iceninejkw: I think most people believe all computer programs play at a very high performance level. This is true of the strongest of the strong chess engines, but it is not the case for programs designed by hobbyists. My guess is that SMIRF plays maybe at the "1700 level" if it were to compete with tournament players who are very good at tactics. On GothicChessLive, SMIRF is rated 1697 after 19 games, and it lost most of them.

http://www.gothicchesslive.com/one-players-games.php?id=525

From July 11-September 3 2006, SMIRF had a total of 4 wins and 15 losses. SMIRF had 0 wins and 6 losses against the Gothic Vortex program. SMIRF only beat Twirling_Fern (1425), duethought (1301), and elamin(1342, lost 2 games). The following human players have defeated SMIRF: M_Tal(1937) who is "Chicago Bulls" here on BrainKing, Kerberos (1780), BloodOfBulls(1845) and Cartaphilus(1934). The point is that humans can still beat chess engines that play variants and chess variant programs are not capable of "perfect super computer play" as was mentioned here. Chess variant programs still do not grasp strategy, and humans can "win easily" without having to do much calculation once such errors are played. For example, how many of us smile when we see someone play pawn to a4 then Rook to a3 against us in chess? We pretty much know we will win, but did we calculate everything out to the end of the game? No, there is no need. Similarly, we smile when we watch programs make bad trades, or fail to protect their king, or castle right into our upcoming attack, or open up the game when it should try and keep things bottled up, and so on.