Author: Albert Silver
Date: 07:01:50 12/31/98
Go up one level in this thread
On December 31, 1998 at 01:47:18, Komputer Korner wrote:
>Some people may have been wondering about the worth of engine
>tournaments in Fritz 5- 32 bit.
>Well the real value (besides the advantage of being able to watch
>International master level games) is that you can create a book with
>just one opening and defence and force all the engines to play this
>over and over. After a while when watching the games and then going
>over them again afterwards (they are automatically saved in a sub
>directory called COMPBASE) , you can get a real good idea how to play
>that opening yourself. There is simply no substitute as good as this
>for studying openings. Try it. You will wonder why you ever did
>anything else studying openings.
It's certainly an interesting idea. I do question, as you might have guessed,
it being the best way to study openings. If one wishes to test out some
theoretical novelty then yes, it can be very interesting (actually this is
where the usefulness of a top program shines), but then I would think that
the best thing to do would be to play against the program oneself. First hand
experience always gives the best results IMO. As for ideas on how to play an
opening, I would suggest instead of games between IM level programs the real
McCoy: annotated GM (or IM) games played with the opening in question. This
is by no means the only study I'd do but as long as we're talking about games
to study this is where I'd go. With resources such as the Informant and CB
Magazine, material certainly isn't lacking. But the serious student should by
no means stop there. There are excellent books out on virtually every opening
that provide detailed explanations on what is going on in a position. There
are also the rare gems such as Polugayevsky's 2-volume Sicilian Labyrinth
which is ONLY about the ideas in playing the Sicilian defence, or Soltis's
Pawn Structure Chess which approaches the openings according to the pawn
structures, or even (for those who saw it but didn't take a close look)
Shereshevsky's 2-volume Mastering the Endgame which explains through deeply
annotated games not only how to play the typical (due to the pawn structure)
endgames that arise from openings, but simplified middlegames (daunting for
players who don't know how to play for a win when the queens go off) with
detailed explanations on the positional aspects and strategies of said
openings. In any case, when studying an opening this is where I'd start.
Start, but not end. Where do computers enter here (aside from DBs)? Do they
have nothing to offer? Of course they do! Dvoretsky in Opening Preparation
explains that when studying openings, in order to better grasp the ideas, he
and Yussupov would play 10 minute games. This allowed them to better develop
a feel for the opening. Frankly, unless you are a very strong player, this
will probably be too little, but 20 or 30 minute games against your favourite
program(s) should do the trick. Don't content yourself with a game against
Fritz if you have Hiarcs also. I'd be VERY surprised if they played the same
moves. If you fell for a tactical trick by them, don't just shrug it off and
take it back. Look at it! It could be a typical motif of the position. Of
course there are even more ways to prepare, but the above should already
provide a very complete picture.
Albert Silver
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