is playing against the bots good practice?

👍

i've now beaten every bot rated 2600 (GM strength according to play bots--> engine) & below on challenge mode (no hints or takebacks) with no timer.

i had a low opinion of playing bots before starting this side project, but i've changed my mind after finding out how tough the 2500+ bots are & how miniscule their mistakes become. i feel as though my playing strength has increased due to being forced to play extremely accurately to avoid being crushed.

the key to benefitting from this practice is to really take your time (even daily games have a time limit whereas these do not!) & try to discover the best plans & responses on each & every move.

Awesome technical_knockout! Now time to play the engine bot at level 23 at regular time control. 60 minutes.. I bet if you can regularly beat that level or maybe beat it 10 times in a row, you will be super strong!!!

nope gonna keep defeating as many bots as possible by rating order... lasker bot (2640) is next in line. 🥷🏼

other ideas: you can turn the chat off, play unrated, turn on 'focus mode' to avoid seeing your opponent's rating & i think you can even set it so that only your friends can message you.

i find the best way to conquer a fear is to face it, though. i've played plenty of games & most people aren't rude... and if they are i just rise above & say: "hey thanks for playing... have a great day!" 😁

YES!

Too short

Take the latest version of Stockfish, beat it 10 times in a row, and you are done.

If you manage to beat Stockfish 17 10-0, you will become chess champ.

Stockfish teaches you 10 times better and more accurately next to any other human chess coach.

Why rely on chess coach for knowledge, when chess coaches are at 2500 elos, Stockfish at 4000 elos?

One way or another they will teach you wrong.

Several different themes here:

What type of play helps you learn and improve? Those who strongly discourage playing bots may have advanced beyond the point where they find them useful - or their learning style may improve with the time differences between bots and humans.

What is your motivation to improve? Those who are motivated by competition probably might not get the same satisfaction from a bot, in the long-run.

What type of play is most enjoyable? I'd pay most attention to this one.

Cheating. It doesn't bother me because I'm just playing to learn. If someone uses a bot or other means to defeat me, then I lost to a smarter bot-human combination. I'm never going to be a grand master. Hell, my max potential is probably 1400-1600, and I doubt I have the self-discipline to reach that. That's not why I'm playing.

How much do you value of reviews/explanations? Quick, unsolicited play for Chessable's free guides, which I found somehow through Chess.com. They are awesome, in my view - and they have a "human feel", but ultimately what you see on the board and the moves you try are all playing "against a bot" - just a both with explanations. Playing the Chess.com bots, even for cheapos like me who can't use them 24/7, comes with the ability to review one match per day, and the reviews are much more valuable to me than playing an anonymous human, where interactions are limited. While the reviews don't have quite the same "human feel" as a Chessable guide (top marks for Smithy's Opening Fundamentals), they are still very good and have been helpful to me. Likewise, when you do puzzles, you're playing against a bot some of the time and against another human in a bot-driven contest in others.

</two cents worth>

I'm starting right now and playing with bots give me confidence and a little bit of chess vocabulary.

Doesn't seem as fun playing against bots. When a bot makes a blunder, its only cause the algorithm programmed it to.

@bullet_308 - fair point, but I would find it fun to play Smithy Q, for example, even though he could kick my butt, but because he very likely would try to make just enough mistakes to keep me in the game, to lead me to learn more. Or he might do that if I asked nicely. That's more or less how I think it works when I'm working through his tutorials.

That's more or less how some great teachers exercise their students' minds. When I've encountered those teachers, they have shown me mistakes that they "programmed" into their lessons. As a teacher, I've done the same at times. Leading someone to work through mistakes - whether their own or others' - its one of the basic learning paradigms for our brains.

I'm not suggesting you "should" have as much fun playing against bots, just that you might find it interesting to think about why and how the bot is programmed the way it is.

Jsjs