Computer Chess Club Archives


Search

Terms

Messages

Subject: Re: Like a little kid who is afraid to duke it out with the bully.......

Author: Christopher R. Dorr

Date: 11:59:09 07/23/01

Go up one level in this thread


On July 22, 2001 at 10:43:00, Terry McCracken wrote:

>On July 22, 2001 at 09:46:41, John Wentworth wrote:
>
>>On July 22, 2001 at 08:52:05, Drazen Marovic wrote:
>>
>>>On July 22, 2001 at 06:39:59, José de Jesús García Ruvalcaba wrote:
>>>
>>>>The sixth game ended in a draw after nine moves. So six games, six draws. It
>>>>seems that at the end GM Hübner only wanted to collect his paycheck.
>>>>José.
>>>
>>>  Possibly, but i expect if black offered to play the ruy again he would have
>>>played for a win.  Since the caro was played and he didn't have more info on how
>>>fritz played the caro from previous games, it wasn't worth the risk to play on
>>>when "a bird in hand is better than two in the bush" an even result is not
>>>losing .  In professional chess it is professional to do what is most reasonable
>>>he doesn't have to prove anything else.
>>
>>Like a little kid who is afraid to duke it out with the bully. Instead stay in
>>with the books and study.
>
>Ahem....Show a little respect for Dr. Hubner!
>
>Terry

Agreed. When it is *your* paycheck on the line (after you have earned your GM
title and made your way up to 2600 FIDE) you can decide what you will do in this
case. It is perfectly reasonable in many cases to take the draw and run. Was
Hubner booked against the Caro? Maybe not well. Maybe he saw something he didn't
like. maybe he was tired that day. Maybe he came to see the box as an equal
opponent, and had decided that it was unlikely he would win in this particular
setting. Many maybe's, many reasons why he might do this. I don't know the match
conditions, but if it were structured, for example $15,000 for a win, $7500 for
a draw $1000 for a loss, it could make a great deal of sense to grab the $7500.
Just work out the numbers from a game-theoretic standpoint. If Hubner had some
reason to believe there was only (say) a 40% chance he would win that game, then
it is the rational course of action to head for the draw. Why might he have only
a 40% chance? See above. But give the man his due. he is a strong,
well-respected GM, and he really doesn't deserve to be called a coward simply
because somebody who has never been in his position doesn't like his choice.

Chris




This page took 0 seconds to execute

Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700

Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.