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Subject: Re: What do you consider the best positional program (besides Century 3)?

Author: Mike S.

Date: 19:00:17 05/03/01

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On May 03, 2001 at 18:37:08, John Dahlem wrote:

>I had for awhile thought HIARCS 7.32 was considered easily the best, but then I
>read a summary from Cadaques 2000 and it seemed to be thought HIARCS was even
>somewhat dumb positonally. So, what do you think? HIARCS, Shredder 5, Tiger 14,
>Junior 6?

I do not have the complete range of current top programs available, so I cannot
say which I would consider the best positional program (maybe I could after
intense studying of their games :o). - But I'm convinced, that from the
commercial programs, the following are still to be considered *among* the very
best, positionally:

Chess System Tal II, Shredder 3 (I didn't compare with newer versions which are
to be considered of course) , and Socrates 3.0

and from the amateur range:

Comet A.75 (WCh '97 version, DOS)

I realise that this is not an answer most would have expected. My opinion is
built on a small set of 10 (carefully chosen, but still not 100% satisfying)
test positions. Some of them should be replaced by better one's, but it is very
hard to find good positional tests IMO.

From Mike's Test 2.2:

r1b2rk1/1p2qppp/1bn1p3/p3P3/8/PNQ3P1/1P1B1PBP/R4RK1 b - - bm a4; id "Pos 25";
r5k1/p2r1bpp/2p2p2/8/n1P5/P5B1/5PPP/2R1RBK1 w - - bm c5; id "Pos 26";
3r1bk1/p4ppp/Qp2p3/8/1P1B4/Pq2P1P1/2r2P1P/R3R1K1 b - - bm e5; id "Pos 27";
7k/4K1n1/8/6P1/8/3B4/8/8 w - - bm Bg6; id "Pos 28";
r3nrk1/ppq2pbp/2n1b1p1/4pP2/2P5/4BNN1/PP4PP/RQ2KB1R b KQ - bm e4; id "Pos 29";
8/p2Q2p1/1k3qbp/1pn5/2p4P/2P2P2/5BPK/5B2 w - - bm g3; id "Pos 30";
2r2rk1/1p1bq3/p3p2p/3pPpp1/1P1Q4/P7/2P2PPP/2R1RBK1 b - - bm Bb5; id "Pos 31";
r1n1kb1r/1b3pp1/1qn1p3/p2pP1Bp/Qp1P1N1P/5NPB/PP3P2/2R1R1K1 w kq - bm Nxe6; id
"Pos 32";
1r1r2k1/2b1qp1p/b1p3p1/p1p1p3/2P1P3/1PN1BP2/P1Q3PP/R2R2K1 b - - bm Rd4; id "Pos
33";
r4k2/2p5/P1pp1n1p/2r2qp1/Q7/6BP/2P2PP1/R3R1K1 w - - bm c4; id "Pos 34";

The positions are (roughly) sorted by difficulty. A very good result would be,
to find 9 or 10 solutions within tournament time, i.e. at 3 min. per move on a
P3/700 (but most programs will at least find 6, some of them quickly).

Regards,
M.Scheidl



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