Aart's Blog

The UCI engine setup dialog in Chess for Android was developed a long time ago when there were not many chess engines available for Android. As a result, I opted for a simple dialog that featured a few, commonly used UCI engine options only (such as hash table size, number of threads, endgame tablebases). However, the options that I picked almost ten years ago no longer serve the wide variety in options of the many chess engines available for Android. Therefore, I decided to re-implement the UCI engine setup and do what the UCI protocol specification actually intended: the GUI should parse all options and build a dialog that allows the user to change them. For engines with only a few options, this yields a concise dialog, as illustrated below with BikJump v1.8. For engines with many options, this yields a more elaborate, scrollable dialog, as illustrated below for Leela Chess Zero. In any case, however, the new implementation gives the user full access to all options! Expect...

And another blast from the past. The Karpov 2294, the strongest dedicated chess computer that I own. It is rich in features, such as time control, infinite analysis, and many levels. It also features a very elegant magnetic chess piece set.

My grandfather handed this autobridge device down to me in the early eighties, a few years before I got my first chess and home computers. Autobridge was invented in the 1930s for self-teaching bridge, both the bidding and the playing. I date mine around 1959, since that year appears in the manual and on all the inlay cards. The device has no date, but a serial number (so perhaps one could find out). Does anyone else remember these? I could play for hours with this. Amazing how times have changed....