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Subject: Re: Is computers winning more with black? ( in Comp. vs Comp )

Author: Tim Mirabile

Date: 06:06:40 07/29/98

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On July 28, 1998 at 10:13:25, Don Dailey wrote:

>I played a bunch of games between the latest Crafty and a 10 year old
>PC program of mine I ported to Unix using the xboard interface.  The
>main thing I noticed was that having WHITE was a big advantage.  When
>a program won or drew as black it was a big deal and was quite an
>advantage, just like in grandmaster matches.

Having the first move is always good in chess, regardless who the players are.
But we might find that computers lack the color bias that some strong players
seem to have.  For example, you can find a lot of games where Black came out of
the opening with a slight edge, and then agreed to a draw, while White would
certainly have pressed on with a smaller advantage.  Players also often play
more conservatively with Black in the opening, but in this case the computers
are using opening books based on human play, so they get this effect built in.

John Nunn gave an example of this in his recent book:  Set up a chessboard, and
play 1.c3 e5 2.c4 Nf6.  Now who would want to play a move like 3.d3 in this
position?  Yet it is the most common reply when the colors are reversed.



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