Chess (Mac OS X)

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: About 95% of sjeng.rc is commented out text. Perhaps some of it should be included.

Chess is the only game bundled with Mac OS X, aside from the Tile Game found in the Dashboard.

Debug Menu#

A debug menu can be enabled by setting the MBC_DEBUG environmental variable and running the app. This menu is only enabled when the variable is set, so it will not last across new sessions without the variable. An example would be the following being run in a terminal:

MBC_DEBUG=1 /Applications/Chess.app/Contents/MacOS/Chess

Unused Text#

There are some interesting developer comments in bug.opn:

/* The various tags:
    !   best
    !?  interesting
    =   unusual but solid
    ?!  murky - meant for surprise
    ?   plain bad
*/

/* Various bad first moves - don't play these! */

a2a3?   e7e5!
a2a4?   e7e5!
b1a3?   e7e5!
b1c3?   e7e6!

/* Now, 1. b3 is an interesting and OK slow move that can be used for surprise. 1. b4 is an interesting wild move planning to put pressure on the long diagonal and hit a N on c6 with b4-b5 */

b2b3!?
b2b4?!

/* 1. c3 is too committal to be used as surprise weapon, but 1. c4 is better than it looks. 1. d3 has the same problem as 1.c3: it is likely to transpose to some slow reversed system but without giving black any head aches with move orders. */

c2c3?   e7e5!
c2c4?!  e7e5!
d2d3?   e7e5!

/* 1. d4 is a good, calm move which often leads to semi-blocked positions. I'm interested in seeing how well the program can be taught to handle those. */

d2d4=

/* 1. e3 can be used as a surprise weapon intending to make a reversed set up or something slow like Ng1-f3 and b2-b3. */

e2e3?!  e7e5!

/* 1. e4! Best by test! */

/* Queen's fianchetto */

e2e4    b7b6?!  d2d4!

/* Queen's knight - most likely to transpose */

e2e4    b8c6=

/* C-line crap lines */

e2e4    c7c5?   b1c3!
e2e4    c7c6?   d2d4!   d7d5    e4d5    c6d5    c1f4

/* The leaf - God I hate this shitty line. */

e2e4    d7d5?

/* 1... d6 - transposing to the Wall most likely, but also some independant lines. */

e2e4    d7d6=

/* I would expect the program to handle the tactics in the Kamikaze pretty well. */

e2e4    e7e5!?

/* On with the main bulk of opening theory. */

e2e4    e7e6!

/* The Dog will suit the computer well. */

e2e4    g8f6!

/* 1. f3 is simply bad but 1.f4 is a whole lot better than it looks - an interesting surprise weapon maybe. */

f2f3?   e7e5!
f2f4?!  g8f6!

/* 1. Nf3 is a good second string first move along with 1. d4. */

g1f3=

/* The rest is just crap. */

g1h3?   e7e5!
g2g3?   e7e5!
g2g4?   e7e5!
h2h3?   e7e5!
h2h4?   e7e5!   h4h5    d7d5    P@g6    h7g6    h5g6    h8h1    g6f7    e8f7