Re: [gnu.org #320326] A Complaint About GNU Chess

[Ronnie McZorn]

I've been playing GNU Chess for about one month. I have a serious
complaint about the way it is programmed. Why is it that the
computer calls a game a tie before it lets a human set up their
pieces during an endgame?  I don't know how many times I've killed
the computers pieces, and I'll have a Queen, Rook and possible
several pawns. The computer will only have it's King and a few
pawns. But when I prepare to set my pieces up to Checkmate the
computer, the games and a message appears on the screen saying "Tie
Game".  This drives me f**king angry!!!     If I don't put the
computer's King in check immediate (usually within three or four
moves), then computer ends the game as a tie.  This is bad
programming. You have to let a player develop their pieces on the
board to checkmate the computer.

What makes it even worse, when the computer has me in check, it never
calls a tie game.  It will put me in perpetual check! Where is the
tie game then??  Did your programmers do this on purpose?  If not,
then I hope your programmers will look into this. Usually in
competition there's 50 moves allowed before a tie game is called.
Why implement this?  Or at least 25 moves. But let a human set up
their pieces during the endgame!!  Please!!!

Another complaint:  It's very offensive when the animated voice says
"you play like a monkey! You are a monkey!"   I happen to be African
American.  I know the white guys that created GNU chess probably
don't think black people play chess.  But I can assure you we do.  It 
may be an innocent comment to you, but I cringe and find it offensive
everytime I play GNU chess.  Why not change the comment to: "You 
play like a martian! Wait, you are a martian!"  I don't think there are any
martians on earth that will be offended. It is a slur to compare a black
person to a monkey. 

Ron McZorn





> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jeanne Rasata via RT" <address@hidden>
> To: address@hidden
> Subject: [gnu.org #320326] A Complaint About GNU Chess 
> Date: Sun, 19 Nov 2006 18:03:19 -0500
> 
> 
> > address@hidden - Sun Nov 19 11:59:31 2006]:
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> 
> Hello, Ron,
> 
> Unfortunately, this is only the general email contact for the FSF and
> the GNU project and I am unable to answer technical questions. My best
> suggestion would be to contact the project mailinglists to see if they
> can give you any help. You can find their contact information in their
> entry on our Free Software Directory
> http://directory.fsf.org/games/chess/chess.html.
> 
> Sincerely,
> --
> Jeanne Rasata
> Program Assistant
> Free Software Foundation
> 
> ---
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>



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