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Subject: Re: New York 1924

Author: Mark Ryan

Date: 16:12:00 05/20/05

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On May 20, 2005 at 17:40:02, jim r uselton wrote:

>Let's say a person has access to a time machine and grabs his shredder 7 and
>goes back to the year 1924. Let's say,For the sake of argument, he talks his way
>in to the great New York Tournament. This guy doesn't know much chess so he lets
>his Shredder do all the playing. My question is---where do you think he would
>finish, first---fourth---last?
>
>Thanks for your input!
>     Jim

I think Shredder 7 would win the tournament.  However, I have always thought
that Emanuel Lasker would have a good chance against even a strong computer
program because:

1.  Capablanca once described Lasker as the best tactician;
2.  Lasker almost never blundered;
3.  Lasker had superb control of his nerves;
4.  Lasker was a great defensive player;

All of the above qualities go a long way to neutralizing the computer's
advantages against human beings.  Moreover, to exploit the computer's weakness:

5.  Lasker had a profound ability to make moves that other players
mis-evaluated.  I believe it is a misconception that Lasker deliberately played
weak moves that he knew would trouble his particular opponent.  I don't think
Lasker deliberately played a weak move in his whole life.  He played moves that
he knew were good, but that his opponent would mistakenly imagine were bad.  The
classic example is 12.f5 against Capablanca in 1914 (St. Petersburg), which the
great Cuban insisted for years afterwards was a weak move, but which is now
generally accepted as being a good move.

I think Lasker, more than any other player, would have some chance of finding
such a move against a program.  (But I think we should let him play a full match
against the computer, and not just one game :)

Mark




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