Talk:Chess Titans

Bugs?
I would like to know why the "Game Bugs" entries are routinely deleted by the staff here at wikipedia. The last set of bugs I reported personally, providing youtube, screen shot, and microsoft.com forum discussions as references. The information was and remains 100% accurate and none of it violated copyright laws.KevinConnerJp (talk) 14:18, 11 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Comment. I play chess titans a lot, the biggest "rule violation" is that the computer will castle after the king has been checked, but the human is not allowed the same luxury. However, humans can "undo" moves, and the computer can't.76.17.118.157 (talk) 13:36, 25 December 2010 (UTC)


 * I found a bug and it seems there is a handful of other people who found it too. When playing against the computer (as either colour) the computer allows the human player to castle through check with a pawn. The computer starts making illegal moves even going as far as moving the human player's pieces and not moving to get out of check (which then allows the human player to take the king). Mostly though the game spams "Invalid Move" tips and refuses to continue. Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOqaQlIZcGU — Preceding unsigned comment added by 141.163.66.131 (talk) 12:24, 7 February 2012 (UTC)


 * Comment. One time, I played the game, and found a major bug. It involved Promotion. Y'know how you get a pawn to the other side and change it into another piece? Yeah, I moved a rook over to the other side of the board and could change it into a queen! In real chess that can't happen!!! Can anyone explain to me why this is?!?!?!?!?

I think the information about bugs has been deleted because according to wp:verifiability, all information has to be verifiable and if Wikipedia didn't have that rule, there would start being tons of wrong information in Wikipedia from all sorts of people adding in information based on there own speculation for which no reliable source exists and YouTube is not a reliable source. There are exceptions to verifiability where unsourced information isn't supposed to get deleted right away as soon as it goes into the article because a reliable source probably exists for that information and hasn't been found yet and deleting the piece of information would make almost nobody aware that it ever made its way into the article and prevent anybody from even attempting to find a reliable source for the information, permanently making the article worse by never having the piece of information a reliable source was going to be found for later. Blackbombchu (talk) 03:30, 3 January 2014 (UTC)
 * The bugs described above can be verified by anyone who has the program.--84.43.123.38 (talk) 12:12, 17 July 2015 (UTC)

Winboard protocol?
Does anyone know if this program supports the Winboard protocol for chess engines? What about online play on FICS? Seer 20:59, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

It does not support Winboard protocol and online play is not a possiblity. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.141.94.50 (talk) 22:03, 17 February 2007 (UTC)


 * Yes, it's incredibly rudimentary. You can't even print the game moves or export them to PGN (well, Mac Chess does not support PGN either, but at least you can save to an XML format that can be automatically converted to PGN). You can save only one game etc.
 * And for the playing strength... I haven't played against it yet, but I'm currently staging a sort of Mac OS vs. Vista showdown with Chess Titans at level 10 playing white and Chess.app at max. strength playing black, and it's rather funny to behold because Chess.app is totally wiping the floor with "Titans". Currently, black is two pawns and both bishops up, and white is totally on the defensive. And Mac Chess is probably the weakest chess program I have seen so far.
 * So it seems this game is all about graphics and little else. Aragorn2 00:44, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

This game is very poorly designed. Not only is the play poor but it doesn't follow the rules. The computer just cheated by castling across check! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 131.107.0.73 (talk) 00:21, 16 March 2007 (UTC) It is legal for rhe rook to move through attack. It is only illegal for the king to move through check

CAUTION
Watch out, someone vandalized this page. I turned it back, though.


 * You only reverted the vandalism to the article, not to this talk page.   — Jeff G. (talk&#124;contribs) 13:24, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Purpose of the Oberon Link
Why is there a link to Oberon at the bottom? I don't see any explanation of why it relates to the main article. Zian 19:54, 21 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Oberon appears to have participated in development.   — Jeff G. (talk&#124;contribs) 13:25, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Artificial Intelligence
Does someone know the skill of the AI engine? Compared to others such as Fritz, Crafty, GNU Chess? --Ysangkok 17:06, 19 September 2007 (UTC)
 * It's pretty bad. It's easy to win at all stages, and it often makes allot of stupid moves. But then again it depends on the skill of the player. I tested it against my cellphone, which uses 1 sec to make a move, while the PC use 20 sec on each move at level 10. The cellphone won. Jørgen88 12:23, 26 October 2007 (UTC)
 * It's been hard for me at beginner, I think it really has to do with the skill of the player, as I don't play chess very often. Alreajk —Preceding forge signed comment added by 69.123.220.151 (talk) 23:57, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

I got to a point in the game where i had only my king and the computer had a king and queen, on level 9. rather than boxing me into a corner or against a wall with the queen and the king covering it, the computer put the queen right next to me with the king on the other end of the board! so captured the queen; stalemate. Terrible AI. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.120.166.63 (talk) 23:39, 4 December 2007 (UTC)
 * Titans is a very primitive chess program, it does make a lot of senseless moves and fails to recognize simple threats. It also has bugs that allow illegal or (so I've heard) out of turn moves. I'd recommend getting even the most basic third party chess program if you really want to learn the game. There's no point in playing against software that allows or makes illegal or stupid moves. Garyberger (talk) 18:03, 16 December 2007 (UTC)
 * All the examples of "illegal moves" I found on google have been En passants. If you have any examples of the computer really making an illegal move, it would be beneficial to put it on the article, don't you think? Miggyb (talk) 02:05, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

The AI is a very basic alpha-beta pruning search of n depth. There's NO horion effect checking and end-game database (causing the stupid move of the lvl9 with the king and queen, obvious symptom), severely hurtig the algorithms capability. Not to mention the brillint flaw that the computer doesn't force a draw by reptitive movement EVER, it chooses to do a crappy losing move over getting a draw due to repetition (very expoitable). On top of that, t heuristics of the program kinda suck... I think he's chopping down plausible trees in a really weird way, on level 10 I've done multiple games where the computer just gives away his pieces because he didn't see something at move depth 2/3. A few times, it even moved a horse or somethin similar into next to a pawn so I could just capture it, didn't make any sense at all. I've also noticed te level 10 to be very defensive, which is rather typical for chess programs without area control zone heuristics. In general I wouldn't even recommend playing against this AI unles you're playing at the basic level of chess. I'm not a chess pro, but I'm an AI researcher and I've programmed multiple board game AIs. To make a long story short, the AI is REALLY bad, I mean it when I say a second year computer science minor student could do a better job :/ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.139.84.197 (talk) 00:44, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

The AI also seems to take much longer at level 1 than at level 2 or 3, which leads me to believe the level 1 AI uses a different algorithm than the others. 136.227.81.85 (talk) 19:05, 5 June 2013 (UTC)Dran

Why the Reported Bugs are deleted?
Why the section that described the different kinds of bugs that Chess Titans contained has been deleted. I just would like to know why. Thanks for the understanding! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.190.90.186 (talk) 03:56, 9 March 2008 (UTC)
 * There were no sources given in the section. Themodernizer (talk) 17:46, 9 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Sources are provided. Seems bot reverted because of a youtube link. Have now reverted bot undo. SunCreator (talk) 15:06, 11 September 2008 (UTC)
 * For general information, there is now a discussion of this at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Chess#Bugs in Chess Titans. Perhaps it should be moved here. -- Jao (talk) 13:50, 13 September 2008 (UTC)


 * To summarize what is there, the people thinking that these are bugs in the program are unfamiliar with the rules of chess. Bubba73 (talk), 18:15, 17 September 2008 (UTC)


 * the YouTube video does show white making an illegal castling and then capturing the black king with the rook. The other "bugs" seem to be because of misunderstanding of the rules. Bubba73 (talk), 19:23, 17 September 2008 (UTC)


 * I tried it on two games, and it did not claim a draw because of 10 checks, even in a row. But it did claim a draw by threefold repetition.  Bubba73 (talk), 20:28, 17 September 2008 (UTC)


 * The link to the Miscrosoft forum also reveals that some users are not familiar with the stalemate and en passant rules. Bubba73 (talk), 20:37, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

to all the people outhere who says it dosnt bug and people just "dont know the rules of chess" YOUR WRONGE! i was just playing the game and clearly had it were my bishop could kill the comps queen and it would not let me attack with it, the people who say it isnt bugged must work for the company that made the game.... 72.171.0.144 (talk) 04:26, 21 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Are you sure that your king was not in check? Are you sure that moving the bishop would not put your king in check? — JAO • T • C 11:20, 21 March 2009 (UTC)\


 * very sure 67.142.130.23 (talk) 17:48, 21 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Then that's certainly interesting. Would you want to share the move sequence leading up to this, or possibly a screenshot? — JAO • T • C 20:21, 21 March 2009 (UTC)


 * This is not Chess Titans Technical Support, but I would like to see the position in question. I've played against the program and it never made an illegal move with me or wouldn't allow me to make a legal move.  I did see a YouTube video showing it castling across a square that was controlled by an opposing piece, which is illegal.  Other than that, I spent ample time reading a forum where people were complaining about Chess Titan, and all of the ones I read could be explained by the person not knowing the rules of chess, especially en passant, stalemate, and threefold repetition.  Bubba73 (talk), 00:10, 22 March 2009 (UTC)


 * (Somewhat off-topic, but not entirely:) This year my daughter started middle school. I coach the chess team there (and did at her previous school).  At the start of the year I asked the club (about eight kids) if they knew the rules of chess.  All of them said that they did.  Turned out that my daughter was the only one who knew the rules.  All of the others lacked knowledge of some of the "advanced" rules - en passant, castling, promotion (chess), etc.  So it is common for kids to think they know the rules when they don't.  Bubba73 (talk), 00:30, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Chess Titans just castled illegally against me - and I do know the rules of chess, having played in tournaments for 42 years. (Mike P. - Boston) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.218.178.144 (talk) 17:40, 6 August 2011 (UTC)


 * What specifically was illegal about it? Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 18:15, 6 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Did you save the game or make a print screen after the illegal move? Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 18:34, 6 August 2011 (UTC)


 * For instance this person thought it was illegal to castle queenside if the QN1 square (b1 or b8 in algebraic notation) is attacked. It is not.  Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 18:39, 6 August 2011 (UTC)

Case in point: this was added and then removed today: "The game cheats. It moves pawns diagonally, but tells you that it is an invalid move if you do it. Too funny." The person probably does not know the en passant rule. Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 02:55, 7 August 2011 (UTC)

How does this game make sound without the speaker?
On my laptop (Vista) this game makes weird, fairly loud high pitched sounds during graphical operations - when it is turning the board, and whenever the mouse is moved so that one square lights up instead of another. This happens even when the speaker is on mute and no other sounds come from the computer. It's the only program I can think of that does that. How does this happen? Wnt (talk) 09:45, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

There is a built in speaker that can make beeping noises in all computers I know of. The main function is to beep when a PC has issues with booting, or is incorrectly set up. It wouldn't play music or .wav's, but it can beep in *see-veral* tones. --167.135.20.155 (talk) 17:42, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

Not in Windows 7 Pro
EDIT: I was given Windows 7 Premium instead of pro, so for the one night i had it i played this game. I took it back and got Professional, and I thought it didn't with ANY Game. I even looked at other shops that were running windows Proffessional and none of them have any games either. Only Premium. you should put in here how to find the games in other versions. >Control Panel > Programs and Features > Turn Windows Features on > Games. Oroton (talk) 16:12, 4 December 2009

Program Rating
What is the rating of Chess Titans on different levels? Does anyone know? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.60.20.97 (talk) 05:18, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

This program is probably no better than 1800 uscf rating. or 1600 fide. I've only played it 3 times on level 10 and destroyed it each time. It made pretty simple positional mistakes everytime. It has NO endgame understanding what so ever, and very limited opening theory. It does try to get the bishop pair. It can play for trick tactics, but often to it's demise if you can see and understand the tactics. It's good enough to beat most coffee shop players, but that's about it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.24.191.191 (talk) 23:01, 6 July 2010 (UTC)


 * Agreed. This is an extremely weak game. As a test, I played it against Stockfish, with Chess Titans as White and Stockfish as Black. It got checkmated in 31 moves. 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e3 O-O 5. Bd3 d5 6. Nf3 c5 7. O-O dxc4 8. Bxc4 Nbd7 9. a3 cxd4 10. axb4 dxc3 11. bxc3 Qc7 12. Qb3 b6 13. Bb2 Bb7 {+0.20/20} 14. Be2 Ng4 {+0.36/22}  15. g3 Ndf6 {+0.08/19}  16. Nd4 Rfd8 {-0.36/18}  17. Bxg4 Nxg4 {-1.09/20}  18. Qd1 Ne5 {-1.57/20}  19. f4 Nc4 {-1.69/25}  20. Qe2 a5 {-1.81/20}  21. bxa5 bxa5 {-1.69/20}  22. Rfd1 e5 {-3.67/20}  23. Nb5 Qc6 {-8.92/20}  24. Rxd8+ Rxd8 {-9.81/11}  25. e4 Rd2 {-18.70/19}  26. Nd4 exd4 {-27.15/21}  27. Qe1 d3 {-#8/14}  28. Ba3 Re2 {-#7/9}  29. Qxe2 dxe2 {-#5/53}  30. Re1 Qxe4 {-#3/6}  31. f5 Qg2# {-#1/6}. I don't know why Microsoft went with such a weak product. Apple's Chess game is stronger. Mamarazzi (talk) 04:53, 26 August 2010 (UTC)


 * It is free, isn't it? Bubba73 (You talkin' to me?), 05:04, 26 August 2010 (UTC)


 * I don't know which one you mean by "it". Stockfish is free. And it is a very strong program. You can get it by following the Wikipedia article external links. Chess Titans is "free" also, with the purchase of Windows 7, of course. (I have Home Premium, but don't know whether it's included with any of the other versions. Mamarazzi (talk) 05:12, 26 August 2010 (UTC)


 * I mean that Chess Titans is free (comes with Windows). Not much effort was put into it.  If you want a good chess program, there are several you can buy.  If you want a good free one there is the engine Crafty, but it needs a seperate interface (which I think you can also get for free).  Bubba73 (You talkin' to me?), 16:04, 26 August 2010 (UTC)


 * I am running Stockfish, and am somewhat surprised at how good it is, considering that it's absolutely free. I am running the Mac version, but it's also available for Windows. It's all ready to go, once you download it. There's nothing more that you have to do. The strongest programs that I have are the Fritz 12, which runs in Windows, and the Chessmaster series. I have version Chessmaster 9000 running on a Mac, but there are even later versions (10 or 11) available for Windows, but not Mac. Both of these widely available programs are very strong. I play them off against each other and am able to go over 100 moves with very little advantage for either side sometimes. Fritz 12 cost me $20, but Chessmaster 9000 for the Mac cost $40, which is twice what the similar Windows version (which I don't have) is selling for. Mamarazzi (talk) 19:23, 26 August 2010 (UTC)

Notes about the article
Previous notes here were just complete nonsense- better to be blank than show that rubbish.

Windows 10?
I see that it cannot be installed on Win 10. Mazarin07 (talk) 21:31, 29 October 2020 (UTC)
 * It is not preinstall but we can install it, see Windows 7 Games for Windows 10 --Epsilon0 (talk) 22:50, 7 December 2020 (UTC)