Author: Bob Durrett
Date: 16:35:12 01/03/04
I do not recall seeing this idea at CCC. The problem with very strong engines with good opening books is that they whip their human victims before the game even progresses out of the opening. In other words, statistically speaking, the human often finds himself/herself in a very bad position even before the engine gets a chance to "join the fun" of whipping the human. The human has little chance of winning games against the chess-playing program and will likely never get an opportunity to reach an even endgame. This DEFICIENCY of strong chess engines [with their tournament books] should be corrected. Part of the solution may be to use self-handicapping opening books. When the human is very weak, with a performance rating well below 1500, the chess-playing engine should be programmed to give the human a handicap out of the opening. For humans who are beginners, the opening book should give the human a handicap out of the opening of at least two pawns equivalent. This could be accomplished in at least two ways: (1) Have one large book which includes many weak moves and let the probabilities of playing weak moves be a function of the rating [or past performance] of the human. (2) Have multiple opening books, ranging from very weak to very strong and then select the book to be used based on the rating or past performance of the human. Please don't tell me that this is an old idea. : ) Bob D.
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