MChess

Home * Engines * MChess

MChess, (M-Chess, MChess Professional, MChess Pro) a commercial chess program by Marty Hirsch, one of the strongest chess-programs of the 90s. MChess was a PC-program for the operating system MS-DOS with an own graphical user interface. MChess Pro 5.0 won the 13th World Microcomputer Chess Championship 1995 in Paderborn.

=Screenshot= M-Chess Pro 3.5 (1993)

=Descriptions=

1991
from ICCA Journal, Vol. 14, No. 2 Written by Marty Hirsch, an expert IBM-PC programmer previously known for a program called AI-Chess, M-Chess is a new program that has taken 3 man-years to develop. By means of logical switches in the evaluator, the program dynamically selects a set of heuristics depending on the type of position (early opening, late opening, early middle game, late middle game, endgame, several specific endgames). Development is stressed in the opening, king safety and mobility in the middle game, and passed pawns and an active king in the endgame. A small hash table is used for pawn-structure evaluation. Positional evaluation can exceed the value of a pawn. The search techniques include check extensions and capture extensions, but no singular extensions. The main hash table is only used during the full-width portion of the search and does not record the best move from previous iterations. Move ordering is obtained from the principal variation and a modified history heuristic.

==1995== from ICCA Journal, Vol. 18, No. 2 : M-Chess Professional is a chess program for PCs by Martin Hirsch. It won the title of ICCA's World Personal Computer Chess Champion 1991/92. Previous versions of M-Chess achieved a numerous honours including best computer at Aegon 1991, second place in the ACM tournament in 1991 and first place in the Uniform Platform Computer Chess Championship in 1992. M-Chess Professional has an unusual design that attempts to emulate the style of a strong human player by using complex pattern recognition, emphasizing positional aspects and having precise knowledge of a number of endgames, while being tactically powerful. M-Chess Professional is commercially available with a excellent interface and an extensive set of features. It is currently ranked second in the Swedish Computer Rating List.

1999
from the ICGA tournament site : This is the latest version of MChess Professional which has many computer chess achievements including First Place in the 1995 World Microcomputer Championship and beating three grandmasters in one event at Aegon, 1995. This program uses comprehensive evaluations, and unique algorithms to detect long-range tactics. It has a dynamic playing style and is known for its exciting play and excellent results against strong human opponents.

=Selected Games= WMCCC 1995, playoff, MChess Pro - Chess Genius [Event "WMCCC 1995"] [Site "Paderborn, Germany"] [Date "1995.10.15"] [Round "12 (playoff)"] [White "MChess Pro"] [Black "Chess Genius"] [Result "1-0"]

1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qa5 4.d4 Nf6 5.Nf3 Bf5 6.Bc4 e6 7.O-O c6 8.Re1 Nbd7 9.h3 Bd6 10.Bd2 Qc7 11.Nh4 Bg6 12.Nxg6 hxg6 13.Qf3 O-O-O 14.a3 Nb6 15.Bf1 Rh4 16.g3 Rh5 17.Ne4 Nxe4 18.Qxe4 Rdh8 19.c4 Bxg3 20.fxg3 Qxg3+ 21.Qg2 Rxh3 22.Qxg3 Rxg3+ 23.Kf2 Rb3 24.Bc1 Rh4 25.Re3 Rxe3 26.Kxe3 c5 27.dxc5 Nxc4+ 28.Kf2 f6 29.b4 g5 30.Bg2 Ne5 31.Bd2 Rc4 32.Ra2 Kc7 33.Bh3 Kd7 34.Bf1 Rh4 35.Bg2 Kc7 36.Ra1 Rc4 37.Ke2 Rc2 38.Be4 Rb2 39.Kd1 Rb3 40.Ke2 Rh3 41.Rh1 Rxh1 42.Bxh1 Nc4 43.Bc1 g4 44.Bg2 b6 45.Kd3 Ne5+ 46.Ke4 Ng6 47.Bf4+ e5 48.Bg3 bxc5 49.bxc5 Ne7 50.Bf1 Kc6 51.Bf2 g3 52.Bg1 g6 53.a4 a5 54.Bb5+ Kc7 55.Kf3 Nf5 56.Bd3 Ne7 57.Kxg3 Kc6 58.Be4+ Kd7 59.Ba8 Ke6 60.Kg4 Nd5 61.Bb7 Nb4 62.Be3 Kd7 63.Bd2 Nc6 64.Ba6 Nb4 65.Bb5+ Ke7 66.Bxb4 axb4 67.a5 Kd8 68.a6 Kc7 69.Bc4 f5+ 70.Kg5 f4 71.Bd5 b3 72.Bxb3 f3 73.Bc4 f2 74.Bb5 e4 75.Kf4 g5+ 76.Kxe4 Kb8 77.c6 Kc7 1-0 =Publications=
 * Marty Hirsch (1992). How Does M Chess Do It? Computer Chess Reports 1992a, pp 13.
 * Eric Hallsworth (1992). M Chess Pro. Selective Search 43, pp. 6, pdf hosted by Mike Watters
 * Michael Byrne (1996). M-Chess Pro 5.0 Book Learning Feature. Computer Chess Reports, Vol. 5, Nos. 3+4, p. 85
 * Michael Byrne (1996). M-Chess Pro 5.0 'Hidden Book". Computer Chess Reports, Vol. 5, Nos. 3+4, p. 86
 * Marty Hirsch (2001). Machine Learning in MChess Professional. Advances in Computer Games 9

=Forum Posts=

1990 ...

 * Re: Aegon Tournament 1990; Hitech best overall by Stuart Cracraft, rgc, May 26, 1990
 * MChess by R Rozin, rgc, March 14, 1991
 * MChess ver 1.32 by Dennis Wong, rgc, July 07, 1991
 * Commercial Chess Programs by Mike Valvo, rgc, July 19, 1991 » ChessMachine, Fritz, Zarkov
 * M Chess Professional by Roger Uzun, rgc, October 27, 1992
 * QMW computer chess by Don Beal, rec.games.chess, August 19, 1993 » UPCCC 1993
 * M-Chess Pro 3.5 - A Review by John Quill Taylor, rgc, April 27, 1994

1995 ...

 * M-Chess pro 4.0 by Sherman Klausner, rgc, May 25, 1995
 * MChess5.0 defeats ChessGenius in Playoff 1-0 to be WMCC Champion! by rmreich, rgc, October 17, 1995 » WMCCC 1995
 * The MCHESS5 computer killer book... by Ed Schröder, rgcc, October 14, 1996
 * M-Chess Pro 6.0 by Marty Hirsch, rgcc, October 17, 1996
 * Mchess Pro 7.1 by Mark Young, CCC, December 11, 1997
 * M-Chess Pro7 : strength ?? by Thorsten Czub, CCC, December 25, 1997
 * MChess 7.0 by Peter Schreiner, CCC, December 26, 1997
 * M-Chess 7.0 - Nice! by John Quill Taylor, rgcc, April 13, 1998
 * M Chess Pro 7.1 by afriend, rgcc, April 16, 1998
 * Re: Mchess Pro-8 by Steven Schwartz, CCC, October 13, 1998
 * MCP8 - Rebel8, SSDF by Tony Hedlund, CCC, December 04, 1998 » Opening Book

2000 ...

 * A few comments about Mchess 8 by odell hall, CCC, April 19, 2000
 * Latest MCHESS by RHarrin997, rgcc, June 21, 2000
 * Mchess Pro by Dragos Gabudeanu, CCC, July 15, 2002
 * MChess Pro by ludicrous, CCC, June 07, 2003
 * Any Windows programs have auto-add-to-opening-book feature like MChess? by John Rissler, CCC, May 27, 2004

2005 ...

 * Mchess Pro 8 Gepard settings by Vegadapirate, CCC, July 18, 2005
 * The Baron v MChess Pro by Harvey Williamson, Hiarcs Forum, May 24, 2009 » The Baron, Sandro Necchi, Marty Hirsch

2010 ...

 * Studie: Schachspielen mit ein 286er 12 MHz Laptop - Schachcomputer.info Community by Spacious Mind, May 22, 2010 (German)
 * Studie: Geschwindigkeits Vergleiche - Schachcomputer.info Community by Spacious Mind, November 12, 2011 (German)
 * La Máquina Preservadora. Programas de Ajedrez by Luis a, Meca Foro, February 20, 2013 (Spanish)
 * what about Mchess UCI? by Andreas Wutzke, CCC, May 23, 2013
 * La máquina preservadora 3. Programas para PC by Luis a, Meca Foro, August 08, 2013 (Spanish)
 * Re: La Máquina Preservadora. Programas de Ajedrez by Luis a, Meca Foro, July 02, 2014 (Spanish)

=External Links=
 * MChess Pro from Wikipedia
 * MChess' ICGA Tournaments
 * MChess' games at chessgames.com

=References=

Up one level