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Subject: Re: What engine do GM's use for evaluation?

Author: Telmo Escobar

Date: 15:05:17 02/27/04

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On February 27, 2004 at 06:07:19, Geert van der Wulp wrote:

>Hello to all,
>
>I am interested in knowing which engines GM's use for evaluation of their games.
>Anyone has info about that?
>
>Thank you in advance,
>
>Geert

 I think GM's use engines for quick detection of possible blunders and deep
analysis of wildly complicated positions. In understanding positions, no engine
can yet compete with top human players. But humans are prone to blunders during
analysis, not dangerous really as they eventually correct those mistakes- but
having an engine as kibitzer saves a lot of time. Also, analysis of very
complicated positions is still hard work even for world champions, so engines
are again a welcome tool for doing that quickly and painlessly.

 The technique to analyse your own games, provided you are a strong player, is
more or less the following: first you surely know where lie several critical
moments of the game, when you -or your adversary- could go astray. I want to say
that you don't care if Fritz evaluates a position as "-0.67" or Anaconda says
"-0.49". You feel that White is fine there and you basically ignore what your
silicon friends whisper.
 Eventually a position arises when you are not so sure what's the correct move,
or you want to analyse a variation that didn't happen in the game. Then you pay
more attention to what they say. For instance, in the game you played 23.Rg3 but
you feel that could be a fatal turning point for your game. So, when Junior
evaluates 23.Rg3 as "-0.90" but thinks 23.Bd4 would be "0.25" you instantly
become interested: you're more or less sure that 23.Rg3 was a positional mistake
and are open to sensible suggestions- so you start analysing the position after
23.Bd4. Even here you tend to rely on your own intuition, not on what Junior
tells you...

  The engine you choose for analysis depends upon manifold circumstances. If you
have Chess Tiger but not Hiarcs, you of course have to use Tiger. If you have
both Junior and Rebel, you could use the engine you loves better or the one you
guess will understand more about the current type of position. Maybe you like to
use the engine whose "style"  better resembles yours, maybe you pay more
attention to the opposite one: you are a genius making deep plans in closed
positions, but you could easily go astray when the position opens- so you pay
close attention to Junior, Fritz or Nimzo as these engines are regarded as great
tacticians. The engine you use don't have to be the stronger one in the market:
some years ago there was gossip that Anand did still prefer Hiarcs 7.32 even
when some newer engines were regarded as stronger by the masses.



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