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Subject: Re: A response to Karpov via Fernando

Author: Bruce Moreland

Date: 02:23:28 10/06/05

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On October 06, 2005 at 02:45:37, William Sorin wrote:

>"First, to say it straight, Karpov has a somewhat disdainful vision of the
>"computer chess" world. He does not know a bit and he care less about the who is
>who of it. He does not know nothing about Fruit or Zappa or any of the other
>current new, strong programs. He said to me, always smiling:
>- All that is a realm of toys. Yes, those things play strong in blitz, but
>that's all... I have not too much relation with such things even if my son is
>very engaged in programming, as you know....
>-But Mr Karpov -I replied- some of those toys can win long games to seasoned
>masters and even GM's..
>-Yeah -he said- , some can do it here and there, but not on a regular base.
>Besides I will tell you something that it is never said: It is very difficult
>for a GM to play seriously with those contrivances, even if money is on the
>stake. You can try, but to not avail. Your deeper mind say to you that you are
>facing a toy and then you cannot put all of yourself in front of the board.
>-Nevertheless, Mr karpov, you can put your strenght when playing simuls with
>weaks human player, weaker players than any current program.
>-Well, no. And that's the problem...When you play amateurs, you again cannot
>force yourself to play really serious, but at the same time those players cannot
>take advantage of your shallow attitude. They, most of them, are defeated before
>the game begins. They play below his already low levels because they are facing
>a GM. And in any case you are helped by your experience. Your hands play for
>you. But a computer or a program is not impressed at all and, even if it is weak
>from the point of view of a GM, it still will play at his best, it will squeeze
>the best of his paltry understanding of the game and then it can happens that it
>can win you, the master, on the ground of sheer tactics. It happens all the
>time."
>
>
>
>
> It's hard to believe the above jibberish is out of the mouth of a Former World
>Chess Champion. The first question I asked after reading his opinion of computer
>chess is what planet does the former world champion live on? Does he atleast
>follow Major chess events? The two matches between top rated Kasparov and
>Kramnick vs Deep fritz and Deep Junior, should be enough to convince any
>reasonable person that Computer Chess Software is much more then a toy. If that
>isn't enough what about the Adams vs Hydra match. Could it be that Karpov is
>unaware of these matches and the many others, or is he simply just refusing to
>see the facts, like many who become emotionally involved in the question of
>Computer chess strength. Looking through my database i don't find many games
>Karpov has played against Programs but the few I find shows that Karpov only
>managed a draw against Shredder6 running on Modest Hardware (pent 600). You
>would think based on his comments that Karpov has beaten the programs everytime.

Yes, his attitude sounds poor.

If you are a competitor, you play to kill.  If you are a good competitor, you
play to kill, all the time.  If you are a bad competitor, you don't take your
opponent seriously, and end up saying something like "Why must I lose to this
idiot?" when they beat you.

I'm surprised that any GM would say this kind of thing and mean it, much less
Karpov.

bruce



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