Author: Laurence Chen
Date: 10:49:14 11/12/99
What is a += +- = =+ -+ mean to a human player? I don't think, I could be wrong, that any human player would look at a position and say that it is += or +- or = or =+ or -+. I certainly don't and I cannot see how a GM could give an accurate numerical evaluation to a position. The reason is that is a dynamic game, and such static evaluations would only apply to static positions. The value of pieces are not fixed in chess, if they were than, yes, absolutely, it is possible to give numerical evaluations to a position. When I look at a chess position, with exception of endgames with very few pieces left on board, I never get a few of the position is equal. Define equal if you will, please. My feel for the position is either I am attacking or defending the position, unless of course I am down a piece without any compensation for a strong attack, then I would say I am losing, or if my opponent is down a piece, then I would say that I am winning. IMHO, evaluations of += or = or =+ are useless to help any player to understand the position. These evaluations are based on another player's experience, for what I know he could have simply compiled these numbers based on a large number of games and done some statistical analysis to see what percentage of wins, draws or losses occurs at such position. IMHO these numerical evaluations does not help any human player to understand the position at all. I remember long time ago when I used to play training games against another human, and I decided to set up a position from an opening book which finished the evaluation with a += for White. And there was no way I could see how could White have a += because I lost every single game, my conclusion was that the evaluation was wrong, or a typo to mislead other players who put blind trust and faith in the book analysis without checking it for correction. Such evaluation errors is well known in the ECO manuals. In conclusion, I believe that human players don't really evaluate a position based on numerical values, not that is not feasible, because it is very inadequate and it does not provide any other useful information. Although chess engines use such numerical analysis as the yard stick, it is not realible nor accurate enough. Chess is a dynamic game, the value of pieces changes constantly depending on the position and the mobility of the rest of the pieces. Laurence Chen
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