Do you prefer to play with other players or the computer?

Just the question on the title. What is your preference? Computer or other players online?

Here is my own preference: Computer because I can think as much as I want. I rarely play with other players online because when I blunder and lose, and then go down rating points make me angry. However I play bullet tournaments because mistakes/blunders are forgiven in bullet and because of the limited time and tension. Like, have you ever played a bullet game with neither player making a mistake/blunder?

Also, as a consequence of playing rarely, I have a blitz rating of 509, which is wrong since I have beaten computer at level 9 (1300) with no hints or takebacks and I think I can win it at level 10.

Share your preference! Computer or online play?  

I don't really see the point of playing the bots...ok for practice, but what are you practicing for if not to get better at playing humans? And the best opponents to practice against to get better at playing humans are...humans!

The best remains;for me,to pack out a solid wood set,embrace the beauty of those pieces,sit opposite from an equal or better player than myself,put the clock in the cupboard and feel the soul of Chess breath through your brain. I am and will die a student of this wonder. To Real Chess and it's players,I salute you

I like playing the bots to mess around with opening theory nothing else.

I've seen this asked a lot recently and honestly I think both have their drawbacks. Online you can't really read people or get into one's head. I prefer OTB

OK perhaps it is because I lack confidence but I prefer, at the moment the virtual world and play the bots, this is because I need the practice, and like somebody else has mentioned you can take as long as you like to think through the moves.... my insecurity was boosted even more by being beaten twice now by "Beth Harmen" aged 9!  OK the second time only just but still shows me that I am not ready to go up against real people.... I do however like to play with a real wooden set too but during this lockdown it is difficult if not impossible to find an oponent other than my wife, who really doesn't have the time at the moment to play.

My final piece of opinionated advice:

I definitely would avoid playing bots at first. As many have said it does create some terrible habits. I was much more confident when I lost ironically because I learned a new trick! Play some people you'd be surprised I'm sure how you do!

Best of luck! 

-GChess325

Thanks gchess325 I shall pluck up the courage to have a real game on hereand see how it goes... after all the worst that can happen is I will lose as at present I don't have a rating to worry about...lol

I personally like having the pleasure of winning against an actual real life person instead of a bot so I'd say people. Plus, bots are tough. Humans do make mistakes. Very often. 

The problem with playing against an engine is that the engine is either way too strong (and thus it doesn't make much sense to play against it because you'll just be crushed), or if you set its difficulty level to approximately match yours, it will sometimes play very stupid non-human-like moves, moves that no human player, even at that level, would play, breaking the immersion. (Well, I suppose it depends on your strength. If you are a 2000 rated player then perhaps the computer will play more sanely. If you are a 1300 rated player, an engine which "strength" has been lowered by that much will just make completely stupid moves that no sane person, even at that level, will make.)

Bots were made for analysis. Their sole purpose in life. 
Play a bot. Whatever for ??

Well - to learn a sites interface or practice mouse skills perhaps.

[Deleted public accusation-UpbeatAngle]

I prefer playing humans, if you set the timer to 30 mins you won't need to worry about running out of time usually

Short answer:  I prefer playing people to bots.

Long answer:  I think it depends on what your chess goals are, if any.  I’ve played chess off and on since I was about 10, but only started playing again after >15 years.  (I joined chess.com in October of 2020.)  I was mostly a casual player who did some studying of tactics, openings and games, but my studying was intermittent and superficial.  I was good enough to win most of my casual games against friends and acquaintances but probably wasn’t good enough to beat an average club player.  I did play in one local USCF tournament in San Diego in the late 70’s, losing my first four games and only winning the fifth game because I was paired against someone who was apparently a weaker player than me.

The point?  What is your goal?  My goal is just to be a better player than I’ve been before.  In that regard I treated my return to chess as starting from scratch.  I had heard of pawn structure, backward pawns, doubled pawns, holes, etc., but I never really studied them in depth to know what they really meant or how to take advantage of them.  So I started playing the bots just to get back into it and maybe get a snapshot of where I was in terms of the bots.  But I feel like the only real way to measure progress is to play other people.  Like someone already mentioned, the bots occasionally throw in some really stupid blunders that even a lower rated player is not likely to make. 

A lot of people seem to see chess as a competition against their opponent and want to destroy them and climb as high as they can in their ratings.  My view is that I’m really competing against my own weaknesses and mistakes and that it’s those weak moves and mistakes that I want to destroy.  Defeating an opponent and pushing my rating higher is incidental to that.  So I prefer playing people because only that will give me a realistic view of where I am and what I need to work on.

I work full time and have a lot of things demanding my attention so I only play Daily games, one at a time, with a 3 day time limit.  That gives me time to analyze and make sure that when I do make a move, I understand why I’m making that move and what I’m trying to accomplish. (When the game is done, I use the chess.com analysis feature to see where and how my opponent and I went wrong.  It can be humbling.  Even with my best analysis, I still miss things.  But that’s how I will learn and hopefully get better.)  Blitz or bullet would be no help to me at this point, I’d just end up blindly pushing wood.  In conjunction with this, I’ve gone back to basics and am studying Seirawan’s “Play Winning Chess”, Pandolfini’s “Weapons of Chess”, and “Tactics Time” which are puzzles taken from club player level games, not Grandmaster level tournaments.  I try to do 2-3 puzzles each night as well as using the puzzles offered by chess.com.  There’s a wealth of material to be found here if you look for it.

And lastly, I checked out online reviews of openings I wanted to study and purchased a few books that seemed suitable for my level.  Not to do rote memorization (although some of that is necessary to recognize the main variations and what do about them), but to be familiar with overall strategy and goals of a particular opening so you know what you’re striving toward when the game goes off book. 

So whether I win or lose, playing people is key to my goals.  Whether they know it or not, they are teaching and helping me.

For anyone who feels nervous about playing a live opponent (a feeling I can relate to), I would recommend a Daily game with time controls that work for you, and at a level that’s within a hundred or so points of your current rating.

Good luck!      

AI is good to play against since they're usually pretty punishing. I can get sloppy since I tend to play faster 3 min / 10 min games with my evaluation and an AI usually whips me back into shape.