Scatha 0.2.5 for Mac OS X 10.4.3

[Tord Romstad]

Hi all,

Scatha 0.2.5 is now ready for download from www.glaurungchess.com. The chess playing engine is roughly equivalent to Glaurung Mainz, except that the evaluation function is beginning to lag quite far behind. The GUI is unchanged compared to version 0.2.4, but it has been recompiled to work in the most recent Mac OS X update (10.4.3). It will probably not work in any older OS versions.

Have fun!

Tord

[Alessandro Scotti]

Hi Tord,
I'm fascinated by Scatha and hexagonal chess... if only for the elegance of the chessboard! I've followed the link to the description and I like the rules, they seem quite "logical" to me.
Is Scatha the only engine for hexchess, or there are more?

[Tord Romstad]

Hi Alessandro!

Hi Tord,
I'm fascinated by Scatha and hexagonal chess... if only for the elegance of the chessboard! I've followed the link to the description and I like the rules, they seem quite "logical" to me.

Yes, the rules are very logical extensions of the rules of rectangular chess to the hexagonal board, with the possible exception of the pawn captures and the stalemate = 3/4 rule (I like both of these modifications, by the way). However, the familiar pieces gains new abilities on the hexagonal board. Knights, bishops and rooks can triangulate, and kings can sometimes catch up with passed pawns from behind. The piece values are more fluid than in normal chess. For instance knights are generally much stronger than bishops, but on the other hand the "bishop trio" is often extremely strong, much stronger than the bishop pair in normal chess.

I think hexachess is much more fun to play than normal chess. The middle game is wilder and more tactical, and the endgame seems to be deeper and more complicated (but perhaps this is partly because it is so unfamiliar). It is great fun to analyse basic endgames and discover elementary wins and draws on your own, without having any books to help you. It turns out that mating with KQ vs K is easier than in normal chess (the queen can mate even without the help of the king), but that KR vs K is more difficult (but still possible). Learning to mate with KNN vs K is a really tough challenge. Unlike in normal chess, the two knights are strong enough to win with correct play.

Is Scatha the only engine for hexchess, or there are more?

There is at least one other: Hexodus by Grzegorz Sidorowicz (who is also author of the Winboard engine Armageddon). This is a Windows program, and can be downloaded from Grzegorz's page. Hexodus is very old and probably not quite as strong as Scatha, but it is hard to know.

Scatha actually uses a straightforward adaptation of the UCI protocol for communication between the GUI and the engine. If somebody wants to write a hexachess engine, I can easily add the ability to install additional engines and play engine vs engine matches in Scatha's GUI.

By the way, didn't you buy a Mac Mini some time ago? Does Scatha work on your Mac?

Tord