Author: Otello Gnaramori
Date: 08:09:55 07/08/01
This is an extract from "How to become a Chess Master" by Ignacio Marin , I find these words very enlightening for the recent debate here at CCC: "I was planning to talk about the long term requirements for developing as a good chess player, but I have thought that it would be better to change the order and to say a few things about the latest chess truth: CHESS IS TACTICS. Well, yeah, Kasparov has won easily against Deep Blue so we can breath again. We are not all bums (or at least Kasparov is not one...). But for me, there has been a very funny moment in the match, something that seriously made me wonder if all these was not prearranged (now, I don't think so). This moment was when Kasparov "discovered" that Deep Blue is able to play good chess!!: "Mr. Kasparov: Yeah. Yesterday was not a good day. First I have to congratulate the IBM team for a tremendous, tremendous job they've just done. What I discovered yesterday probably is now clear to everyone. Now for the first time we see the computer at chess and quantity becomes quality because the number of the moves this monstrous machine can play in fact prevents it from making bad positional mistake within reach of its calculation. And yesterday I think the move D5 and B3 that was so human but what I realized that for machine it was simple because it never lost a pawn within the tree of its calculations. Now for the first time we are playing not only with a computer but with something that has its own intelligence. The depth of the computer's calculation gives it certain positions understanding. Even as we saw today, machines don't understand many things. But only if it goes beyond the depth of its calculation." This was Kasparov's comment after the second game as appeared in the IBM page. What I found funny in this comment is his apparent absolute lack of understanding of what chess is. Because Chess is ONLY moves in a chessboard, chess is only tactics. If you calculate thoroughly enough you will beat Kasparov and everybody else because "positional mistakes" simply don't exist: they are simply tactical errors with long term consequences. Now I have two explanations: 1) Kasparov seriously was thinking before the match that chess is more than that (kind of a magic that only humans can understand) and he is plainly stupid or 2) This was just a publicity trick, and also a way of covering his back. You know, this computer is sooo good that even won yesterday, it's sooo good that I really have to fight to get the 400000$ and you will have to pay more next time, etc. Now, I consider Kasparov to be a very intelligent man so I will bet on 2). Unfortunately, if he is no stupid, at least he thinks we are, with these kind of comments. So, yes, chess is only tactics and if your mind was good enough as to calculate deeply you will be as good as Deep Blue, and maybe even better. That's higher than our goal of 2200 FIDE ELO, right?. What are then the consequences of this newly found truth?. That for playing chess, you have to know first and most important how to calculate." Comments are welcome. Regards, Otello.
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