Author: Erik Madsen

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Missed Blocking Tactic

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Lately, I’ve been playing blitz games against MadChess 3.3 (not yet released) to get a feel for how strongly it plays when weakened to my patzer Elo level. Sparring against MadChess helps me calibrate its limit-strength parameters and perhaps glean ideas for classifying more unreasonable inferior moves. My most recent game begins 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 Nf6 4.Nc3 Nc6 5.Bb5 a5 6.Be3 d5 7.e5 Ng4 8.Qd2 Nxe3 9.Qxe3 cxd4 10.Nxd4 Qd7 11.O-O f5 12.e6 Qd6 13.Nxf5 Qxe6 14.Qxe6 Bxe6 15.Nd4 Bd7 16.Rad1 g6 17.a4 Nb4 18.Rfe1 h5 19.Rd2 b6. So far I’ve played well enough for a player of… Continue Reading

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MadChess 3.2.2 Released

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I have released version 3.2.2 of my chess engine. This release fixes a bug that caused truncated principal variations when MultiPV > 1. Also, it improves the efficiency of MultiPV search, so it gets deeper faster. This release does not add any features nor playing strength. Testers may substitute this version for version 3.2 without any need to restart or re-run tournaments. You may download x64 and x86 versions of MadChess 3.2.2 from the Downloads page. Install the appropriate version for your computer’s CPU. The x64 binary is the strongest version of the engine. Continue Reading

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MadChess 3.2.1 Released

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I have released version 3.2.1 of my chess engine. This release fixes a bug that caused MadChess to report illegal principal variations. That is, PVs that contain illegal moves. To be clear, the bug never caused MadChess 3.2 to crash. Merely to report fantasy lines. I didn’t notice the issue back in January because of my desire to transition from programming chess to playing chess- which involves fighting the urge to tinker with one more engine issue. I did wonder why MadChess occasionally reported truncated PVs in the CuteChess GUI. One factor contributing to my (chosen) ignorance is the CuteChess… Continue Reading

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MadChess 3.2 Released

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I have released version 3.2 of my chess engine. The main feature in this release is a sophisticated limit-strength mode, including adjustments to chess knowledge, search speed, chance of erring or blundering, and severity of blunders. MadChess, in limit-strength mode, excludes moves it considers unreasonable (dumb moves even a chess novice wouldn’t play). I have extensively documented the settings and technical implementation of MadChess’ limit-strength mode in The MadChess UCI_LimitStrength Algorithm. I also provide a Limit-Strength FAQ. MadChess 3.2 is slightly stronger than the prior release. I estimate it has gained 60 rating points, climbing to roughly 2770 Elo at… Continue Reading

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Never Resign!!

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The Moral Lesson I love this video. We’ve all been there, so we can relate. We’ve all screwed up. You don’t have to play chess or even understand the rules of the game to know exactly how Alexandra Botez feels. Chess is a very difficult, humbling game. But that’s the point. If we only attempted to do what was easy, we never would grow and mature as chess players, as human beings. I love the raw energy of this video: Alexandra Botez’s obvious frustration. Her cathartic scream… Fuck!! How she wards off tilt and steels her nerves. Her determination to… Continue Reading