Author: Mats Winther
Date: 10:03:17 04/14/98
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On April 14, 1998 at 03:10:44, Jouni Uski wrote: >I think Mats's posting are nonsense! If Fritz5 beats all opponents it >doesn't matter any if moves are found by speed or knowledge. Remember Deep >Blue's victory over Kasparov - speed was of course the main reason for fine >performance. My point is that one doesn't always find the same move when using speed as when using knowledge (no matter how speedy the computer is). Look at a Petrosian game where he makes a positional sacrifice (a rook against a knight). Petrosian wins this game against a strong grandmaster. Would Fritz5 make the same move? Probably not. Fritz5 will cut off that whole variation tree. He doesn't consider it much since Fritz5 has a materialist view of chess (and must have since he is a computer). But actually, that positional sacrifice may be the best move in that position. There is a materialist side of chess, but there is also a positional side of chess. These sides complement each other. There is a side of chess that has nothing to do with computational force. To create really good chess (like Petrosian) one must integrate both these sides. I happen to think that Petrosian plays better chess than Fritz5 although their ratings are about the same. I have the right to have this view of chess. Why is this nonsense? Why does it create so much disgust in this newsgroup? I am quite aware that Fritz5 still might have won that game by tactical trickery later in the game (preferably when the grandmaster is in time trouble). But I have studied several hundreds of Petrosian's games and they have convinced me that there are more to chess than move counting. Probably it would be very hard to create a chess engine that does not cut off that variation tree but instead takes the positional sacrifice into consideration. It's hard for a computer to realize it's good since Petrosian doesn't regain the material later in the variation tree. His play has something else is mind. In several Petrosian games I have seen a positional mastery that goes far beyond the positional sacrifice level. These moves will never be done by a program. A human (Petrosian) has a pattern seeing derived from experience. So he can make moves that a computer can never do because the latter must use simple rules plus computation. The computer is forced to cut off variation trees since it is beyond his understanding that these can be good. And this understanding can never be built in because the computer does not have that intelligent pattern seeing combined with strategical ideas created for the moment (which requires intelligence). Again, it's not possible to, by way of computation, arrive at that sophisticated positional plan. This is because there a two sides of chess. Some sophisticated positional qualities cannot be reached by computational force. You simply underestimate the value of positional chess. With positional chess one makes other moves than with computational chess. My idea in this discussion is that I would like to see the computers make more positional moves, positional sacrifices etcetera. This idea is heretic and makes me an outcast. The ideas above is my credo in computer chess. But I'm afraid I'm repeating myself. Since my view does awake so much negative emotion I have decided that this is my final message in this forum. Mats Winther
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