nightmarechess.com new free chess site

 
http://nightmarechess.com/

Site is free and offers cash prizes in competitions 

Invitation for nightmarechess.com chess tournament series with cash prizes! In order to develop and popularize chess vortal nighmarechess.com, from 1st until 7th of December every night at 20:00 Latvia local time (GMT + 2:00) online chess tournaments will take place with free attendance to all players. Time control 3 minutes plus 2 seconds for each move made. The number of rounds depends on the number of participants. Eligible to receive prizes are only players who do not use unfair practices, including playing chess with help from computer analysis. Prizes: A player who has played highest number of games in a tournaments series (additional indicators total score and highest place earned) – 20 LVL or $40 Additionally we will provide incentive prize for administration favorite - most active player for casual games (outside tournaments) - 20 LVL or 40$. First three places on main tournament on 7th of December, 1st: 25 LVL or $50, 2nd: 10 LVL or $20, 3rd: 5 LVL or $10 Nightmarechess.com administration may participate in tournaments without competition for prizes. The same player can win multiple prizes. Tournament rules 26.11.2013

Wanted to share with you one of the most unbelievable computer games ever seen - and it was made by computer bot designed by our team - it is one of the least serious chess programs, you would find on the Internet, that can still be of some danger to a non-master player and is pretty good in super blitz. It was designed particularly to just play on time and do it in a human like way, also its calculations are very-human like - a hybrid of mate searching/defending, and extremelly basic selective tree searching with a very basic form of Static Exchange Evaluation. The game: http://nightmarechess.com/statistics/viewpgn.php?id=30393 The ELO gap is 700 points!! And the gap in play level is even more than that - Nagaskaki (its opponent) plays serious master level chess, while Zibens_Zellis (lightning bloke or lightning man in translation) plays Class C or D chess or worse... The draw was achieved because Nagaskaki forced it by repetition - it was in serious danger of losing - it realised that and forced a draw - in fact Zibens_Zellis most likely missed win with 14.Bxh6! Of course Zibens_Zellis would never see anything of it, but its positional proves were enough to scare Nagaskaki into draw. This is a case of a cat scaring off a bear. 23.11.2013

Added new computer opponent from the distant 1985. - Cyrus II for Amstrad CPC computers (in emulator), those old programs play in a more human like style, since they did not have as incredible calculative abilities as do modern computers and so had to rely more on a good position evaluation. You can play against it here on our only chess server. Its online nickname is "CyrusII[c]" It is being run under Wine on a modified Caprice32 CPC emulator. Its "strength to time spent" ratio should be around the same as on a good CPC computer back in those old days. As the Caprice32 source code is distributed under GNU license I am obliged to distribute the modified version of source code, you can download it here: /download/caprice32-4.2.0-vbmod-src.zip You can learn more about this great old program here: http://chessprogramming.wikispaces.com/Cyrus http://www.mobygames.com/game/cyrus-ii-chess 24.10.2013

Crafty Chess interface now support chess engines that are programmed in the Java programming language - just drag and drop the engine .jar file to the chess board or via the Engines>Add new engine menu as usual. We have finished working on the FIDE approved DUBOV Swiss Pairing System for chess tournaments, we are actively testing this system on several computers. Currently we are working on extensive easy to read site help system - it will contain both information on how to use various site elements, but also lot of interesting technical information regarding how rating system and other underlying parts of the site work. 11.10.2013

we are currently reworking the swiss tournament system to be in full compliance with the FIDE swiss tournament regulations 29.08.2013

we have entered the tournament testing stage 29.07.2013

New Crafty Chess Interface version (8.0) has been released... Crafty Chess allows you to analyze chess positions with computer or play against computer, you can also plug in any Winboard or UCI protocol engine and use it for analysis or play, you can even add several engines and organize tournaments between them (including possibility to participate yourself in the tournament). The main features of the new version are: added 3D board support added premove support many bug-fixes and problems removed some design improvements improved multi-core machine performance stronger Crafty and better skill levels (including anti-time-loss code for low skill level Crafty, which often lost on time) Download here: http://nightmarechess.com/crafty/ 24.07.2013

a new Nightmare Online version is out, the improvements include: - several fixes and improvements to the 3D board - improvements to the chat link system - improvements to the broken connection reestablishing system - many other small improvements there is also work undergoing on the tournament system, as well as other parts of the site (including a new Crafty Chess Interface version) - the work is somewhat delayed due to some technical and other difficulties 04.07.2013

added a simple premove variant - you can select your next move while it is your opponent's turn, which then, when he moves, will be automatically played out - notice that if you intend to recapture a piece over your piece (which you think your opponent will take when he moves) you must use the drag and drop move to select such premove (other-ways the program will think you just wish to use another of your pieces to move) - drag and drop means to click the left mouse button when the mouse cursor is over the source square, then move the cursor without releasing the mouse button to the intended target square, then release the mouse button to use it if you are using Windows client application 'Nightmare Online' you must download it again, close any active Nightmare Online instances, and reinstall the program (by just starting the setup and clicking agree&install). Java version is always the latest when you open it in a standard way. Android port does not support it and most likely won't since there is no natural alternate-click, which is necessary for canceling of the premove. please note that we have not yet entirely settled on the future of this new option 06.06.2013

Updated the site with a new top menu bar for easy navigation. Also added a new section "Contacts" - here you can even find a phone number for technical assistance if you are having any problems (you may speak in English, Russian or Latvian).

In a few days we will completely finish the Russian language translation - this is including chess guidelines and full Nightmare Online translation - it is already downloadable, but there is still a considerable part of the program that is still in the machine translation stage.

Online chess tournaments are also in the schedule - they will be ready as soon as possible.