Author: Jorge Pichard
Date: 15:38:52 02/26/01
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On February 26, 2001 at 18:25:26, Jorge Pichard wrote: >On February 26, 2001 at 15:22:27, Jorge Pichard wrote: > >>I found this interesting Review about Nimzo 8, Here it is : >> >>>Pichard >> >>Recently had a chance to look at the Nimzo 8 engine from Chessbase. For those >>that are not aware, Chessbase supports a modular chess engine architecture for >>all their software. For instance, you buy Fritz, and you get the Fritz GUI and >>playing engine. But you can also get other optional engines that work under the >>Fritz/Chessbase GUI as well. Nimzo 8 is one of these. You should note that Nimzo >>can function both as an engine within the Chessbase GUI, and as a stand-alone >>playing program. >> >>The Nimzo engine was written by Dr. Chrilly Donninger, and has been around for >>some years now. At times, it has received significant attention from computer >>chess enthusiasts. For the moment, it has receded into the background a bit, but >>it is still an extremely strong engine nevertheless. In fact, Chessbase >>maintains that it is stronger than Fritz 6 at blitz time controls. >> >>You can think of these different Chessbase engines as having their own >>personalities. So each engine will see moves, and play a bit differently from >>the others. Those that conduct game analysis have usually developed a preference >>for using different engines, depending on the position that they are looking at. >> >>Nimzo has two technical features that set it apart from the competition. First >>off, it stores a significant amount of tablebase data in RAM. Ordinarily, an >>engine will have to go out to a CDROM or hard drive to access this data whenever >>it needs it. This slows down the move search that the engine conducts, because >>access to these mass storage devices is comparatively slow (as opposed to RAM). >>So the upshot is that you should see some small increase in playing strength, >>all other things being equal. One logical question to ask is how this is >>different from a disk cache. The answer is that the engine can chose which >>tablebase data is stored in RAM much better than a comparatively stupid disk >>caching routine (which knows nothing of chess). >> >>People have called Nimzo a tactical monster, and its high NPS count and good >>blitz performance would lead one to that conclusion. This may be true, but I >>thought its play was quite solid. I’ve only had a chance to go through a few >>games with the program, but the ones I’ve looked at have given no indication >>that Nimzo has a wild tactical streak. From the viewpoint of this Patzer, it >>seemed as though Nimzo really knew where to put its pieces. >> >>Nimzo is unique in that it also has its own meta-programming language. It is >>called Che, and it can be used to encode positional knowledge into the >>evaluation function of the engine. If you’ve considered writing a chess engine >>of your own, but have not wanted to write things like a search algorithm, and >>tablebase access code, then take a look at Che. The only problem is that you’ll >>need to bone up on your Austrian – that’s the language that the Che >>documentation is written in (English speakers are out of luck). >> >>Nimzo can also play blindfolded chess against those of you that are man/woman >>enough to take it on. Needless to say, I did not use this feature that often >>;-). However, for those that do want it, you can use this feature in conjunction >>with the sparring or friend modes, so that you can play handicap games against >>the computer. >> >>One characteristic I have noticed among the various chess engines is that they >>prefer open positions over closed ones. However, I did not notice this same >>propensity with Nimzo 8, which came as a great shock to me. I have played a >>number of games against this engine using the handicap modes of the Fritz GUI, >>and it seems as though Nimzo is quite content to play closed positions. Since >>the main reason one buys different engines is because of differences in style, >>it’s good to see that Nimzo delivers in this area. >> > >This paragraph would be taken more seriously from a GM point of view, since we >are more interested to found out how good current chess programs are playing >closed positions against players rated over 2500. > > >>I found that Nimzo makes a unique opponent in friend mode. I played several >>games and noticed that in the games that I won, each ended up with me gradually >>accruing a positional advantage. This is in sharp contrast to Fritz, in which >>the game is usually resolved by a tactical blow of some sort. Another >>interesting difference I noticed was that Nimzo plays a bit more naturally in >>the handicap modes. For instance, many of you have probably noticed that Fritz >>tends to leave its king out in the middle of the board when in friend mode – and >>longer than most humans would. Nimzo tends to castle at the appropriate time, >>but then make small positional errors, by means of slightly inferior exchanges, >>or passive placement of its pieces. This gave the resulting games a vastly >>different character from most other games that I normally play against the >>computer. > >This is the paragraph where a 1600 player like the author of this review can >provide his experience by using the Nimzo8 Handicup Mode under Levels, since >under this mode you can set up the Playing strength between 1350 to 2150. I >noticed that different lower rated players constantly complaint about Fritz 6 >when they set up the program to play at a certain rating strength, for instance >Fritz 6 is not consistent with the playing strength between 1600 to 2100. Like I >mentioned in the topic this review is interesting since it is from a 1600+ >player, whereas a GM _CAN'T_ accurately evaluate this lower Level settings. A GM >simply would say this blunder is typical for a 1650 player. Now going back to >the preview paragraph by the author, if you set the program to play at 1675 it >will eventually make small positional errors, by means of slighty inferior >exchanges, or passive placement ot its pieces. > >Pichard. > >>I did notice one bug in this program. Specifically, Nimzo will lose on time when >>playing games using the sparring setting. However, Chessbase is looking into >>this, and it will be fixed in an upcoming patch. >> >>Conclusion >> >>If you don’t already have another engine for Chessbase or Fritz, and you are >>looking for another one, then this is the one I would consider. Not only is it a >>good analysis engine, but it is also a good playing partner as well (especially >>in Friend and ELO handicapping modes). >> >>Copy Protection >> >>CD-based
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