AlphaChess 3

For more information please visit my website http://www.marcandre.info
or write to me at marc@marcandre.info

Copyright ©2003-2006 Marc-andre Lamothe.

1. Introduction
   • Description
   • Historic
2. AlphaChess
   • Interfaces
     • Game board
     • Options
   • Game modes
     • Local game
     • Network game
3. Conclusion

1. Introduction

1.1 Description

AlphaChess is fully fonctionnal chess game that allows you to challenge your computer or another player in a local game or over a network game. The game has a very nice looking, unique and fully customizable game board on which you may change every single color. Included with the game are 10 cool looking themes for the game board and you can also easily add and remove your own. It is also possible to choose within 18 original chess sets to play with and you may even change the piece's color.

1.2 Historique

This software started has a school Java programing project and by the end of the course when it was finished it went beyond the requirements of the course itself, trying to become a real chess program. But still it wasn't complete and during the 2003 summer work started on creating a real chess game. For that purpose the entire code was re-written from java to pascal and in july 2003 the first version was completed.

Then work began on adding networking support and only a few weeks later version 2 was completed. But even after alot of fixes alot of bug and crashes happened while playing a network game. It was a year later after the last changes to version 2 that started the work on version 3, in wich the entire network connection code was isolated and re-written. And finally, december 2004, version 3 was completed, using a much stable network core and alot of new features and functionnality.

Then in late 2005 the first version with Artificial Inteligence was released, allowing players to challenge their own computers when there was no one arround to play.

2. AlphaChess

AlphaChess is one of the best chess program, with its sleek and simple graphical interface and intuitive game play makes it the easiest to play.

2.1 Interfaces

2.1.1 Game board

This is AlphaChess's main window and game board :

To start playing you simply have to click on the Game menu and on Play. The top section of the game board will display information about the players (names, time and status).

To make a move, simply select a piece by clicking on it (then the case's color will change to show your selection) then simply click on the case where you want the piece to be moved to. You can also make a move by dragging the piece if you hold down the mouse button from the piece's location all the way to the destination case.

The cases of the game board will change color when you select a piece or when you move your mouse cursor over them. If your enabled the "Learning mode" in the options the color of the case under your cursor will change to show if that move is valid or not when you have selected a piece.

While in a game it is possible to take back a move you did by clicking on the Game menu and on "Undo last move", you can also pause or forfeit the game in the same menu. In the View menu you can switch the game board view wich will turn the board arround to show yours opponent's view, you can also open up the chat window to talk to your opponent, access the options and also the games history that show the result of the games you have previously played.

2.1.2 Options

Here is the option window of AlphaChess :

In the Game tab you can activate the auto-update feature that will look for a new version on startup, you can also enable the "Learning mode" wich will show you if a move is valid or not by changing the color of the board's cases.

You can also choose in wich language you would like AlphaChess to be displayed and the format of the move list items (notation). Finally it is possible to increase or decrease the search depth of the computer player, you should only change this value if you want to change the speed at which the computer calculates a move. If you have a slow computer you can lower the value to make the computer player think faster or if you have a really good computer you can raise it to slow it down. Note that changing this value will also affect how well the computer opponent plays.

In the board tab you can change the colors of the game board and the color of the cases shown in each of their state. It is also possible to choose wich case style to display the board with, the Classic style will display the cases one next to the others (without borders), the Enhanced style will show a gap in between every cases aswell as a border for each of them.

With the themes list you can easily change all of the colors of the game board and it's cases just by selecting a item from the list. To add your own theme, simply type the desired name in the input box and click on Save, if a theme of the same name already exist, a message will ask you if you wich to replace it with the new one. To remove a scheme from the list, simply select it and then click on the Delete button.

In the Pieces tab you can choose wich chess set you would like to use, 20 sets are included with the game. The Display mode allows you to choose between the Standard mode, which displays all the pieces in their original color (black and white), or the Colored mode which allows you to choose the color of the pieces for both players.

Note that the Colored mode always displays the pieces with a black border and that it only the inside color will be changed, so it is not recommended to choose dark colors or to put the same color for both players.

In the Sounds tab you can choose wich sound files the game will play for each events. The sound files must not be compressed (.wav), mp3 audio files are not supported. Simply select a sound event in the list and it's associated sound file will show below. You can click on the Browse button to browse your computer for a sound file, or click on the Preview button to play the selected sound file.

In the Windows tab you can enable the docking options for the moves list and the chat window.

2.2 Game modes

AlphaChess is a single or multi-player chess game, wich means that you can play alone (against the computer) or against another player, either by playing localy on one computer or by playing online on two computers.

2.2.1 Local game

To play a local game (against the computer or another player on the same computer), simply click on Play in the Game menu. Then select the "play a local game" tab and select the player's type (human or computer) and enter the human player's names and click on Ok to start playing right away.

2.2.2 Network game

To play an online game (play against a player on another computer), click on Play in the Game menu, then select either the "Join an online game" or the "Host an online game" tab and enter your name.

If you chosed to join an online game then simply select one of the currently hosted game in the list and click on Ok. If you know the host's ip address you can simply check the box below and enter the address itself. If the list is empty, then this means that no one has chosed to host an online game yet so you can host one yourself or wait. If an error message shows up saying that it is impossible to access the game list on the server then it is possible that you are not connected to the internet.

If you choose to host an online game, all you have to do is choose which color you want to play (the white player is always the one that make the first move). To be able to create an online game you need to have direct access to the internet, if your internet access is shared between other computers with a router it will not be possible for people to join the game that you have created, unless you configure the router to forward the TCP data it receives on port 2570 to your computer's local ip address, but to do so your computer need to have a static IP address setup on your home network. For more information on how to do all that, contact your computer or network technician.

3. Conclusion

AlphaChess is the perfect chess game to have fun and challenge your friend where ever in the world they may be, either if you are novice or expert. For any other information, question or comments, to can write to me at : marc@marcandre.info.

Thanks for using AlphaChess.