From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Aug 2 17:36:43 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5FD5516A4CE for ; Mon, 2 Aug 2004 17:36:43 +0000 (GMT) Received: from outbox.allstream.net (outbox.allstream.net [207.245.244.41]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2D6C543D2F for ; Mon, 2 Aug 2004 17:36:43 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from epilogue@allstream.net) Received: from localhost (mon-pq55-162.dial.allstream.net [216.123.143.42]) by outbox.allstream.net (Allstream MTA) with SMTP id CDC7D1BB72F; Mon, 2 Aug 2004 13:36:40 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 2 Aug 2004 13:36:08 -0400 From: epilogue To: Damon Butler Message-Id: <20040802133608.3edf3818@localhost> In-Reply-To: <410E78E5.1000403@hddesign.com> References: <410E5C6A.1090309@hddesign.com> <410E78E5.1000403@hddesign.com> X-Mailer: Sylpheed-Claws 0.9.12 (GTK+ 1.2.10; i386-portbld-freebsd4.10) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit cc: FreeBSD Questions cc: freebsd@pursued-with.net Subject: Re: Chess for Kids (and dummies like dads) X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 02 Aug 2004 17:36:43 -0000 On Mon, 02 Aug 2004 12:24:53 -0500 Damon Butler wrote: > > As a BSD user, I can't help you. As a chess player, I will comment > > that there's a certain learning curve involved, and playing against > > random moves isn't going to advance you far along it. I've never known > > anyone to become even moderately facile at chess without getting their > > head pounded in on a regular basis. If you or your son's ego isn't up > > to that, OSB(Other Sports Beckon). ;) > > Point well taken. ;-) But... > It's not that either of us mind losing per se. What I've discovered that > gnuchess and crafty are orders of magnitude stronger than the old > program we used to play against. > > Say you want to learn to play tennis. You're just beginning. Who should > you begin challenging in order to improve your game and enjoy yourself > while doing it? Andy Roddick or the friend who's been taking > intermediate tennis lessons through the city rec dept? In this analogy, > the standard chess engines are Andy Roddicks and our old program was the > intermediate friend. > > My son is just not gonna learn that much nor enjoy himself much playing > against Andy Roddick. I don't want his first serious foray into computer > chess to be *that* intimidating or demoralizing. > > > That said, the MOST frustrating part of learning chess is usually > > tactical, not strategic (inadvertently throwing away pieces). > > That's it exactly. > > > There are a > > number of good web/Java based free chess games on the net - have you > > tried any of them? Many will show possible moves, blink to indicate > > pieces at risk, etc. > > That sounds great! Do you have any suggestions off hand? I thought my > searches were pretty exhaustive, but I didn't come up with anything like > what you're talking about. if you haven't already tried it, visit sf.net and plug 'chess' into the search window. it will probably return a bunch of programs, including some which are java based. fwiw, i thought that gnuchess had level settings. are you certain that even level 1 is too difficult for your needs? > --Damon > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > To unsubscribe, send any mail to > "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" >