Author: Graham Laight
Date: 15:59:48 02/24/00
Hi Everyone,
I've dropped myself in the soup, but there may still be time to rescue the
situation.
My friend and I are both about 1600 Elo. I challenged him to play Bringer with
the computer a queen down, and the computer having only 5 minutes on the clock
(to his 55). He accepted, and the game will take place on Monday.
I assumed I had just set myself up for an easy 1 GBP, but I was in for a shock:
compared to us, Bringer is a brilliant player - but it has a blind spot for this
particular situation. It doesn't realise that when you're down you must
* avoid trading material
* mix it tactically
I have found that, under the stipulated conditions, even I can very easily beat
Bringer, because it plays quietly, and easily allows exchanges. My opponent
would have to make a relatively obvious blunder to get any trouble from this
program.
In my quest for more information, I have played 3 other machines under the
stipulated conditions.
1. The version of Chess Tal ('96) I am using has some interesting ideas, but is
ultimately not strong enough for this challenge. Also, it keeps trying to
resign!
2. Rebel Decade 2 threw its pawns forward and immobilised my position, making it
very difficult to play against, even though it remained a queen down! However,
it does not run under NT.
3. Travel Champion 2100, as ever, created tactical mayhem from a quiet looking
position. It made me panic, it made me lose material, and generally made a
mockery of me. Another advantage is that if I can persuade my friend to use this
machine (my NT portable could develop an untimely "fault"), the pieces are
rather small and dark, thus placing the human at a further disadvantage. The
drawback of this machine is that if one can somehow survive the Tyson-style
middle game, there is a very easy end game to follow - I'd rather my
representative had strong end game skills (though the inevitable loss of morale
from the middle game frights may throw him off his game (witness DB V GK '97
game 2)).
If anyone has some suggestions for programs which I can easily download,
configure, and run under NT, and which have both a strong end game and a
tactical middle game, I'd be very happy to read your suggestions!
Thanks for your help with this.
Graham
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