Friday, April 13, 2012

Program Alybadix

The over-the-board players have specialized software programs for their training and the storing of their games. I have purchased, years ago, the program Fritz 11 (by ChessBase) and it is very good for me, beyond any expectation. (I use it mainly for checking studies, to avoid wrong placing of the pieces).
There are internet services for players in real time and also internet databases with millions of games and searching abilities (by player, by tourney, by opening etc.).

In the realm of chess composition, the creation of a good software application meets obstacles...

(1) The pieces are not six, but over a thousand (in fairy chess) and new pieces are invented continuously.
(2) The chessboards may have another shape (for example, cylindrical).
(3) The aim of the game may change as well as the rivalry. Examples [Black plays 18 moves and then White checkmates], [White forces Black to give mate in n moves], [Black helps White to mate in n moves]. 
(4) The conditions of gaming may be different (Madrasi with paralysing pieces, Circe with reborn pieces, KoBul kings changing way of moving and capturing).
(5) The flow of the game may be different. Examples : [Find the 25 moves needed to reach this position], [White takes back eight moves and then mates in three].

... and many other things ... you understand the difficulties.

One of the first programs was Alybadix, made by Ilkka Blom (address : Ilkka Blom, Salmikatu 27 A 16, FI-65200 Vaasa, FINLAND, e-mail : iblom@saunalahti.fi) and he is still looking after it, (see http://alybadix.wippiespace.com/).
The program solves problems of many categories (selfmates, multimovers, etc) very fast. (Still, if the number of moves is large, the time needed for a solution climbs up).
The program is not expensive and the opinions about it very favorable.

In its page you will find Demo edition (and many goodies) and a collection (by Eduardo Sadier) of 123006 #2 problems in text-form readable by Alybadix. You will download free APwin v2012 (by Paul H. Wiereyn) to execute Alybadix in Windows environment.
In order to have an idea of the Alybadix speed, note that it can solve all the problems of the Sadier collection in less than 30 minutes!

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