Arasan

Arasan is a chess game for Windows PC.

Arasan is a logical and intelligent chess game for beginners to the more advanced chess enthusiasts. Created by Jon Dart, Arasan is a product of the single-title Arasanchess company formed by Dart. Arasan has been updated 18 times and is current as of June 2015. The game is built for Windows and is compatible with UCI-compatible programs. The game download includes what is known as an opening book which contains more than half a million moves. The interface of the game is plain, however the AI computer player provides its human counterparts with a lively and challenging game.

The AI player learns and adapts according to how the human player makes moves. Players can also play against human players over the internet if the AI proves too challenging. One interesting feature of Arasan is the ability to save games in PGN format. This enables players to review where they were weak during a game or how they obtained a victory.

At the website for Arasan Chess, players can download games going back as far as the 1990s, a perk for those who complete games quickly and require a lot of changing games and series of moves. As well, the Arasan Chess site offers every version available for download. In Tamil, Arasan means King. It is spoken in South India as well as Sri Lanka.

For best performance of the game, Arasan 'threads' option can be set to the number of physical cores on the computer. Hash table size should be large but no more than half of the computer's RAM. It is currently better for 64 bit operating systems. Options can be set from within the options menu once inside the game's interface.

Players who may find Arasan too challenging can limit the strength of the computer opponent. Go into options then preferences. 0 is the minimum strength, while 100 is the greatest strength and is the most challenging. The AI can still beat a weak player at 0 strength.

Since November of 2000, Arasan has participated in numerous online chess tournaments including CCT, 6th Annual WCRCC, ACCA Pam-Am Computer Chess Champion, CSVN Internet Tournament, CSVN Programmer's Tournament, World Computer Rapid Chess Championship, CVSN Open Internet Tournament, ERIC, an online robot, plays a modified version of Arasan.

Jon Dart is software architect, developer, and IT consultant. He has worked for Telesoft, Rational Software, Oracle, VMware, TIBCO Software. Dart has a Ph.D from the University of California, San Diego as well as a Master's degree and Bachelor of Science degree from the California Institute of Technology.

Pros

• Smart computer AI
• Easy to use
• Internet play enabled

Cons

• Computer sometimes repeats moves
• Simple (ugly) design