My flash chess game

[veclock]

http://veclock.deviantart.com/art/Chess-AI-Game-119834433
See if you can win! You'll play against the computer. :)

Good luck!

[ASWC]

Easy win! I estimate the AI at 1400/1500 or maybe less. Good job anyway, the handling of the pieces is a bit weird and the board and pieces are a bit too dark I would say.

[kkbbcute]

Personally I found the control system to be okay, it's not all that weird after a while. Also, are there any difficulty levels? I couldn't find one. ;)

[cjx3711]

That's an amazing chess AI. I lost quite a few times. You may want to make the AI slightly dumber for players less intelligent than the computer. I liked the way the AI was "calculating" it's moves. The movement system was also fine.

[kkbbcute]

I liked the way the AI was "calculating" it's moves.

Yeah, loved the flickery effect as well, as it provides a atmosphere of tension in an otherwise slow paced game.

And I do hope that you take my difficulty selection idea into consideration, as cjx3711 just said, others might not be as good as chess, while some others may find it too easy. ;)

[ASWC]

yeah the AI is pretty low level (1500 at best) but for beginners it might be too much.

[kkbbcute]

yeah the AI is pretty low level (1500 at best) but for beginners it might be too much.

How did you get that number (1500), I'm no chess expert.

[cjx3711]

How can you call that low? I'm no chess pro, but I can't say I've never touhed chess before.

[kkbbcute]

He is Garry Kasparov in disguise! (Is that how you spell the chess genius' name?)

[ASWC]

I use to be a chess expert level sorry! By judging how easy it's to beat the engine I estimate the level (rating) of the engine based on my own rating (around 1800 now). Years ago I was 2100.

[maskedMan]

Computer was white and pretty much put itself in checkmate on its second move. Could have won on my 3rd move, but I let it have some more just to see if it would defend itself. It never did.

[maskedMan]

Something weird happened.

My black pawn QBP captured white QNP on QN5(from my perspective).

White's QN was on QR3(from white's perspective).

Immediately after my capture, my pawn *moved a second time* and captured the knight.

So somehow the computer thought I should get two consecutive turns, and decided to take that second turn for me and I got both a pawn and a knight out of the deal.


EDIT:

I just lured Queen into putting my king in check in a ploy to capture said white queen. No other pieces threaten my king. My queen is not defending my king from anything, as I have eliminated all but a bishop and a rook that are trapped behind pawns. I am not allowed to use my queen to capture the white queen. I am not allowed to move any pieces anywhere, in fact.


EDIT 2:

I just saw your outdated flash player notice. Sorry, I must stick to FP9. Is there something in particular you're doing that requires FP10?

[kkbbcute]

Hey, ASWC, I still don't really get how the numbers, like 1800, etc are derived. Do you take a test to get your skill level or something?

[ASWC]

Hey, ASWC, I still don't really get how the numbers, like 1800, etc are derived. Do you take a test to get your skill level or something?
Back in France 25 years ago I was member of the French Chess federation and played tournaments/events/competitions. Your first rating is calculated upon your first match and the level of your opponent then after 20 matches or so you get your permanent rating. Match after match depending on results and the level of your opponents you get more or less points. Also winning a tournament gets you more points and so on. I gave up chess at 18 years old with a fide rating of 2100 then I started playing again here in USA 6 years ago and ended up with about 1800 rating after a few tournaments/competitions. This system of point is actually very accurate and that's why chess players can often guess the rating of a player just by seeing him/her play with a 100/200 point margin of error. For comparison the world champion has a fide rating of 2800!

[kkbbcute]

Personally though, I don't find this all that hard, I won't say that I'm a real pro at international chess though. It all depends on which audience this game is targeted at.

[veclock]

Thanks for all the comments! :D
Nice to see that it won a few times.

When it comes to the outdated flash player problem - I don't have a clue why it does that, but simply make sure you have the newest version of FP.

ASWC, is 1500 in some kind of middle level? :) I would be very happy if I can consider this game to be "moderate/quite hard".

[kkbbcute]

When it comes to the outdated flash player problem - I don't have a clue why it does that, but simply make sure you have the newest version of FP.

If you don't use any of the new features in FP10, you could always export it using FP9 under your publish settings instead.;)

[ASWC]

1500 is fairly low level (no offense to any 1500 level player out there). A chess program is considered pretty weak at 2100, over that it's interesting, under that it's more like beginner training.

[kkbbcute]

1500 is fairly low level (no offense to any 1500 level player out there). A chess program is considered pretty weak at 2100, over that it's interesting, under that it's more like beginner training.

But for a "play for fun" game I suppose it's fine. You don't want to make it too hard.

[Flash Gordon]

I'd say it's about a 1200-1250 in rating. It's easy to check mate, but it also comes up with some cleaver moves. I wouldn't exact call it an "easy win." Great job on the AI...though I'm not sure why it likes to move it's rooks as a second move early on in the game. It's also very predictable. It always opens with horse...then a rook move into the horse position. Perhaps it should vary more. Again, great job...now just make it 3D like I've always wanted to do for a chess game!

[ASWC]

I'd say it's about a 1200-1250 in rating.
Yeah you can say that because there's no opening book plugged in so the AI has to make up every move right from the beginning and obviously ends up strategically lost after 2 or 3 moves. The next update should be just that plugin opening books to the AI and then I believe it should run around 1500/1600.

[veclock]

Yes, next version should include some better opening moves.
The reason why it moves the rook in the beginning is because it becomes guarded by the horse. The AI only knows that a guarded piece is good, not that it can be unnecessary.

I agree that the AI is quite low, I beat it all the time. :) But it was quite hard work on the game, so I'm happy that I managed to finnish this. :D

[Kimchee]

Slick game; how long did it take to program?

[kkbbcute]

Even better, do you intend to make it available for evryone to download so we can all improve on your source and hopefully come up with some really good chess AI. ;)

[veclock]

Kimchee, this took maybe 5 months, but I haven't worked every day so I guess I could have done it in maybe one month.

kkbbcute, would be a good idea, but I'm not sure if anyone undestand my code. And, the system I use doesn't allow any deeper search. But I/we/someone should make a new flash chess with a very good system, and then we could have a competition - who can build the smartes AI? Then we can let them play against each others! :D THAT WOULD BE AWESOME!

[Kimchee]

I think it would be fun to do a competition AI; however, if it took you 5 months it may be a long competition.

How about we start with checkers?

[veclock]

I think it would be fun to do a competition AI; however, if it took you 5 months it may be a long competition.

How about we start with checkers?
The whole game took that time, the AI took just some weeks. :)

[ASWC]

the "prise en passant" doesn't work btw.

[veclock]

the "prise en passant" doesn't work btw.
No, I hadn't ever seen that rule before I stumbeled upon it on Wikipedia.

[kkbbcute]

No, I hadn't ever seen that rule before I stumbeled upon it on Wikipedia.

So hows it going? Any updates? ;)