Author: Robert Henry Durrett
Date: 08:12:33 05/26/02
This may also make sense for many other commercial engines, but I am most familiar with Fritz. There may be another way to handicap Fritz which is more appealing than the ways currently available. In Infinite Analysis Mode, Fritz can be made to display the "second best" move, the "third best" move, etceteras, for as many moves as you wish. An obvious way to handicap Fritz would be to force it to play a move which is not the best move. For chess beginners, it would be nice to make Fritz always play the "fifth best" move, and as the chessplayer became stronger, advance to the "fourth best," etceteras. There are several things wrong with that. First of all, in Infinite Analysis Mode, Fritz displays it's thinking when it is it's opponent's turn to move. This would create a strong temptation, for human opponents, to "cheat" by looking at what Fritz was thinking. If the display could be blanked out when it was Fritz's opponent's move, then that temptation would be eliminated. There would also be a temptation to "cheat" when it was "Fritz to move." The human opponent would be sorely tempted to look at the lines being considered by Fritz. So, one should also blank out the display when it is Fritz to move. This suggests that what is needed is a way to make Fritz automatically play at the desired level [i.e. "fifth best move," "forth best move," etc.] but without the display. One problem would be that there may be only one playable move in the position for Fritz. So there must be some way to provide for that eventuality. One solution might be to specify a "maximum position evaluation shift" for Fritz. For example, one might set the limit at two pawns equivalent. That way, if the "fifth best move" were to deteriorate Fritz's position by more than two pawns, the program would automatically reject the "fifth best move" and go to the "fourth best move." If it, too, were to deteriorate Fritz's position by more than two pawns equivalent, then the program would also automatically reject the "fourth best move" and advance to the "third best move." Etceteras. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ A similar idea could be used in the opening. If an opening book, such as Fritz's Power Book, were used, Fritz might be forced to use the "lowest performing" move for the beginner opponent, then the second "lowest performing" move for more advanced beginners, etceteras. If there were only one move in the book, then Fritz would have to make that move. If there were no moves in the book, Fritz would then revert to using it's engine to find a move. If the game were to transpose back into the book, then the engine would again be temporarily disabled and the above criteria used by Fritz to select the move from it's book. Fritz's human opponent should not be allowed to see the book during play. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ What does everybody think? Would this be workable?
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