Author: Bruce Moreland
Date: 10:09:44 06/11/00
Go up one level in this thread
On June 11, 2000 at 10:20:33, aloysius wrote: >Should opening books be used in Computer Tournaments? I am against that. Why not >just let the engines fight it out from the first move. > >But that is different against humans, because opening theory are meant for us >(humans!) If you tell a computer to add up a column of figures, it gets the right answer every time. If you tell it to be creative about it, it gets the same creative answer every time. The typical chess engine doesn't have a lot of randomness built in. If it thinks the solution is X today, it thinks the same thing tomorrow. So you tend to get the same game repeatedly if you play without books. Furthermore, the opening position is a difficult position, since both sides are very badly developed and starved for tempi. Programs haven't typically handled that position well. Books are added to increase game diversity and give the programs a chance to avoid looking stupid. They also make human vs computer play more challenging. Even a bad program can play more like a human for the first few moves at least, and a human opponent has to practice his/her opening preparation. bruce
This page took 0 seconds to execute
Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700
Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.