Author: Stephen Ham
Date: 15:55:28 10/26/00
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Dear Jorge, Thanks for flattering me with this question. Thanks too for your kind attantion to my match games, Jorge. The truth is that I'm totally incompetent to answer this question since I know so little about chess engines. My only known experience in playing against them is in my two 2-game matches versus Fritz 6a and Nimzo 7.32. I write "known" because as a Correspondence Chess Master, I've probably played against and defeated some computer-human teams without knowing it. Meanwhile, I've never played OTB chess versus a computer, but my OTB skills leave a great deal to be desired anyway. Personally, I'm a bit "gun-shy" of Nimzo 7.32's great tactical skills. If I knew I was playing against it and could employ anti-computer strategies, I would certainly do so, Jorge. We saw how it played strangely in closed positions (see Ham-Nimzo 7.32). But, given open positions with lot's of heavy pieces (see Nimzo 7.32-Ham), that was my worst chess nightmare. As you will see from my commentary, the computer operator mistakenly gave Nimzo's position to Fritz 6a once, which found an inferior move to the one selected by Nimzo. In short, Nimo 7.32 has some big pluses and minuses. Therefore it can be defeated by playing to its weakness. Nimzo 8 is apparently a "smarter" chess engine than version 7.32, so I have a natural bias in favor of this product, but have never faced it...yet. Meanwhile, Fritz 6a seems "smarter" than Nimzo 7.32 since it has played well in technical positions. It also seems more consistent in it's play. But tactically, I should have blown it off the board in Ham-Fritz 6a, but I got my move order mixed up...a very human trait for this human. Now I'm grinding out a slight edge. So based upon a far too small sample of only 4 games, Jorge, my perception (I have no facts yet) is that Fritz 6a is more consistent and so more likely to do well in the long run. But given a complex tactical position and 17-20 hours to compute, my heavy favorite is Nimzo 7.32. I hope that made sense. ;) Stephen
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