Hi all,
This post is a bit of a departure from the usual FotoSketcher news, but I hope you will indulge me.
I have just released The Baronet, a free desktop chess application for Windows and macOS. It is a pet project with a long history: I started it almost twenty years ago after stumbling upon a book called How Computers Play Chess by David Levy and Monty Newborn. That book got me hooked on the idea of writing my own chess engine in Delphi, and I spent many evenings tinkering with it before life and FotoSketcher took over. Recently I dusted it off, rewrote large parts of it and brought it up to a modern standard.
Like FotoSketcher, The Baronet is completely free for everyone, on both Windows and macOS, with no ads and no catches.
What it offers today
The Baronet has a polished, customisable interface and can play at a wide range of strengths, from a gentle beginner level all the way up to over 2500 ELO (roughly Grandmaster strength), so it should provide a decent challenge no matter your level.
What is coming
I have plans to add learning and study features in future updates: opening explorers, game analysis, puzzles and that sort of thing. It is still early days, but the foundation is solid and I am looking forward to building on it.
For FotoSketcher users
If you ever fancy a quick break from photo editing and artistic filters, The Baronet provides a nice chess escapade 😊
You can download it for free here: the-baronet.com
I will be back very soon with more FotoSketcher news. In the meantime, feel free to let me know what you think of The Baronet!
Best regards,
David
6 comments:
Hi David, congratulations on this new chess release!
I’ve always loved playing chess, although I’ve never been particularly good at it. I tried The Baronet and I really like it. The interface is great, and I also like the different playing levels.
One feature I would especially love to see in future updates is a learning or tutor mode. Something like a chess course where the app could evaluate my moves, explain what I did wrong or right, and suggest how I could make a better move. It would be great if it could gradually teach me at each level and help me improve as I progress.
Another useful feature would be an option to save my current game and continue it later, so I can pick up exactly where I left off.
I’m really looking forward to seeing how The Baronet develops. Great work, David, and congratulations again!
Hi Jack, thank you so much for your feedback. Your suggestions are exactly the direction where I want to take The Baronet. Currently I'm still working on the playing strength and making sure there are not too many bugs in the search. Once I've reached a good enough level, I'll start adding study, analysis and learning features.
Hi, David! It's been a big surprise to find this new software from you, especially in this unexpected field. The programme looks nice and simple, which I appreciate because I'd be overwhelmed by too many options in an area, chess, I barely know about. I have a little suggestion: it'd be great to have a full screen mode where the taskbar disappears. Though in Fotosketcher and most programmes, I'd rather have the taskbar visible to switch to the operating system, File Explorer or other programmes, when I play, I prefer staying focused on the game and avoiding distractions. Another little suggestion: in the FAQs of the website, it'd be interesting to know why you've called it 'The Baronet'. Finally, I'd love to see the tutor mode suggested by Jack. Congratulations, David, and I'll be paying close attention to this new software.
Thank you, David. Yes, good idea, I will add a full screen, no distraction mode!
Thank you David - this is a nice surprise and I really like you chess program. It looks pretty clear and also the first moves made a great impression
Thank you :)
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