Average chess player here. I played about 50 matches vs engine lvl 1 and lost them all.
You know... is it just me?
Engine a bit to strong for begginers?
Same for me. It's a too much for me too. You don't even know what's happening especially when you just learnt how the pieces moves.
I regularly get crushed too! But also, I feel like I'm getting a better sense about why I'm getting crushed the more it happens, ahah
I'm not too put out when it happens, since shogi it's just a super-interesting game to begin with, and it's all a part of the process of getting better~
I've been playing a bit on an app called ぴょう将棋 too, and I've been winning against increasingly difficult engines on that, and occasionally try my hand here to see if that means I can hold my own against the easiest CPU here, and even though the answer to that has been a resounding "lolnope", I'm getting closer! (To the point where I think I lost one of my games a while ago only by missing mate in 1)
The board analyzer might also be able to be a neat teacher too, and I should really take some time to get acquainted with it
Either way, the more we try, the better we'll do!
You've got this! (We've got this..!)
Hi Arch, thank you for your post and I agree with you very much. I think you have a great attitude torward this problem.
At this moment I have about 10% win rate from 181 games played (classical). Most of the victories came from playing against players and not vs cpu. However community is quite small and its hard to get a good match with players who have similar-ish rank. So basically Its either a long wait to get a good game vs players or I get crushed by the easiest cpu.
Not ideal but as you said.... its a process of getting better
I'm 2200 chess blitz player on lichess, but beating the bot lv 1 here is very hard.
We need like 5-10 levels weaker bots for people that are just learning the moves.
Hopefully, the site will grow in time and we'll get more players.
Many Japanese players (and Japanese youtubers) play on "Shogi Wars" app, but it costs like 5 eur/usd per month to play more than 3 games and it is super slow on desktop browser.
The other alternative Japanese site's don't really look good, so again, there is hope that this site will grow in time.
I played about 20 matches against level 1 (rated 800) and won three out of the last six. But then I moved on to the next level, and it's rated at 1100. That's a huge jump. Would be nice if climbing up the engines was a bit smoother. Now it's basically: get crushed, get crushed, get crushed, easy. Next level: get crushed, get crushed, get crushed...
Having more AI levels might bring new players up to speed quicker or make people stick around. Because, it very much feels like beating level 3-4 is the minimum needed to have any enjoyment against human players here, since there really don't seem to be any low ranked players around. There are many anonymous players playing level 1 engine though...
I just found out something interesting.
If you go to the board editor and do a few moves, like simply push rook pawns for example, and then "continue from here" or paste the SFEN into the "start from position" option in the new game, you actually don't play against Yaneura. You play against another AI, Fairy Stockfish, and this AI at level 1 at least seems quite a bit easier.
My problem with Yaneura at low level is it has too much look-ahead. Yes, it will do bad moves, but when push comes to shove, it still has plans for a 7-move forking of the gold and the rook. The Fairy Stockfish on the other hand seemed to have very little look-ahead, so it's a lot easier to try to use some tactics and make yourself feel very smart.
Those who feel that engine lv1 is too strong , and it is really strong for beginners , I would recommend trying bot _random. Its just perfect for those who have just recently learnt the piece movements.
Hi Kokko
that is a nice discovery. I tried it and it works just as you described it.
I also very much agree with you that AI with easier levels would attract more new comers.
It is too strong. I'm a dan level player in 81dojo and I thought I could beat it by just winging it but no I have to actually think out my moves and plan out the strategy I'm gonna use.