An examination of improvement and other issues… continued 3
Computers in chess.
In 1947, before there were computers, Alan Turing designed the first program to play chess and tested it with paper and pencil using himself as the computer.
We can already see the effects of computers in modern day society. One of my lecturers recently cited an article which showed how the operations of the human brain, are altered by the early introduction of computer technology. In chess the effect has been even more pronounced, they have perhaps fundamentally altered the way wee play the game, the way we train and scarily, perhaps depending on your age the way you think about the game. In 1996 for the first time in history the infamous computer Deep Blue defeated a reigning world champion, Gary Kasparov in a game of chess at classical time controls. It went on to lose the match but there would never be any doubt about the future potential of computers, and in the 1997 rematch it succeeded where no human ever had and defeated Kasparov in a six game match claiming two wins, three draws and one loss. While this certainly had an impact on chess the thing that had the biggest impact on my opinion personally, is the fact that Magnus Carlsen the current highest live rated player, is unsure if he actually owns a real chess board. While the question used to be will they ever be as good as us? We are now wondering if we shall ever be as good as them.
While reading about the 1997 rematch I discovered some interesting things; after Kasparov lost, many people claimed that Deep Blue had won the world championship. Most people see Kasparov’s plays as un-Kasparov like and weak, he also believed that the computer received human assistance. I know many experts have applied analysis to these games to find out if the moves are humanish I’m just yet to lay my hands on it (so if you know where to find that out please post). So what are the silicon monsters doing to our game? They make many of Mikhail Tal’s (my favourite player) combinations look wrong, they show our greatest classics to be flawed and they’re making the young generations play like them. Perhaps we are in a new age of chess style, the silicon era. Grandmaster Nigel Short said that computers were like “chainsaws chopping down the Amazon." destroying all the mystery, the beauty of the game. It makes one wonder if chess is solved, will you still play? I think that the only thing we can do is accept that they are there and try to use them to enhance the game. I also would stop them from trying to solve chess but that’s just me. So what is the best method of computer improvement? How do we best harness the beast? This is something I’m very eager to discover. So if people could post how they use computers what programs and what they find the most effective I’ll be most grateful (=
Till then I leave you with Kasparov’s first loss to Deep Blue surely a turning point in chess history. As always I’ve tried to use Kotov’s method to find the lines as I went.
14.,Bxe2 15. Qxd2, a6 16. Nc3, 0-0 17. NxNc6, B7x c6 18. Rc1, Rfc8 19. Rfd1, Rfd8 20. a5, Bbg 21. Na4