Revolutionizing handheld chess: Glaurung 2 for the iPhone

[Andre]

Hello,

Sorry probably a stupid question but how do you upload a pgn file to your iphone?
When I click to "load game", I get to the "Games files" then...?
I have just a pgn on my laptop that I want to open with Glaurung

Thanks!

[Tord Romstad]

Hello,

Sorry probably a stupid question but how do you upload a pgn file to your iphone?
When I click to "load game", I get to the "Games files" then...?
I have just a pgn on my laptop that I want to open with Glaurung

Thanks!

Hello André!

You are not the first person to ask. Apple should probably document this better. There is a standard way to transfer files between iPhone apps and your computer (but it only works for apps which support file sharing, and most apps still don't). It's described on this web page:

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4094

The instructions are for the iPad, but you do it in exactly the same way for the iPhone.

[Andre]

Now I see! That worked!

Thanks for passing the info

[supersteve3d]

Hi Tord.

Thank you for this great release. I've been eagerly waiting for the transition from Glaurung to Stockfish. As a bonus we get pgn i/o and remote access.

Wonderful!

Would it be possible to describe the technical changes in the playing styles (active / aggressive and suicidal)? Also is it possible to replicate these personalities in desktop version of Stockfish?

Many thanks,
Steve.

[Cubeman]

Hello,

Sorry probably a stupid question but how do you upload a pgn file to your iphone?
When I click to "load game", I get to the "Games files" then...?
I have just a pgn on my laptop that I want to open with Glaurung

Thanks!

Hello André!

You are not the first person to ask. Apple should probably document this better. There is a standard way to transfer files between iPhone apps and your computer (but it only works for apps which support file sharing, and most apps still don't). It's described on this web page:

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4094

The instructions are for the iPad, but you do it in exactly the same way for the iPhone.

I went to that site but see that the minimum requirements lists a Mac OS.Will the method still work if you are using Windows XP?
Also I emailed a PGN file to my ipod touch and can't get the PGN file from my inbox to the right place so that Glaurung2 can see it.

[Mark]

Hello,

Sorry probably a stupid question but how do you upload a pgn file to your iphone?
When I click to "load game", I get to the "Games files" then...?
I have just a pgn on my laptop that I want to open with Glaurung

Thanks!

Hello André!

You are not the first person to ask. Apple should probably document this better. There is a standard way to transfer files between iPhone apps and your computer (but it only works for apps which support file sharing, and most apps still don't). It's described on this web page:

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4094

The instructions are for the iPad, but you do it in exactly the same way for the iPhone.

I went to that site but see that the minimum requirements lists a Mac OS.Will the method still work if you are using Windows XP?
Also I emailed a PGN file to my ipod touch and can't get the PGN file from my inbox to the right place so that Glaurung2 can see it.

Just tried this for the first time. Works fine with Windows. Wow, this is very convenient for transferring games!!

You have to use iTunes for file sharing; emailing games won't work.

[benstoker]

Hi all,

Glaurung 2.0 is now available from the App Store, for all units running iOS 4.0.

The really big new feature in this version is that it allows you to run the chess engine remotely, on your home computer. As long as you have an Internet connection, you can enjoy the strength and power of a chess program running on a powerful desktop computer, while watching its moves and analysis on your phone. The protocol used to communicate with the remote engine is designed with the goal of minimizing the amount of data sent and received. Playing a full game takes less data transfer than reading an average e-mail, so you don't have to worry about big phone bills when using the remote engine feature.

In order to use the remote engine feature, you'll first have to download a program called "GlaurungServer" from the Glaurung web site. Currently, it's only available for Mac OS X and 32-bit Windows. Binaries for the other major platforms will follow shortly. Please note that the 32-bit Windows binary does not work in 64-bit Windows.

I plan to document the remote engine server protocol later, in case other programmers want to use it in their programs. I hope it will eventually become a standard feature in all handheld chess programs.

There are also a number of other improvements, including better graphics, support for the high-resolution display of the new iPhone 4, and an upgraded chess engine (Stockfish 1.7.1).

Have fun!

I keep wondering why someone doesn't just add on a little ssh library to their iPhone chess app so that the app could easily run any chess engine remotely off of a Linux or OSX box. No need at all to program a doo-hicky server applet to run on a Windows box. ssh is on every Linux box. It's already there. "ssh remote.machine.com super-duper-chess-engine" and that's it. The app simply processes the std output and parses it like any other GUI.

Perhaps the constant feed of PV info would eat too much bandwidth. I doubt it.

[Tord Romstad]

Would it be possible to describe the technical changes in the playing styles (active / aggressive and suicidal)? Also is it possible to replicate these personalities in desktop version of Stockfish?

Yes, it is:

Passive:
Mobility (Middle Game) = 40
Mobility (Endgame) = 40
Space = 0
Cowardice = 150
Aggressiveness = 40

Solid:
Mobility (Middle Game) = 80
Mobility (Endgame) = 80
Space = 70
Cowardice = 150
Aggressiveness = 80

Active:
Stockfish default.

Aggressive:
Mobility (Middle Game) = 120
Mobility (Endgame) = 120
Space = 120
Cowardice = 100
Aggressiveness = 150

Suicidal:
Mobility (Middle Game) = 150
Mobility (Endgame) = 150
Space = 150
Cowardice = 80
Aggressiveness = 200

[Tord Romstad]

I keep wondering why someone doesn't just add on a little ssh library to their iPhone chess app so that the app could easily run any chess engine remotely off of a Linux or OSX box. No need at all to program a doo-hicky server applet to run on a Windows box. ssh is on every Linux box. It's already there. "ssh remote.machine.com super-duper-chess-engine" and that's it. The app simply processes the std output and parses it like any other GUI.

Perhaps the constant feed of PV info would eat too much bandwidth. I doubt it.

The PV info isn't a big problem, but transferring the entire move list for each new move is worse, particularly because most people pay by the amount of data they transfer. That's why I didn't just use UCI remotely.

The intention is that you should still be able to use any UCI engine remotely, though. My remote server is meant to work with any UCI engine, it just hasn't been tested with anything else than Stockfish yet. I'm fairly sure at least some other engines will turn out to work.

By the way, the 64-bit Windows version of the remote engine server is now finally available from my web site (thanks, Harvey!). I also updated the Win32 version with a new config file with proper Windows line endings. The previous version shipped with a file with Unix line endings, and was almost unreadable in the default Windows text editor.

[tomgdrums]

Would it be possible to describe the technical changes in the playing styles (active / aggressive and suicidal)? Also is it possible to replicate these personalities in desktop version of Stockfish?

Yes, it is:

Passive:
Mobility (Middle Game) = 40
Mobility (Endgame) = 40
Space = 0
Cowardice = 150
Aggressiveness = 40

Solid:
Mobility (Middle Game) = 80
Mobility (Endgame) = 80
Space = 70
Cowardice = 150
Aggressiveness = 80

Active:
Stockfish default.

Aggressive:
Mobility (Middle Game) = 120
Mobility (Endgame) = 120
Space = 120
Cowardice = 100
Aggressiveness = 150

Suicidal:
Mobility (Middle Game) = 150
Mobility (Endgame) = 150
Space = 150
Cowardice = 80
Aggressiveness = 200

Hi Tord!

Have you guys ever considered adding the UCI limit strength option to Stockfish?

It would be fun to play against Stockfish if I could bring down the level a bit. (especially with different settings mentioned above!)

Thanks!

Tomg