Normal Topic Chess problem solving softwares like Popeye (Read 138 times)
Dink Heckler
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Re: Chess problem solving softwares like Popeye
Reply #3 - Today at 12:54:46
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Unironically sounds like a job for vibe coding.
  

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Marc Benford
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Re: Chess problem solving softwares like Popeye
Reply #2 - Today at 08:11:42
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Thank you. Your answer is helpful.

Yes, I could perhaps change the code that defines how a piece move. This is a good idea. For example, if I want a (2,6)-leaper (I don't, but this is just a made up example), I could find the line of code that defines the move of say the (1,2)-leaper, also known as the knight, and change the numbers (1,2) into (2,6). Then when I will use the letter S (which strangely is the symbol of the knight in Popeye), it won't be a knight but a (2,6)-leaper.

But this will be difficult, because I have never done anything like that, and because I don't know the C programming language. How do I even see Popeye's C code? Where do I find "board.h" and "board.c"? The only Popeye file I see on my computer is called "pywin64.exe": when I click on it, this launches Popeye.

I don't think that XBoard and the FairyMax engine are what I am looking for. I don't want a graphical user interface chessboard. I don't want a general purpose engine. I want a chess problem solving software like Popeye that just blindly calculates every possible line until checkmate.
« Last Edit: Today at 16:37:40 by Marc Benford »  
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an ordinary chessplayer
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Re: Chess problem solving softwares like Popeye
Reply #1 - yesterday at 00:30:11
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If you are looking to define a new piece via the GUI, that would be a heavy lift. I sincerely doubt anybody has made that possible. In Popeye you could (in principle) add a new piece in the c code. Instead I suggest you check out the FairyMax engine, which uses a file fmax.ini to define the variants and the piece movements. It's still complicated, but if your piece combinations are simple you might be able to figure it out. For example look at the Queen, look at the Knight, look at the Amazon, and see in what way the Queen and Knight were combined there. Then try the same thing with your desired piece combination.

For resizing the board, both Xboard(Winboard) and Popeye can do it. In Xboard you can change the size of the board _larger_ on the fly by providing a larger FEN. But if you try to make it smaller with the same trick then it will complain. There are command-line options as well which you can read up on. With Popeye you can change the size of the board by editing board.h and compiling. In board.c the defined files go from a to z, so it should probably handle up to a 26x26 board this way.
 
Lines in board.h to change:
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  nr_files_on_board = 8,
  nr_rows_on_board = 8, 

  
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Marc Benford
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Chess problem solving softwares like Popeye
07/11/26 at 21:27:15
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I am looking for chess problem solving softwares that handle fairy pieces, like Popeye. Except that I want a software where I can create my own fairy pieces, and I want a software where I can change the size of the board. The first thing is much more important to me than the second. I don't necessarily need one software that does both of these things. I can also go with one software that does the first thing and a different software that does the second thing, that would be perfectly fine.

As far as I know, I can't do any of these two things on Popeye. Popeye has a list of about 130 fairy pieces. If the piece I want is not in the list, then I can't use that piece.

I don't need to create complicated pieces, like asymmetrical pieces or pieces that don't move the same way they capture. I just need to combine two simple pieces.
  
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