Author: James Robertson
Date: 13:15:45 08/24/98
Go up one level in this thread
On August 24, 1998 at 13:43:45, Robert Henry Durrett wrote:
> John Watson, in his book Play the French, New Edition, © 1996, on page 160,
>gives: 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Ne7 7.Qg4 Qc7 8.Qxg7
>Rg8 9.Qxh7 cxd4 10.Ne2 Nbc6 11.f4 Bd7 12.Qd3 dxc3 and says this is "a position
>arising in the vast majority of 10.Ne2 games." In fact, this position occurs
>in many GM games.
>
>This is a tabiya {spelling varies} position in the French Winawer. Tabiya
>positions are, literally, the starting points for many grandmaster games. The
>players quickly move through the moves leading up to the tabyia position, using
>almost no time on their clocks. These positions are usually evaluated as equal
>or unclear. Typically, tabyia positions have GM advocates for both sides. In
>fact, it is not uncommon for a given GM to be willing to play from a tabyia
>position from either side. Also, tabyia positions occur in a large number of
>games, as any large database will show. As a rule, there is much written about
>a tabyia position in the chess literature. Also typically, a given tabyia will
>have many possible ideas or "ways to proceed" for both sides and discussions of
>these ideas are discussed in the literature.
>
>Indeed, tabyia positions are "special" in the world of serious chess players.
>Being, effectively, the starting positions of many games, they share something
>in common with the "initial position" which is on the chessboard prior to any
>moves being made in the game.
>
>To see the importance of tabyia positions in chess, it is only necessary to
>recognize that virtually every major opening variation, of which there are many,
>have their tabyia positions. Taken together as a set, they constitute the REAL
>"starting position" for serious chess.
>
>If the so-called "initial position" deserves to have it's own "opening book,"
>for whatever reason, then tabyia positions do too, for much the same reasons.
>Every "starting position" needs a book because the existing opening theory goes
>far beyond where chess engine's can go without a "book" for the tabyia.
>
>So, my question is: Do most chessplaying computer programs provide a "book" for
>each tabyia position? If not, why not?
No.
While a program's book will have more positions in it related to common opening
positions (i.e. a program will be able to play farther in the book in a Sicilian
rather than a Polish) it is just too much work to find specific tabyia
positions. Why not just feed a computer a pgn file made up of thousands of GM
games and have it convert that into a book? The book theoretically will end up
with the same effect of covering tabyia positions (as you said, they occur more
often in GM games), but the work involved is minimal. Hope this helps.
James
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