I am taking a informal  poll here.  do you or do you not use chess engines? You can include a commet  or not; be anonymous if you like.  Please enter a yes or no, at least.

Thank you for your time

jiggs99

ps. you send me a message or note or  answer in this forum. I will post result in this forum.

Engines in active games? No.

Engines in completed games for analysis, for endgame practice, etc? Yes.

If you are asking if people use engines in their active games I don't think you will get any yes answers. It isn't allowed here, except (I think) in cases where it is agreed beforehand by both opponents (would actually need to look that up) and may have to be unrated (unsure). Not very many people would admit to cheating, even if they did it.

no, don't got one, an' will never get one - consider 'em an abomination, though I know perfectly well that I have to play 'em on here sometimes - ask costelus

How would we be anonymous?  

Anyway, I use an engine for postmortem analysis, and occasionally to pull a prank on my friends.

I'd say the biggest counterargument for calling them abominations is not that you have to play 'em sometimes.

For me the engine has proved quite helpful in improving and gaining understanding of certain positions and openings.

The trick is in how you use them though. In a way engines are blind beasts that do not care if their advice is at all helpful to a human player. For example the engine might be really happy in lines that are a nightmare to play as a human being, with long strings of only-moves and (for example) an undefended king in the middle of the board.

The computer doesn't 'understand' chess like we do, but in a way it sees 'the truth' for the x ply it calculates. I've found it highly helpful to have that powerful friend around when analyzing.

I use them in training, in preparation, and for post game analysis. Often I play tactics positions from books against the box. Winning a knight with skewer is one thing; nursing the resulting advantage to victory is quite another.

Very interesting res pones so far. In answer to some questions posed- you can remain anonymous by sending your response to me via direct message or note. I will relay them to this forum as anonymous.

As to costelus, do you or do you not use chess engines?

 I do most of my playing against Shredder.  I don't feel hurried by a live game, and when I am really stuck, I get a "hint" and then try to figure out why I didn't see the move. Sometimes, I will decide on a move after a long deliberation, and then see if the engine agrees with my choice. If it doesn't, I try and figure out what I missed so that I won't do it again, hopefully. This has helped me alot. As far as using it to help when playing someone else, that to me would be pointless. 

missed the point, jiggs99, costelus is rabidly anti the use of machinery - and I'm with him on that

I play against mine to keep me sharp(ish), online players are no match for it as an opponent that I can learn from.  There's no point to playing someone off an engine because the result is practically guaranteed before the game is started.

So far out of eight responses there is one "rabidly" against the use of chess engines for any reason. The rest condone  their use as a study aid only, not to be used in "real" games. I must say that I  agree with DMX21X1, the game is over before it is started,when using a chess engine. No satisfaction there. 

But perhaps i should remain neutral and just deal with the numbers? Input on this matter, please.

If you're looking to improve your game I'd recommend engine use 100% 

When facing someone who I suspect is using an engine I just take it on the chin, makes no difference to me as my own engine slays me over and over again anyway.  I can't prove it anyway so there's no point dwelling on it. In my experience most people don't use engines (I assume this because I tend to win most of my games).  As you say there is no satisfaction involved.

As far as human opponents, I'm at an awkward stage in my Chess development, 18 years of playing and nowadays I win about 80% of my games, I'm happy with that but I'm not losing much so I'm not learning and find myself wondering how I can get better, or if I've hit my ceiling.

Unless you are at the very highest echelon of chess skill (when you really are the best), the answer to your problem is playing against players rated higher than you.

The funny thing about the rating system is that the number you get doesn't provide information about how it was obtained. You could be 2000 by consistently beating players of around 1600, but you could also be 2000 by winning some games against a 2400 opposition. 

I have the idea that both ways require chess skill, and I don't think it is all that easy to say that one of the players must be weaker than the other. (for example, if you always beat lower rated players at least you must have the discipline to stay sharp - losing games is costly.)

It could say something about who is more likely to improve though. If you play higher rated opponents, you should be able to learn more.

Question is if you really want to improve like that of course. I tend to like playing people in my rating region. Win some, lose some. 

I use fritz 12 to help me analyse my OTB games after.

I agree, ratings can be very misleading. I don't think they apply to anyone who doesn't play professionally. 

I too like playing people around my own skill level but also those lower than me because I feel I can be more creative in those games and experiment a little.  Stronger players who are technically stronger, not by rating, can be boring to play, they present a lack of options that just frustrates me and leaves me feeling like I'm playing someone elses game. 

I don't seek out stronger players, just operate on a first come first served basis.

DMX2fxt, I may be wrong - I often am - but, if you're seeking out 'stronger' players on the internet, and they appear to be boring, it is because a lot of these useless idiots are using engines - if you really want to find decent practical opposition from which to learn, you need to play 'Over the Board' at Congresses and tournaments; - the adrenalin rush and tension help you to retain the memories of what happens, and u will rarely make the same mistake a second time - great though this internet stuff is for practise, because of the time factor, it induces a 'comfort zone' which is simply not there in the heat of live competition try it, the next time the circus rolls into a town near you - I swear u will not regret it

For correspondence this may be true, but I don't think it happens at the 1800 mark already. I think it is possible to have a fairly cheater free career up to 2100 at least.

Also, live chess standard games with 15 | 10 or longer time controls really do allow you to practice chess, and they are thrilling. The memory value of these games can be hightened by doing post mortems yourself (I do that with an engine) and by playing them seriously.

Of course OTB is always cool :).

I don't use engines but ever now and again I somehow play one.

I practise against engines when I have nobody to play with online, I also explore new openings that I learned against a chess engine (they show no mercy when it comes to opening traps). Against real players I never use engines, it takes the interest out of playing; I want to see how good I am.

I dont care if people use engines or not, it is another type of practise for me, even if my rating does fall a bit.

Referring to Correspondence Chess, (and if live chess, adjust the numbers down a bit)

Why does everyone assume people are using engines?  For the love of god until you get into the 2500 range it really isn't even logical to assume someone is using engines, and if they are they are intentionally making mistakes on some moves.  Either way, the fact remains, if you're playing a 2500 range player using an engine, the player either isn't using a very strong engine, or is intentionally playing inaccuracies.  In which case playing them isn't much different than playing a person.  The only people that can logically argue that they play pure engines frequently are 2700 range.