I want to write a chess engine and if possible also let it play against people. On lichess that is possible if I have it unrated and clearly marked as engine, right? (like with an account "engineXYZ (computer)"
But is there anything I can do to change the rating, since the opponents might be too strong at start and maybe too weak once I improve the engine. Should I as human play rated games then to "adjust" it to the approximate rating which I want the opponents to have?
try using ICC to do this
I don't think it would take too long for it's rating to adjust accordingly if you were to just let it play by itself.
How should it's rating adjust if I let it play unrated?
I'd definitely like some functionality on lichess to allow computer usage under strict rules, it might also rule out some of the cheating happening here. As of now, you are allowed to use an engine but only if you play unrated games and mention you're using an engine.
How about simply doing this: You have to mark the account as engine, then you can play "pseudo-rated" where you can win/lose rating, but your opponent won't. Also you don't appear on any top 100 lists obviously.
Sounds like encouragement for those that want to cheat.
How is this an encouragement? Giving a legal alternative encourages people to use the illegal one?
True true.
If you're playing unrated what's the point of having a rating? It won't affect your pairings. If you want to track your own rating it wouldn't be difficult to write a short script to do it.