This article covers

computer software Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...

designed to solve, or assist people in creating or solving,

chess problem A chess problem, also called a chess composition, is a puzzle set by the composer using chess pieces on a chess board, which presents the solver with a particular task. For instance, a position may be given with the instruction that White is to ...

s –

puzzle A puzzle is a game, Problem solving, problem, or toy that tests a person's ingenuity or knowledge. In a puzzle, the solver is expected to put pieces together (Disentanglement puzzle, or take them apart) in a logical way, in order to arrive at th ...

s in which pieces are laid out as in a game of

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

, and may at times be based upon real games of chess that have been played and recorded, but whose aim is to challenge the problemist to find a solution to the posed situation, within the rules of chess, rather than to play games of chess from the beginning against an opponent. This is usually distinct from actually playing and analyzing games of chess. Many chess playing programs also have provision for solving some kinds of problem such as

checkmate Checkmate (often shortened to mate) is any game position in chess and other chess-like games in which a player's king is in check (threatened with ) and there is no possible escape. Checkmating the opponent wins the game. In chess, the king is ...

in a certain number of moves ( directmates), and some also have support for

helpmate A helpmate is a type of chess problem in which both sides cooperate in order to achieve the goal of checkmating Black. In a helpmate in ''n'' moves, Black moves first, then White, each side moving ''n'' times, to culminate in White's ''nth'' mov ...

s and

selfmate A selfmate is a chess problem in which White, moving first, must force Black to deliver checkmate within a specified number of moves against their will. Selfmates were once known as sui-mates. Example The problem shown is a relatively simple examp ...

s. Software for chess problems can be used for creating and solving problems, including checking the soundness of a concept and position, storing it in a

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases sp ...

, printing and publishing, and saving and exporting the problem. As such they can not only solve direct mates, helpmates and selfmates, but at times even problems with

fairy pieces A fairy chess piece, variant chess piece, unorthodox chess piece, or heterodox chess piece is a chess piece not used in conventional chess but incorporated into certain chess variants and some chess problems. Compared to conventional pieces, fair ...

and other

fairy chess Fairy chess is the area of chess composition in which there are some changes to the rules of chess. The term was introduced by Henry Tate in 1914. Thomas R. Dawson (1889–1951), the "father of fairy chess", invented many fairy pieces and new c ...

problems. There have also been some attempts to have computers "compose" problems, largely autonomously.

Software

Alybadix

First developed in 1980 by Ilkka Blom, ''Alybadix'' is a suite of chess problem solving programs for

DOS DOS is shorthand for the MS-DOS and IBM PC DOS family of operating systems. DOS may also refer to: Computing * Data over signalling (DoS), multiplexing data onto a signalling channel * Denial-of-service attack (DoS), an attack on a communicat ...

and

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...

. Alybadix supports solving classical problems: selfmates, reflex mates, series mates, Circe, maximummers, and many Fairy types. It comes with a large problem collection and supports quality

printing Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The ea ...

.Alybadix official website
In 1993, Schach und Spiele magazine considered Alybadix to be six times faster than other playing machines including the RISC 2500.

Popeye

Popeye is a chess problem-solving software accommodating many fairy chess rules and able to investigate set play and tries. It can be used with several operating systems and can be connected to several existing graphical interfaces since it comes with freely available source code, cf. . Since its origin, Popeye was designed as a general-purpose, extensible tool for checking fairy and heterodox chess problems. The original author of Popeye was Philippe Schnoebelen who wrote it in

Pascal Pascal, Pascal's or PASCAL may refer to: People and fictional characters * Pascal (given name), including a list of people with the name * Pascal (surname), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name ** Blaise Pascal, Fren ...

under

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few ope ...

around 1983-84. In 1986 the code was donated in the spirit of the

free software Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, no ...

movement. Elmar Bartel, Norbert Geissler, Thomas Maeder, Torsten Linss, Stefan Hoening, Stefan Brunzen, Harald Denker, Thomas Bark and Stephen Emmerson, converted Popeye to the

C programming language ''The C Programming Language'' (sometimes termed ''K&R'', after its authors' initials) is a computer programming book written by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie, the latter of whom originally designed and implemented the language, as well as ...

, and now maintain the program. A good graphic interface "AP WIN" a freeware, for using with Windows XP or Windows 7 has since been developed by Paul H. Wiereyn. Using this one can create diagrams and use Popeye for solving problems directly from the diagram.

Chloe and Winchloe

Chloe (DOS) and Winchloe (proprietary software) are solving programs written by Christian Poisson. Winchloe not only supports classical problems — direct mates, helpmates and selfmates — but also many fairy pieces and conditions with different sized chessboards (up to 250 by 250 squares). It comes with a collection of more than 300,000 problems that can be updated via the Internet. Christian Poisson also maintains the Web site Problemesis.

Natch and iNatch

Natch and iNatch are freeware programs written by Pascal Wassong for DOS and Linux. Natch solves

retrograde analysis In chess problems, retrograde analysis is a technique employed to determine which moves were played leading up to a given position. While this technique is rarely needed for solving ordinary chess problems, there is a whole subgenre of chess pr ...

problems by constructing a "

proof game A proof game is a type of retrograde analysis chess problem. The solver must construct a game starting from the initial chess position, which ends with a given position (thus proving that that position is reachable) after a specified number of mov ...

" - the shortest possible game leading to a certain position. Natch is a command line utility, but there is a

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

based graphical interface. iNatch also provides moves with fairy conditions: monochrome chess, Einstein chess, vertical cylinder.

Problemist(e)

Problemist
is a shareware program written by Matthieu Leschamelle for Windows and Windows Mobile. Problemist solves direct mates, helpmates, selfmates and

reflexmate The problem to the right is a fairly recent example, successful in the World Chess Composing Tournament despite only a single phase of play present. It is by Štefan Sovík and is a reflexmate in two moves. The key is 1.Qh5! and White threatens ...

s. It can rotate positions, print diagrams and much more. With Problemist come two TrueType chess fonts, and from its web page one can download more than 100,000 problems. Problemist is the first chess problems exchange format.

Jacobi

Jacobi is a program to solve fairy chess proof game problems by François Labelle. It is written in JavaScript and run from browse

In 2003, Labelle already developed chess-related programs and published computer-generated chess problem

Chest

Chest was created by Heiner Marxen in 1999. It is written in C, and distributed as source code .Chest home page
/ref> It solves direct mates, self mates, and help mates (as well as stalemates for self- and help mates). A UCI adapter (written by Franz Huber) is also available, allowing Chest to be used as solving engine in any UCI-capable chess GUI.

Databases

Chess Problem Database Server

Chess Problem Database Server is online

of all types of

s, maintained by

Gerd Wilts Gerd or GERD may refer to: * Gerd (given name), a list of people with the given name or nickname * Gerd (moon), a moon of Saturn * Gerd Island, South Orkney Islands, Antarctica * Gastroesophageal reflux disease, a chronic symptom of mucosal damage ...

, hosted by

Die Schwalbe ''Die Schwalbe'' (English: The Swallow) is the German chess composition society. It issues the bimonthly magazine ''Die Schwalbe''. Society ''Die Schwalbe'' was founded on 10 February 1924 in Essen as ''Vereinigung von Problemfreunden zur För ...

. Database incorporated

John Niemann John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...

collection and the work of a lot of contributors. Database has 428,703 problems (as of November 2019). Problems are represented graphically with solutions and commentary.

Other

LaTeX Diagram Style

Diagram is a style file for

LaTeX Latex is an emulsion (stable dispersion) of polymer microparticles in water. Latexes are found in nature, but synthetic latexes are common as well. In nature, latex is found as a milky fluid found in 10% of all flowering plants (angiosperms ...

for typesetting chess diagrams. The style was originally created by Thomas Brand and further developed by Stefan Hoening, both based on ideas of a

TeX Tex may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tex (nickname), a list of people and fictional characters with the nickname * Joe Tex (1933–1982), stage name of American soul singer Joseph Arrington Jr. Entertainment * ''Tex'', the Italian ...

package from Elmar Bartel. The style is used to produce the German problem chess magazine

External links

Chess Problem Database Server

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Software For Handling Chess Problems Chess problems Chess software

Software

Alybadix

Popeye

Chloe and Winchloe

Natch and iNatch

Problemist(e)

Jacobi

Chest

Databases

Chess Problem Database Server

Other

LaTeX Diagram Style

External links

See also

References