Author: Jim Monaghan
Date: 15:12:41 12/10/00
The usual convention concerning chess style is to talk about a continuim with strategy on one side and tactics on the other. Hartston in a K-K match book 1978 deepens this concept by adding the concept of risk. So with S to T on the x axis one can add low risk to high risk on the y axis one can develop a grid like so: high risk Botvinnik Tal Korchnoi Bronstein Capablanca Alekhine Karpov Fischer low risk Rebel Fritz Strategy Tactics Essentially, risk means willing to plunge into the unknown either in a tactical melee with compensating positional factors or choosing complex strategical lines where both sides stand badly and where the only thing for sure is that the better player will win .... the final outcome is not known. As oppossed to the safety first group ... even the LT group above play fairly complex chess pushing the limits beyond their opponents abilities but not necessarily their own. Where am I going with this and how does it relate to computer chess? Well, I think chess engines generally play it close to the x axis line. You have Rebel that kills you softly placing it's pieces on slightly better squares, swapping down. and eventually winning in a pawn ending by zugzwang on the 65th move. On the other end you have Fritz annilihating you by winning a piece on move 16 with the game shortly over. So I made up a little test suite of half dozen positions from the games of Tal and Bronstein and ran it at 10 minutes per position with some engines: Amy, Phalanx, and Yace. Well, the programs "failed" miserably. What have I proved ... well that these engines don't play like Tal or Bronstein :-) However, Phalanx showed a flash of inspiritation on the Kupper-Tal position and did choose 1 ... Nxb2!? As Dusan Dobes says on his web page, his program plays like Tal .... well sometimes!! Cheers, Jim PS: Test suite 2r3k1/pp4bp/3p2p1/3Ppb1n/1qr5/2N1B1PP/PP2QPB1/R1R3K1 b - - bm Nf4; id 1; r2q1rk1/pb1pbpp1/np3n1p/1N6/2p5/P5N1/1PB2PPP/R1BQ1RK1 w - - bm Bxh6; id 2; r3k2r/1b3ppp/pq1ppb2/8/np1NPPP1/2P2Q2/PPB1N2P/2KRR3 b kq - bm Nxb2; id 3; rn2kb1r/1bq2p1p/p3pp2/P2P4/1pp5/2N2N2/1P2BPPP/R2Q1RK1 w kq - bm dxe6; id 4; 2r1r3/p1qbppkp/3b2p1/1pnB4/7B/4N3/PP1Q1PPP/3RR1K1 w - - bm Bxf7; id 5; rn3rk1/ppq2p1p/1n4p1/3PP1B1/1bBQ4/2N2P2/PP5P/R3K1R1 w Q - bm Bb3; id 6;
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