Different from running on desktop computers, chess engines cannot run independently on iOS devices. Instead, they must be embedded and integrated into a chess GUI (by coding). We have been developing a new open-source Banksia GUI for iOS which can run on iPhone, iPad, and iWatch. The program comes with some already-integrated open-source chess engines. […]
I have known that we can use engines to calculate to create opening books. I have also known about some major disadvantages in this way. Recently I was inspired by some discussions on how good (and bad) some engines when playing openings. I decided to create this tool as a new feature of BanksiaGUI thus […]
BanksiaGUI can run multi engines to analyze the current viewing positions. Whenever the position changed (user make move or review previous, next moves…) all engines will be updated to compute for the new positions. Below is an illustration BSG is watching a live game from TCEC and analyzing 0n-fly by three engines. Whenever a new […]
A friend told us he has observed that some engines running under BanksiaGUI seem to be about 15-20% slower than them running under other chess GUIs. Interested since the percentage is quite large and beyond our understanding so far, we decided to do a quick experiment to verify. To compare anything we should set up […]
BanksiaGUI has a new theme as the default one. That beautiful theme is named “Talkchess workbench”. and designed by Ted Summers. Thanks Ted!
Do you get bored of playing engines for benchmarks or some tasks from command lines: start a terminal/console, go to engine folder, enter the runnable file name, add parameters, run it… All are text and typing, no mouse. If you have to guide someone who has never run a program via a terminal/console before, it […]
All main functions have supported, including ones for tournaments, databases, openings… When creating a new game, users can select the starting positions from a sortable list with some extra info such as win/draw rates
BanksiaGUI has just started playing games over Internet Chess Servers (such as FICS freechess.org). Users can find information about players, watch playing games. They can challenge other players for games. It is a good function for testing engines. Users can let engines play continuously. Just tick the box “Auto try seekings” BSG will auto-detect incoming […]
BanksiaGUI has just completed the first few games played over a local network. Two Banksia GUI programs run concurrently on two computers, connected together without using any extra tools, software nor any special settings. They could play normal and tournament games.
Banksia GUI has just completed the first game as a Lichess bot. The road has opened. It will officially support Lichess bots from the next release.