| ChessGenius | |
| Developer: | Richard Lang, Adrian Millett |
| Latest Release Version: | 7.2 |
| Operating System: | Windows |
| Genre: | Chess engine |
| License: | Proprietary |
ChessGenius is the name of a chess-playing computer program written by Richard Lang who has in the past written programs that have won the World Computer Chess Championship on 10 occasions.[1]
ChessGenius is a continuation of a series of programs (which included various incarnations of the Mephisto program[2]) written by Richard Lang which won the World Microcomputer Chess Championship in 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991 and 1993.[3] ChessGenius was the first computer to beat a world champion (Garry Kasparov) at a non-blitz time limit.[4] [5] This victory was particularly significant because in contrast to the victory two years later by Deep Blue which was running on very fast custom-built hardware, ChessGenius was running on only an early Pentium PC.[6] [7]
| Release Name | Year | OS | |
| ChessGenius 1 | 1992 | MS-DOS | |
| ChessGenius 2 | 1993 | MS-DOS | |
| ChessGenius 3 | 1994 | MS-DOS | |
| ChessGenius 4 | 1995 | Windows | |
| ChessGenius 5 | 1996 | Windows | |
| ChessGenius 6 | 1998 | Windows | |
| ChessGenius Classic (7.2) | 2002 | Windows |
As well as playing chess, ChessGenius can read games created in .cbf (Chess Base Format) and .pgn (Portable Game Notation) formats and can analyse games assessing the moves played against its own evaluations.[8] It is also possible to run other chess engines in the ChessGenius interface.[9] The built-in opening book for ChessGenius for Windows was written by a team led by Ossi Weiner.[2]
In the early 1990s ChessGenius was "one of the first master-strength programs".[10] In an article comparing ChessGenius with Fritz in February 1994 Grandmaster and computer chess expert John Nunn wrote, "[m]y own opinion is that if raw playing strength is your dominant criterion, then go for Genius".[11] Its playing style has been compared to that of a "micro-Karpov".[12] ChessGenius, like many of Lang's programs, was famous for having an 'asymmetric evaluation function' which means that moves and sequences of moves might be scored differently depending on whether they are to be made by the program or by the opponent (which has implications for which lines are 'forward pruned' in its calculations). For example, ChessGenius might give a low score to a wild attack of its own and so not calculate it and so not initiate it, but a high score to a wild attack by the opponent and so spend time calculating the implications of such an attack by the opponent, thus making its style of play very 'safe'.[13]
At the Intel World Chess Grand Prix in London in 1994 ChessGenius achieved a rating performance for the tournament of 2795 Elo rating.[14] [15] From 1994 until 1998 ChessGenius remained one of the top chess programs available.[16] In 1999 ChessGenius dropped out of the top ten on the SSDF (Swedish Chess Computer Association) rating list[17] and it continued to slip down the list over the following decade.[18] The programmer Richard Lang has suggested that this was because the program does not scale well to faster hardware.[2] Portable versions (for example for Palm and the original iPhone) perform exceptionally well because ChessGenius is particularly strong in weak hardware environments.[2] [10] [19] Unlike most other commercial vendors, Richard Lang explicitly forbids including the PC version of ChessGenius in chess engine rating lists, so it is difficult to gauge its strength compared to other modern programs. The current PC version of ChessGenius (7.2) is marketed as "Classic" because it was the first platform on which the ChessGenius engine appeared. This distinguishes it from the other versions primarily for handheld devices. It has been suggested that this branding (as "Classic") is also because apart from speed and efficiency enhancements, and updates to its openings book, the program has not changed dramatically since 1995.
This is the famous game from 1994 in which ChessGenius, playing with the black pieces, defeated the then world champion Garry Kasparov. The game sees Kasparov rejecting clear drawing opportunities and eventually losing. ChessGenius plays fairly well despite making some anti-positional moves which Kasparov was unable to capitalize on.[6]
WhiteGarry Kasparov Black: ChessGenius Opening: ECO D11
1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Qf6 3. Qh5 Nc6 4. Nf3 Be7 5. d4 exd4 6. Bg5 Qg6 7. Qxg6 hxg6 8. Bxe7 Ngxe7 9. Ng5 Ne5 10. Bb3 f6 11. f4 Ng4 12. Nf3 Ne3 13. Kf2 c5 14. Re1 d6 15. c3 g5 16. fxg5 Nc6 17. Nbd2 fxg5 18. Nxg5 Rxh2 19. cxd4 cxd4 20. Rg1 Ne5 21. Ndf3 Rh5 22. Rh1 Rh6 23. Rxh6 gxh6 24. Nxe5 dxe5 25. Nf7 Ke7 26. Nxe5 Be6 27. Nf3 Rd8 28. Bxe6 Kxe6 29. Rh1 Ke7 30. Ke2 Nc4 31. b3 d3+ 32. Ke1 Nd6 33. Rxh6 Nxe4 34. Rh7+ Ke6 35. Nd2 Nd6 36. Rh3 Rg8 37. Re3+ Kd7 38. Rxd3 Kc6 39. Kf2 Rg4 40. Kf3 Rg8 41. g4 Nb5 42. Ne4 Rf8+ 43. Kg3 Re8 44. Kf4 Rf8+ 45. Ke5 a6 46. g5 Re8+ 47. Kf5 Nc7 48. Rc3+ Kb6 49. Nf6 Nb5 50. Nxe8 Nxc3 51. g6 Nd5 52. g7 Ne7+ 53. Ke6 Ng8 54. Nd6 Kc6 55. Nf5 b6 56. Ne7+ Nxe7 57. Kxe7 Kd5 58. g8=Q+ Kd4 59. Qd8+ Kc3 60. Qxb6 Kc2 61. Qxa6 Kb2 62. Kd6 Kc2 63. Qe2+ Kc3 64. Kd5 Kb4 65. Qc4+ Ka5 66. Qc6 Kb4 67. Qc5# 1-0[20] [21]
As well as PC versions of ChessGenius there are versions available for various mobile devices including mobile phones (such as the Apple iPhone and Android smartphones) and personal organisers.[10] [15] [22]
Versions include the following: ChessGenius for Desktop PC's (Windows PC's, MS-DOS), Android, Windows® powered Smartphones (Windows Mobile, Windows Phone 8), iPhone, iPad & iPod touch, Pocket PC, Bada (Samsung), Palm Computing® Platform (Palm OS), Symbian Series 60 phones (Symbian S60 and ^3 phones), Nokia 7650 / 3650 Phone (any phone with Symbian Series 60 OS like Nokia N-Gage, Siemens SX1, etc.), UIQ phones, EPROMS, Casio BE-300 Pocket Manager, and more (especially phones).
