Computers as sparring partner

As part of my chesstraining I consider using Fritz more as sparring partner. Not just by analysing my otb games. I played a 25 min. game vs. 1500 yesterday and outplayed it slowly. (I have an elo about 1650).

My impression is that it played more natural/human than expected.

My reasons for chosing Fritz and not human opponents are:
- I can select a rated play and always play vs. rating 100 points above my own "fritz-rating"- No need to wait on some chessserver for an opponent who wants to play a 30 min game.

- I can set it to play a specifik opening.

What are your opinion about using computers as sparring partner? Any hints and advice?

First of all, any chess is better than no chess so if you can't find desired opponents online or because of a poor internet connection, by all means => go for it.

BUT ... if you selectively choose to play computers even with other options, keep in mind the following:

- Chess Engines were never designed to be "watered down".  Fritz or whatever application software will try to mimick a human (however good or bad) and play "weak" ... but that in it of itself is inefficient for training.If you are training to beat humans in tournaments (a fairly realistic goal for any player picking up chess seriously), you are NOT subjecting yourself to very human like behaviors in opponents such as:

- Gambits/High-Risk/High-Reward Playing
- Psychological Pressure/gamesmanship 
-Playing for cheapos/traps and swindles 
- Being able to punish mistakes early in the game (most "1600" engines will not botch the opening the way a human would)

- Human-ish "practical +sensible" moves as opposed to insane forcing moves leading to positions that are really tough for humans to keep playing.

- Unpredictability : A 1200 opponent can suddenly pull out a 2400+ level move in a critical position. This *does* happen. Conversely, a 1900 may make a massive blunder or mis-calculate an analytical position.

Not to completely rain on this parade, but there are 3 ways I train vs. computers but in very specific scenarios.

A- Technique Practice: Playing out "won" or "draw" positions vs a engine at MAXIMUM strength. Either middlegame or endgame.

B- Ply-count adjustment for Tactical Sparring:  If your engine can limit the maximum ply it searches for (2-3 for example), you can train yourself to play "clean" chess (any tactical oversight less than the ply-depth and you will be punished severely)

C- Time trouble training : A variation of A where you play out a won position in blitz (or even bullet) against a maximum strength engine.  This really tests to see if you "know" this position in your sleep. 

My advice: Patiently waiting an extra 15 mins (I've rarely had to wait longer for a slow (G/30 and above) game on FICS or any of the other servers) is worth it :)

You might want to download Shredder too. It seems to be regarded as the most human like in "watered down" mode according to discussions on this site. You can download the trial version free, and set the strength in ELO to whatever you require.

I find another benefit of playing computers as training for OTB play is that you can use proper slow time controls (eg 2 hrs for 40 moves etc). To my knowledge it's very difficult to get slow games on the internet - please let me know me know if anyone disagrees!

Well ... some of the prominent servers have Slow-time-control leagues and places to sign up for atleast 45-45 games (with people serious enough to commit to them.)

 Though practicing classical time controls (2 hrs for 40 etc.) is agreeably a  stretch to do online (with strangers as opposed to friends).

Hi Shivsky

Thanks for the response. Which server(s) have slow time control leagues, and would you recommend any in particular? 45-45 is probably slow enough. I struggled to find any last time I looked. I found something called the slow time contol bunch but they didn't seem to be active.

FICS : http://teamleague.org/history.php

ICC : http://home.comcast.net/~danheisman/Main_Chess/Online.htm#Slow Chess on Internet

Thanks Shivsky, I'll have a look at those.

ICC has at least three organized groups for slow games.

The main one is the T4545 league, which is good enough to get challenging games at your level against serious players. And there's no cheating, as it's closely monitored.

And, to answer your initial question, I don't recommend using a chess engine as a regular sparring partner. Shivsky gave lots of good explanations, but I will tell a story.

A few years ago, I went to London for a few months, and I joined a local chess club, where I met a friendly guy who had developed an habit of playing tons of 20' games against his computer. He explained to me that it was good training to spot tactical threats and learn how to defend. But the truth is that the experience had completely crushed him psychologically. In all his games, he was playing overly defensive (hey, you can't attack against computers : you get refuted !), and when confronted with a threat, he wasn't even trying to assess it, but immediately recognized it as deadly and tried to find the most passive-not-immediately-losing move he could think of. So his games were sad displays of a fatalistic warrior, who just had bit the dust too often...

Chess is a human game of balance. You don't want to play perfect. You want to play good enough to beat your opponent (or at least have a decent shot at beating him). So, as Shivsky explained, computers are good tools to improve some technical aspects of our play, but they can't help us fight our game. Use with caution.

using the computer as a sparring partner is a good idea.  i was doing it but didn't realize until this post. 

One thing I like when playing training games is to play against an electronic chess set. A lot of them will play around 1600-2200 USCF rating, and their play will tend to be a little more human. The other day I was playing my excalibur computer, and it made a pawn capture with its queen, but the resulting loss of tempo actually allowed me to end up two pawns up after a pawn for minor piece, which the electronic board missed. With a limited calculating capacity, it misses dynamic chances based on a material for tempo trade, which is common amongst class players like myself. I find myself using fritz to train when I am studying endgame puzzles, or tactics puzzles. A great way to improve your finishing technique is to play out tactics puzzles to the end. Sure, you may end up a knight to the good from a given diagram, but the game doesn't win itself. Playing out the rest of the game against a Grandmaster level program like Fritz will really help to keep you sharp all the way to the end, as well as showing you hidden defensive resources you may not have seen, so it is two lessons in one. I find that playing against Fritz is a great way to practice if you are going to play in a tournament setting. I like to play a 2 hour time control per 40 moves. I will force myself to stay within the 3 minute per move allowance. I find this gives the game a good pace and helps to avoid clock trouble.

Hope you don't mind if I jump in here and ask a question on this topic. . .

I've been thinking about buying some chess software for training and for fun of course. Any recommendations?

Agree totally.  I play the Tandy/RS 1650 rapid response which is rated at ~1400 and the CXG Super Enterprise rated at ~1650.  (Both machines off e-bay.) They play aggressive and tactical games.  When dumbed down PC engines respond immediately, which I find  intimidating.

Agree also that restricting the search depth is a good way to dumb down a chess computer, however strong programs have capture and check extensions which means that they can still be very strong, even when restricted to 1 ply.

But...but...but...isn't the lesson here to not play lots of games where you don't stand a chance of winning, rather than not to play against a computer? I don't believe that having the computer's level set to your own maybe plus 100 or so will cause over defensive play. I'm guessing your mate had his computer turned up to eleven and was therefore getting a good kicking every time, or am I wrong? (Or was he playing Chessmaster pseudo-human opponents, which throws a piece at you in the opening then makes you defend while it plays like a GM for the rest of the game?!)

Try Shredder Classic - you can download the trial version free.

It is the best thing since sliced bread.

Well, you're right : the guy was playing the computer full strength. It's true that if you can find a computer which plays a bit like human, it's way better. I don't know any engine which play human-like, but if you think you've found one, I'm interested to see the games.

Besides pure tactical play, the main difference is the way humans cope with pressure ('power play'). I think the variety of threats that human players can come up with is much larger than what you'll find with engine play. The way human players react to your threats is also highly instructive. And as coping with threats is one of the main skill in chess, I still favour training against humans.

But I'd be interested to see the dumbed-down engine games.

IpswichMatt,

Thanks for the input, I'll definitely try that.

I'll be the first to admit I prefer playing a (moderately strong) computer over a human any day.

Thanks a lot for all the answers!

Nygren, check this out:

http://lucaschess.host22.com/

Before I came here, this was my sparring partner for months and it was not only effective, but real fun.