Are Chess Players Smart?

set up a tournament and play
One of my favorite “tricks” when using chess programs with rated personalities was to play in “fake” tournaments. A popular tournament format is called a “quad”, in which all of the players are ranked in order of their ratings, then divided into groups of four players. In theory, each player in a four player group should be fairly close to the others in rating; each group has a round-robin “mini tournament” amongst themselves, in which each player in the group plays each of the other three players once (and, if you do the math, each player will thus play three games, resulting in the combined number of games for the event being twelve).

Note that this approach only works well if your chess program lets its personalities play against each other (some don’t). The Chessmaster series did allow the user to set up games between personalities, so that program was frequently my choice. I’d scroll through the list of characters and pick out three of them: two who were a bit more highly rated than my real life rating and one whose rating was a bit lower. I’d then randomly pair the first round by writing down the other three players’ names and picking one out of a hat, then flipping a coin or rolling a die for choice of color in my game.

I’d play my game against the first personality, save the game afterward for later review, then let the other two personalities play out their game. I’d repeat the process for three rounds, trying my best to alternate players’ colors from round to round.

If I did well in the tournament, I’d drop the low rated player in the next “virtual” event I ran. I’d keep the other two players the next time and add the next higher rated player from the program’s full list to replace the character I’d dropped. But if I did poorly in the event, I’d drop the highest rated player the next time and instead play against the other two players plus the next lowest rated player from the list.

If I felt especially ambitious (as I often did back then), I’d use the Elo rating formula to calculate my new “virtual rating” after each event and keep track of that from tournament to tournament as an extra incentive to keep studying and improving. I can tell you from personal experience, this was not only a great way to “trick myself” into constantly trying to improve, the games I played also gave me more information about what I needed to study in order to make that improvement happen. Best of all, playing in these “virtual tournaments” is also a whale of a lot of fun.

Oh it’s on now! Playing one on one matches
Another great method to spur yourself to play is to set up and play one on one matches against your chess engine. While this method works with a pre-programmed personality, it’s a method you can easily use if the only thing your program of choice offers is a rating slider. In fact, a rating slider is ideal for this method, as we’ll soon see.

If you’re a rated player, set the rating slider to your own rating as a start; round your rating up if the slider can’t be set to your exact rating (for example, 1635 might be rounded up to 1650 if the slider only recognizes fifty point increments).

You’ll now play a six game match against the chess engine set to at that rating. Obviously, you don’t have to play all six games at one sitting; in fact, it’s best that you don’t so that you’ll have time to analyze each one of your games afterward, before the next game (more about that later).

It’s important that you alternate colors each game, so that you’ll play exactly three games each as White and Black, switching colors from round to round. That’s how a real chess match is played, so you should follow suit. And you’ll score the results just as you would a real life match: you earn one point for a win, no points for a loss, and a draw scores a half-point for both you and your virtual foe (in other words the two of you split the point).

The result of your six game contest will determine your next virtual opponent. If you win the match by scoring at least 3.5 points, move the rating slider up to the next highest increment (I suggest by a minimum of twenty-five points) and then start another six game match. If you lose the match, lower the rating slider to the next lowest increment (I again suggest a minimum change of twenty-five points if possible) and play a new six game match against the engine at that setting. If you tie the match (3-3), leave the slider where it is and start a new match.

In this manner you’ll advance when you win and get knocked back a step when you lose. Obviously you’ll want to win so that you can face greater challenges. If you spend more time playing chess than you spend studying, you’re likely to “settle in” to a point at which you’re bouncing up and down across a 100 or 150 point span. That’s natural and very much like the situation you’d find at a real chess club, in which you often prefer to play three or four other players who are around your own playing strength.

But, just as in real life, you’ll want to study and improve so that you can play against other players; ultimately, when you work hard enough, you’ll break out of that rating “plateau” and move up to greater challenges. You can do this same thing quite easily with pre-programmed personalities in a chess program, moving up to the next higher-rated character when you win a match or down to the next lowest personality when you lose.

And when you eventually “settle in” (as we saw in the last paragraph), this will be very much like a real chess club, as you’ll likely be seeing the same faces on your screen again and again; the desire to “play someone new” will spur your desire to improve. Just like the “virtual tournament” idea, the “home chess match” works really well. I’ve used both methods successfully and had a lot of fun doing it!

By the way, it’s up to you as to whether or not you want to play timed games in either of these modes I’ve suggested. It’s not a requirement to do so, but if you’re one of those players who always finds himself in time trouble in real life games, I heartily recommend that you use the clock

To rate or not to rate? That is the question
Most chess programs offer a “rated game” mode, in which you play against the chess engine under simulated tournament conditions (timed game, no pausing the clock, no move takebacks, no hints, alternating piece color from game to game, etc.). But should you play rated games against your computer?

It’s up to you, and depends in large measure upon what your particular chess program offers you. Some chess programs provide a rating slider so that you can choose the approximate strength of your opponent. The stronger the opponent, the more rating points you earn for a win and the less you risk for a loss.

However, some programs’ sliders will only go down to a certain point in a rated play mode. If your program’s lowest rating setting is several hundred points higher than your actual tournament chess rating, I see no point in even bothering to play a rated game which you have little chance of winning. Note that many programs allow the use of “modular” engines, meaning that you can “unplug” one chess engine and use a different one instead.

Different engines usually provide different ranges of ratings, so you might want to try multiple engines to see how the ratings differ. But if you’re a 1400 rated player and the lowest rated game level is 1850, there’s not much point in playing around with it. You might win, or course, but since most programs won’t offer an “official” rating until many games (usually twenty) are played, the exercise may not have much of a point.

On the other hand, some programs do allow the slider to go quite low; for example, Chess King’s rating slider can be set as low as 700 Elo. In this case, you might want to play a lot of rated games against a variety of opposition levels. I suggest that you try the rating slider in several casual games to get a feel for the difficulty before launching into rated games. Programs like Chess King will always display your rating as part of your on screen user profilewhich might encourage you to try raising your level (especially since every player starts with a default rating of 800, which is very low).

My friends are perfectly happy to play mostly unrated games and seem unconcerned about their on screen ratings, worrying more about who has “leveled up” past them. Bear in mind that the rating you earn in your games against any chess software program are nothing more than a measure of your performance while playing that program, and may have nothing to do with any rating you may earn using another program, playing online, or competing in tournament games.

The choice is yours. You shouldn’t feel like you must play rated games against a chess engine, but the option is there and you can often learn a lot about your play from games when you don’t have access to takebacks, the engine analysis panel (to see what the engine is thinking), or other hints.

Beat the Clock
Likewise some people might question whether or not using a chess clock is strictly necessary. Some play modes, such as rated game mode, might require the use of a clock. I’ve also seen programs which require that a clock be set and used, but don’t penalize overstepping the time limit in casual (non-rated) games against the computer.

As with rated games, it’s your choice. But I will recommend one case in which a chess clock should always be used by players who habitually and regularly find themselves in time trouble. I’ve played scores of tournament games and have only found myself in time pressure once or twice. On the other hand, I have friends who’ve practically made a whole career of it. The time control makes no difference. Game in 30? They’re in time pressure. Forty moves in two hours? They have four minutes left on the clock and they’re only on move twenty-eight. It’s completely ridiculous.

Assuming that you’re not some kind of subconscious “adrenaline junky” and quite literally can’t and will never be able to help yourself because you positively crave that rush, you can use your chess program’s timed modes to break yourself of the habit. And it’s easier than you might think. All you have to do is set the clock for a shorter time limit than that of the tournaments in which you normally play.

The method works, too. I used to direct tournaments which were run at “game in sixty minutes” time controls. So for the week leading up to a tournament, I would play all of my practice games against the computer at “game in forty-five”.

Bear in mind that I was never one to usually get in time trouble anyway, but I found that playing at this slightly accelerated pace helped me in tournaments. I always had extra time whenever I needed it.

In fact, in most of my games I had well over five minutes on the clock when the game ended. So if you’re one of those unfortunate souls who seems to always be in time pressure, use your computer chess software as a tool to help you break the habit: play faster games at home than you do in tournaments and, after a while, you’ll discover that you seldom end up in time trouble anymore.

Save your computer games always!
Always, always, always save the games you play against your chess computer! Reviewing and analyzing them later will provide you with bucketloads of valuable information on how you can improve. Only complete fly-by-night cheap junk chess programs don’t allow you to save your games after you play them; in fact, most chess programs these days will save your games into a default database automatically.

The only real issue to discuss here is what format to use when you save your games. Many chess programs can save games into some proprietary file format, that is, a format that can be read by that particular program.

Nearly every program, though, will save your games into a format called PGN, which stands for Portable Game Notation (“portable” meaning that the game can be ported [carried] from one program to another).

A PGN file is just a glorified text file (you can easily open it in a word processor and read the game score) in which the information’s formatting, such as game headers and move spacing, follows a set of strictly proscribed rules.

Each format has advantages. Saving a game in PGN format means that you can play a game in one program, save it, and then open it up and analyze it in a different program. Proprietary formats usually allow additional game annotation (comment) features, like colored arrows or pop-up windows showing a position’s pawn structure, features which can’t be used in a PGN text file.

Consider the options and make your pick but, either way, save your games!!!

Final Verdict – How To Beat The Computer In Chess
There are just a few basic ideas you should take away with you after reading this article:

Playing a chess computer at its full strength is pointless.Find a level at which you win about a quarter of your games (if your chess program doesn’t offer such an adaptive opponent).
Play as much chess as you can.If you have to, find ways to “trick yourself” into wanting to play more chess which also help you measure your progress as a player such as the “virtual” tournaments and matches I suggested.
And always save your games!