Author: Roy Eassa
Date: 10:56:58 04/29/02
How do longer time controls affect humans and computers? For humans, the extra time mainly provides better "debugging" of one's analysis. It also gives more chances to find different lines and greater depth, but these are quite secondary for human GMs, IMHO. For computers, better debugging is (almost) not an issue. They make no tactical errors within their horizons. What the extra time gives computers is mainly greater search depth. But doubling the time does not even add 1 ply usually. So, which factor makes the bigger difference, GMs getting debugging that's twice as good or computers getting less than 1 ply of greater depth? When GMs lose to computers, it's *almost always* due to insufficient debugging. Doubling the time (for example) can make a HUGE difference here. When computers lose to GMs, it's *occasionally* due to insufficient depth that could be cured by doubling the time. Obviously, both humans and GMs play stronger on an *absolute* scale when given more time. But I think it's most likely that GMs benefit *proportionally* much MORE than computers do from the additional time.
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