Author: Russell Reagan
Date: 16:52:35 02/18/02
Go up one level in this thread
On February 18, 2002 at 18:40:18, Frank Nelson wrote: >I tried fireside.anti-computer strategy and got buried by Hiarcs 7.32! >I used f4-e3-d4-c3 formation only to watch Hiarcs open it up like a knife >to a watermelon. I had a book once which said that studying the games of >David Bronstein vs. computers was the right direction for anti-computers. >I think that a person has to use his own common sense when playing against a >computer. Computers don't get tired unless they are running on batteries >and is usually good at forcing a desirable tactical variation. I think that most >people play well when the opening is over then start to tire move-by-move and >then blunder in a level position. The computer of course then take the >initiative until it leads to a + - ! If anyone have some original anti-computer >strategy please post to this CCC newsgroup. Thanks in advance. > >Ljubomir Nelson The problem is that people have heard about these "anti-computer" strategies and they take that to mean that there are ways to easily beat a computer. This is far from the truth. If you are a strong expert level or above you are probably tactically sound enough to possibly take advantage of the anti-computer strategies. The strong expert guess is a generous one. I am betting that the actual level that you need to be at is a weak master at least to be able to start thinking about beating a computer. Like Dan said in his post, those ideas sound great. But the fact of the matter is that sometime during those 10-12 pawn moves you make during your pawn storm you're going to make the wrong pawn move due to your lack of positional understanding, or flat lack of tactical ability, and the computer doesn't give you second chances. So even if we assume that you are a strong enough player to get your pawns to survive the pawn storm, you need your other peieces coordinated and ready to attack quickly, which adds another level of complexity. Assuming your pieces are ready to go and that you have survived the pawn storm, eventually you will probably have to make a sacrifice of some kind to expose the enemy king enough to get at him. At this point, assuming that you were able to execute the pawn storm without losing the pawns, and assuming that while you were executing the pawn storm you were able to get your pieces ready to attack, and assuming that you were able to make a correct sacrifice to open up the enemy king to attack, you still have a long way to go because the hardest part is yet to come :) Now you have to execute a successful attack on the exposed king, which in itself is probably the hardest of all of these tasks, especially considering that you will be a pawn or piece down from your sacrifice. You have to attack quick and keep the king on the run, because you have to remember that at this point your king is virtually undefended. So one slip and the computer is going to counter-attack and mate you rather easily. Assuming that you were able to do the pawn storm, get your pieces coordinated for the attack, and sacrifice to expose the king, now you have to be almost as good as the computer at tactics, which is quite a tall order. Most likely the computer will be able to fight you off, even at the cost of sacrificing some material back to you, and even then material will be even since you already sacrificed. Once the computer escapes your attack by narrow margins, it's church. You'll be mated shortly because you have no defense against an attack. Starting to see why the anti-computer strategies aren't as great as they sound? You have to be quite a talented player to execute them, and you can't make a single mistake. If you are the kind of player that doesn't make mistakes, then you're probably a strong master and you'd be able to hang with a computer anyway, and so it's really a matter of how good a player you are to begin with. An anticomputer strategy might help you if you are already a strong player, but it's not going to let a 1600 player beat the heck out of Fritz consistently. Russell
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