Author: Baldomero Garcia, Jr.
Date: 21:39:41 12/01/99
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This forum is international, but my experience has to do mostly with USCF rated players. An "average" player in the USCF is probably rated 1400-1500. Chess Life magazine publishes annually how many members it has and their ratings, and from what I remember the majority of the players are C, D, E players. If that's what you're using to determine "average" then you're probably right. However, if you include all the chessplayers that do not play in chess tournaments and don't have a rating, then the "average" chessplayer's strength goes down. I would say that IQ doesn't have a whole lot to do with how good you are at chess. Unless you have learning deficiencies, I don't think you can say that because someone is "smart" that they are more likely to be better than someone who is not "smart". The other issue a lot of people have been talking about is whether an average player (let's use the 1400-1500 player again) can occasionally beat a top computer program at 40/120. I'd have to say that while it may be difficult and unlikely, it is possible for it to happen. However, the right things would have to happen: the computer would have to choose an opening in which it doesn't come out so well (I've seen that happen with HIARCS 6.0. As soon as it's out of the book sometimes, its eval close to -100. And I'd ask myself: why would the computer choose such an opening). After playing a "bad" opening, the position would have to be very simplified to the point where an "easy" endgame ensues. Again, this scenario wouldn't happen very often, as mistakes by the 1400-1500 player would probably crop up more often than not. I'm rated at 1997 USCF, and I lose quite often against HIARCS 6.0 and several other programs at ICC. Maybe when I have some time I'll be able to play a serious match against it and I'll see how it goes (my guess is that in a 10-game match the score would probably be 9-1 in favor of HIARCS, if not better). Baldo.
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