Author: Rolf Tueschen
Date: 06:07:52 10/12/04
This is an old topic of mine which caught my interest with the ugly International Championship in Holland where FRITZ participated because CHESSBASE was a sponsor of the event. I dont want to repeat the details but somehow I had the impression that programmers like Stefan Meyer-Kahlen and also many other writers in CCC showed a bit a lack of respect towards the international GM. Years have gone and the chessprograms became stronger also due to the huge human input into the creating of good opening books and the endgame tables. But the worst development for human players is the meanwhile enormous depth they must be aware of in their calculations. Sure - the depth is so deep because of selective tricks, but in a short time and over a whole game a human brain certainly could find some holes on the side of the computer depth but the masters themselves are unable to play absolutely without "visible" faults, visible to the machines at least. So basically it's now mainly a test for the exactness of the calculating of the masters because only seldom they can exloit the strategical blindness of the machines. This could only function better IF the masters could adopt the typical anti-computer play. But this is impossible to do for them because that would spoil the fun of the whole game of chess. It would be a lame and painful reduction of the beauty of chess towards primitive exploitation of the machine's typical blindness. I write it once again for all those who doubt it. A human GM will even play 'his' moves against stupid beginners although he could win with a couple of tricks in 10 moves. Well, that's a bit exaggerated for the effect. Why this is happening? Why GM don't play more effectively? Well, the answer is simple. It is out of respect for another human being! You can watch the same behaviour when a GM will grant a draw one time even to a society which played only average chess in a simultan exhibition. The Mayor or a beautiful woman will get a draw out of respect for the whole event. For the same reasons a real master would never play a machine if he won easily always with the same trick. Many ingenious chessplayers reported their successes which they achieved with such tricks. But you wont find a GM among them. Because in the eyes of real masters the whole fuzzling around with such tricks is NOT what chess is all about. In addition computerchess is a ridiculous event in itself. The opening books and tables are against all laws in chess because this is exactly what is forbidden after the FIDE laws. Sure - a machine without good books is stupid and can be beaten easily. But if the machine knows all the GM moves, then by definition only GM can further play such a monster because no amateur player knows all these line by heart. And he's NOT allowed to use foreign help. But that a computer can store a bigger memory than a human being this is evident. More, it is also clear that a computer has a faster access to the whole information than a human being. And for all a computer does it without a single fault. So a challenge between machine and man is ridiculous from the beginning. Now we have another aspect in modern chess and this is the money. Life isn't easy and money is a tool to make it at least bearable. So from time to time GM are paid to appear for a challenge against chess computers. The fact that it's always GM only assures that no anti-computer is being played. This is the important guarantee for the machine side. Now in all other respects a machine has decisive advantages. Except if a human GM finds on the fly a marvelous combination or the leading into an endgame that is known to be favorable. Is there ANY reason for the computer side and its aids to look down on human GM??? As it seems YES. Because in the GErman CSS forum we find Chrilly Donninger of HYDRA, who writes against the Wch Ponomariov that he's a very ugly unsympathetical crook. Think why that should be the case? Well, because Ponomariov had dared to go behind Donninger to get a little look on the display to see the evaluations of the machine. That is Donninger's paranoid view. Of course this should be forbidden, but is this a show event or is this a war? Dr. Donninger went into such an agitated mood that his heart collapsed and he had to be taken into hospital. This happened twice. Afterwards all values were fine and he was sent back to the hotel where allegedly as the doctors said, the breakfast should be better than in the clinic. It is beyond my imagination why a show event should be taken to defame a human GM and at least a Wch. Defaming him in his dignity as a human being. Good, if the computchess side thinks this will lead to more events of that sort???
This page took 0 seconds to execute
Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700
Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.