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Subject: Re: To build a book or not?

Author: Mogens Larsen

Date: 13:23:28 07/16/02

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On July 16, 2002 at 11:04:40, Robert Hyatt wrote:

>In general, you are going to have to do this code development _anyway_ so that
>you can combat people that play 1. h3 and 2. a3 for example.  Because if you
>play silly opening moves, white can afford to give up a couple of tempi in
>order to get you to play garbage moves.  So you _have_ to fix that.  But when
>you do, you will _still_ fall into traps that are too deep for your search to
>see, and that will be the next problem you have to face.
>
>Opening books provide two key things:
>
>1.  quick moves to save time and provide randomness so that the program
>plays a variety of different opening systems.  Without a book, it will play
>the same stuff over and over and eventually lose the same games over and
>over and over.
>
>2.  avoids known deep traps.  This is not nearly as common as the point 1
>above, but it can be critical if people are trying to "prep for you" by
>planning on playing obscure lines that you won't know, to get you into a
>position where you are lost without knowing it.

I think adding:

3 (or 1b.). Aiding (proper) development and perhaps castling. Quite a few
engines are incapable of finding solutions to either without getting into
difficulties. Repeating it over and over again doesn't make it better of course.

Regards,
Mogens



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