own brand of super compressed in ram fast tablebases for 34 and 345
pieces are included in the package.

Shouldn't 32-man tablebases be enough for everyone? ;-)


Dave.

--
David Richerby Poisonous Wine (TM): it's like a
www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~davidr/ vintage Beaujolais but it'll kill you
in seconds!