Author: Komputer Korner
Date: 21:43:10 05/13/05
Go up one level in this thread
On May 12, 2005 at 17:35:27, Stephen Ham wrote: >Dear KK, > >I respectfully disagree with your negative view of Bookup's backsolving >function. > >I have a Bookup database with 1.3MM moves in it, all input manually by me over >the past 15-years. Given that size, I never use the automatic backsolve >function. > >Anyway, I find the ability to backsolve to be one of the finest features of >Bookup, plus the fact that it catches ALL transpositions. So if an improvement >is found for Black on move 27 of a Dragon Sicilian that leads to a Black >advantage, then that entire variation, plus all transpositions to that line, >favors Black back to the point where an alternate move for White exists that >alters the overall assessment. > >Even if others are aware of this solitary TN which alters the line's former >evaluation adversely, they don't automatically know what else should/can be >played. With Bookup, one can tell at a glance which remaining lines are OK for >White to play. But without Bookup, one would need to consult books and >periodicals and games databases and chess engines to see if alternative lines >are worth playing. > >Given this ability, and given a very large database of information, such as >mine, one can know in advance if certain openings are objectively sound >(assuming the assessments at the nodes are valid), as well as variations within >specific openings. > >I use Bookup to organise and manage my opening theory for my Correspondence >Chess games. As such, as long as I keep my data current, I find I'm better >prepared in the openings than my opponents, who are armed only with books and >game databases. > >Also, what does one do with data gleaned from periodicals? Suppose one plays >through heavily annotated games in books and periodicals. Unless one >cross-references the annotated improvements for that game into ECO, then that >data is often wasted. And even if one does copy that data into ECO, what about >all the other lines that can transpose ito it? I solve this problem by entering >data from annotations directly into Bookup and then manually backsolve (it just >takes seconds). Problem solved, since Bookup now has the new data, the new >evaluations, and all lines transposing to that position are now updated. > >All the best, > >Steve Bookup is a fantastic opening study program. My only complaint is that Mike Leahy keeps hyping backsolving as the solution to all opening study problems. You admitted that you don't use it. I shudder to think how many hours of wasted backsolving would have occurred if you had used it each time you added moves to your book. You have to be careful with transpositions. They are tricky. Sometimes there are forcing transpositions and other times there are non forcing ones. If it is a nonforcing transposition then your line could get busted just because a transposition isn't forced and the new non forced move that busts the line is not known by Bookup when it does the backsolving. Of course, Bookup, the ChessBase opening tree, and Chess position trainer along with Chess assistant all catch all transpositions. This is tremendous but backsolving doesn't help here. You discover the transpositions by moving forward through the tree. i have forgotten. Does bookup show you the unplayed transpositions as tree options at each node the way that chessbase opening trees do? If Bookup adds the unplayed tranpostions as new moves then that would be a good feature of backsolving , but my understanding of backsolving is that it only adds evaluations. please correct me if i am wrong.
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