Author: Sandro Necchi
Date: 10:36:20 08/20/03
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On August 20, 2003 at 05:18:18, Jeroen Noomen wrote: >Hi all, > >I have just completed reading Christian Kongsted's book >'How to use computers to improve your chess'. I must say that >I like this book. It gives a lot of valuable information, not >only for those who want to improve his/her playing strength, >his/her chances of beating the silicon beast, but also for >programmers. > >Kongsted gives a lot of interesting positions in which computer >programs are not able to come up with the right evaluation. So I >think it is a very interesting manual for programmers as well. > >Of course I was very interested in what the book would say about >the program's opening books. Unfortunately this topic gets less >than two pages, so I was a bit disappointed by this fact. Also I >don't agree with Kongsted's evaluation of the opening books of >modern top programs. Let me quote some of them: > >1. Opening books are often made as the last thing before a release. > >This is not true. People like Alex Kure, Sandro Necchi, Dan Wulff >and me spent the whole year to improve it and to adjust it. Hundreds >of hours are spent to test the book and adjust it. > >2. The opening books are made by the programmer himself or a chess >player who enters suggested lines from theory books or databases, >without checking the lines. > >Also not true. As everybody knows here, all the book expert do a lot >of testing, improving chess theory themselves, adding variations >and improvements. Kongsted's statement might be true for a lot of >programmers, but certainly not for the top products. > >3. The opening book operators are not necessarily strong players >and thus might be having trouble identifying which lines are viable >and which are not. > >My current rating is around 2200, but I can give a lot of examples >that proves the opposite of the above statement. And I think again >that the top products have these topic lines covered very well. >I only want to point out the games Anand - Rebel (1st tournament >game), Rebel - Scherbakov (offbeat line that brought Rebel a >brilliant victory) or Chess Tiger - Fritz from the tournament in >Leiden this year, where I improved theory and crushed a line that >was thought to be quite good for black. > >4. Generally, strong players do not have to fear the openingbook >of the computer. > >Well, I think they should, especially when guys like Alex, Sandro >or me are preparing the book for some opponent! From my own >examples: The book preparations for Rebel against John van der Wiel >were quite successfull, helping to win the match 3,5-2,5. And John >stated after the match that it was much more difficult to get anti >computer positions against Rebel in this match. Which I took as a >compliment for myself :-). >Furthermore, the best books contain very sharp offbeat lines, when >used against strong opponents can turn into a deadly weapon. F.e. >Cock de Gorter - who made books for The King amongst others - is >very good at this. In the AEGON tournaments De Gorter often managed >to take strong players by surprise by those offbeat lines, with >good success as well. > >All in all the information about the opening books of the current >top programs is quite meagre, with only two pages and IMO the >conclusions of Christian are too one-sided and not in accordance >with the real situation. > >But overall I like this book and it contains a lot of interesting >information for all who wants to improve playing chess or who wants >to write a chess program. I can recommend it for everybody in this >forum here. Good job, Christian! > >Best wishes, Jeroen Hi, I fully agree with you. I realized the importance of the opening book long ago (1976), but at that time nearly all players believed that the book was important only to have a higher variety of play. I think few people did understand how different is "to know" the opening theory for a computer (chess program) than a "human" player. I guess it will take them some more years to realize... Don't get disappointed, all this is not a surprise to me. I agree also that the book is for the rest quite good. Ciao Sandro
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