why does it feel like comp lvl 1 is only semi difficult for me.
Sort:
Its not just lvl 1 but lvl 2 too! I'm not a great chess player, but I'm not that bad. I can beat lvl one, but it confused me as to why a lvl 1 comp would not fall for traps or leave hanging pieces, in the end I scraped away with only a knight and pawns promoting and was able to mate. I thought maybe lvl 2 will only be slightly difficult, but it starts pulling sacrifices and ends up trapping me. Ik I'm probably bad for falling for a trap, but why is a lvl 2 comp making traps, when I read on the forums that even the lvl 5 comp leaves hanging pieces?
I doubt the comp is just creating traps by luck and I haven't even seen one hanging piece. I only played about 3 times on lvl 1 and 2 times on lvl 2 but I think that's enough to tell me that its not playing at the level it should be?
Sep 14, 2017
0
#3
It seems to play better the first time. I know that sounds dumb, but chess.com has other bugs. All the levels are the same engine, just set to calculate at different depths and blunder at different frequencies. Try resigning the first game after a few moves then play again to see how it does... but even level 1 is a very strong engine, so it will play the best move in the position at lest a few times during a 40 move game.
But especially if you're regarding it as if it were human, what you experience can be very different game to game. For example it might blunder 2 or 3 times in the opening, or it may play the opening like a master (not at level 1, but other levels do this). This is because the blunders happen on random moves. Sometimes you get unlucky and it plays a decent opening.
But at levels 1 and 2 it wasn't trapping you with sacrifices, it was just randomly blundering pieces. If it happened to checkmate you or get a stalemate, that's just you not paying attention. Next time save your game(s) and show us.
And yes, of course it isn't playing like a weak human e.g. leaving pieces undefended. Engines can't emulate humans, the way we play is fundamentally different. This is the main reason engines don't make good practice partners.