# Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

## What does "Arasan" mean?

Arasan means "king" in Tamil, a language spoken in South India. It is related to the Sanskrit word "raja."

## How strong a chess player is Arasan?

It's hard to say, because Arasan has not competed in tournaments with humans, which is the only way to get a truly accurate rating. Also, its strength will vary quite a bit depending on the speed and memory size of the machine on which it is run. And it isn't always consisent: I have seen it beat International Masters and then lose to much lower-rated players. However, my belief is that players who are at or below Master level will find it challenging to play.

## I think Arasan made an illegal move. I moved my pawn two squares forward and Arasan captured it with the pawn next to it.

This is called an "en passant" capture (French for "in passing"). It is a legal chess move. For example, if you are playing White and move your pawn to c4, it can be captured by a Black pawn on b4. The Black pawn moves to c3, exactly as if the White pawn had moved one square instead of two.This kind of capture can only be made immediately after a 2-square initial pawn advance. Arasan enforces this rule.

## How can I configure Arasan for best performance?

Use the Preferences dialog (under the Options menu) and set "Processor Cores Used" to the number of physical cores on your machine.

You should also set the hash table size reasonably large but probably not more than 1/2 of the RAM on your computer. (Arasan also runs somewhat better on a 64-bit operating system).

If using a different user interface supporting the Winboard or UCI protocols, see the readme.txt file for instructions on setting these options.

## Arasan is too strong for me! Can I make it play weaker so I can beat it?

Arasan versions 14.2 and higher support a strength limitation option. If using the native Windows GUI, choose the Options menu and bring up the Preferences dialog to set the relative playing strength. The range is 0-100 (0 is minimum strength, 100 is maximum).