Author: Ratko V Tomic
Date: 12:21:29 10/05/05
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That was a nice interview (a bit short, though). I think Karpov is more right about CC than lots folks here suspect. In the CC circles there is a conventional wisdom that the human-computer chess battle is over. The little cloud in this picture, the existence of few anticomputer players squeezing far more points out of the machines than the nominal ratings would suggest, is ignored by the CC pundits. I always though what Karpov expressed indirectly in your interview -- when eventually the top human players of the right temperament for the task (Kasparov wasn't that kind) take on computers seriously with the full inner motivation, there will be a huge swing in the results. Even the weak players like myself (of only 2100 USC rating during college years) can identify with the Karpov's description of frequently outplaying the programs positionally and then losing later on tactical oversight, well after the game had stopped being interesting to the human player. I am still looking for a program that will impress me by its strategy and positional play (and I have played against Hiarcs programs from rev 6 through 9 on anything from 133Mhz to 2.5Ghz hardware, as well as against various Rebel's, the two I found the most interesting in this area). I had also occasions to play against regular masters and even had an IM as a neighbor and an opponent one year in college, and I don't see yet any computer program outplaying me so thoroughly and completely at the strategic level, leaving absolutely no chance to do anything shortly into the middle game, as these strong human players did. In any case, I am glad he said what I thought all along. And btw, on those photos you don't look nearly as old as the image I had of you from just reading your 'old age' complaints. There was an old player, a master in his better days, in the club where I used to go as a kid, his hair completely white, his face always cleanly shaved and little puffy and red, his eyes light blue and droopy, his suits neatly ironed, his shirts always perfectly clean, shiny white with a red bow tie on top. He would always before and during the games with younger folks (and that was everyone in the club) make a little show, complaining how he is a poor old man, all senile and shaky (his head would actually bob as if he had Parkinson, I don't think he did), too old to figure it all out and fight the young lion like that, he always had all the nicest praise for the young fellow across... and then boom, out of nowhere, the 'young lion' would lose a piece and suddenly, the old gray head would stop bobbing, the chattering lips would seal, the puffinies of his face would somehow vanish giving it a weasel-like form, the fogged up droopy eyes would turn into the sharp blue lasers cutting quickly across the board toward the young lion's royal residence, the shaky old man would miraculously transform into a merciless and silent killer. Until the next game. His little trick always worked, somehow, he was the club champion for all the years I was there.
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