Quote from Pietro on April 18, 2019, 9:26 pm

Hi Cameron

Yes we tried and works quite smoothly just connect the board start fics and wait to play. Aart did really great job!

Pietro

Quote from aartbik on April 19, 2019, 10:51 pm

You can find some more background in the Chess for Android FICS online manual and tips.

Quote from camfisher_nz on April 21, 2019, 9:19 am

I just played my first game using my Certabo and FICS. It went very well! To be honest, the main reason I bought the board was in anticipation of being able to play online one day. I have read comments in the past about playing computers gets boring and I must say I can broadly agree with those comments. Getting continuously smashed and your game being virtually lost by move 13 or so is no fun after a while. Yes, I know there are ways to weaken the engine.

So, a big thanks to Aart Bik for making this happen. I'm sure there are others out there who are enjoying the online+OTB aspect of the board. Please share your experiences.

Some things to note:

• I played a 10 min game and found that I lost a lot (probably too much) of time in the lag between making moves for my opponent and myself, Chess for Android recognising it, and this being sent to the server. Next time I would either have a 5 second bonus or simply play a >=15 minute game to compensate.
• Using the pieces to castle on the board didn't work. I had to move them on the screen, then my pieces to match the screen and all was fine.
• I don't know if anyone else has this issue or if it's the connectors I use, but the board is very sensitive to movement of the connectors. I couldn't get Chess to connect to my board and had almost given up. I then wiggled the usb connector on the side of the board very slightly and gently, and it burst into life. More than once I have lost a game mid way because the board suddenly dropped the connection when I accidentally moved the usb cable.

Quote from aartbik on April 21, 2019, 7:29 pm

Quote from camfisher_nz on April 21, 2019, 9:19 am

So, a big thanks to Aart Bik for making this happen. I'm sure there are others out there who are enjoying the online+OTB aspect of the board. Please share your experiences.

Some things to note:

• I played a 10 min game and found that I lost a lot (probably too much) of time in the lag between making moves for my opponent and myself, Chess for Android recognising it, and this being sent to the server. Next time I would either have a 5 second bonus or simply play a >=15 minute game to compensate.
• Using the pieces to castle on the board didn't work. I had to move them on the screen, then my pieces to match the screen and all was fine.

As for the lag, yes, there is lag from the network (server to client GUI) and from the electronic board (client GUI to eboard and back). Some preliminary experiments showed that most lag is from the network, and I am not sure there is anything that can be done there. If you experience otherwise, for example, other clients to the same server at the same time don't show lag, please let me know.

As for castling, make sure to move the king first two spaces. See this Chess for Android and Certabo manual.

Quote from Pietro on April 23, 2019, 9:52 am

Hello Cameron

I want to take opportunity to also add our personal thanks to Aart for the wonderful job done and to make it possible with his great app!

Also wanted to tell you do not necessarily use a standard UCI. Try to use LC0 which is already included like standard uci engine in our SW packet.

LC0 especially adds interesting features as it's an engine which does only know the basics of chess and; like a kid, they are taught learn day by day in a way similar to human neural connections do collecting and playing hundreds or thousands of games and getting experience from them. Unlike standard engines which anyhow follow kind of mathematical model or use libraries, neural network weight packages used by LC0 are generated from different sets and number of games so the gaming experience will be different and depends on set of games used in neural network package you use. So in other terms, unlike standard,  engines they behave like "human" they can make error or have "intuition"  in a very unforecastable way, personally we think that's will future way to play and learn.  So just find  a package which fit your ELO strenght and from there grow up.

What you need to do is just and go and download a neural network package with lower strenght from here  http://lczero.org/networks/remove the default .pb package in the engine directory and just copy the new one in engine directory and Lc0 will call directly it when loading.

You see there are some starting from very low ELO 370 up to above 3200 so you are plenty of room. we would suggest to start around 1000-1200 and see how it goes.  And do not forget to share the experience.

For usb pm  you to help spotting out any eventual issue.

All the best!

Pietro

 

Quote from camfisher_nz on June 11, 2019, 11:18 am

Thanks Pietro,

 

I did as you suggested and found that using LC0 was much better. I cannot see myself going back to Stockfish etc. any time soon when playing.

Quote from Pietro on June 11, 2019, 6:12 pm

Hi Cameron!

Glad you enjoy LCo the networks come out every day so you will be plenty of new ones. 😀

All the best

Pietro