Saturday
Jun292013
Open Thread, With A Question
Saturday, June 29, 2013 at 12:19AM
We haven't done one of these in a while, but as it went well last time it's time for another open thread. Ask or introduce whatever topic you like on a chess-related matter (using due civility, naturally), not just of me but of the entire reading audience.
In fact, I'll start with a question of my own. What book(s) and/or website(s) have you found most helpful to help you maximize the use of your chess engines?
Reader Comments (9)
The only resource I use in conjunction with my engine is the Nalimov tablebases. When analyzing and it gets to 6 pieces or less no need to see Houdini's eval, the table bases are 100% accurate.
Are there other resources I should be aware of that could assist my engine?
[DM: Thanks for the reply. I meant something like a book or article suggesting that one use this or that undervalued function like engine-engine shootouts, or that players set up training positions against their engines, etc. Training tips.]
How to identify typical endgames that arise out a Chess opening? How can we do this with help of Chess programs like Fritz?
hey Dennis, just wondering if you enjoy the games/style of Alekhine and whether you have any thought on how he come up with his outrageous concepts in seemingly harmless positions.
[DM: In a way it's unanswerable, because if it could be reduced to an algorithm it wouldn't be very creative at all. There are some general things all of us can do to improve our chances of finding surprising, creative ideas: examine the games of players like Alekhine (and Tal, Kasparov, Shirov and so on) who find "outrageous" tactical conceptions, cultivate an attitude of openness for "impossible" moves (further, actively search for them), look for traps the opponent might set and then see if "falling" for it might set a counter-trap instead, etc.
Don't forget though that great players aren't creative in the same ways. Alekhine could win technical masterpieces and Capablanca could triumph with a speculative attack, but neither way was each player's bread and butter. You can enhance your ability to be creative at the chess board, but in general the way that creativity manifests itself will be in keeping with your personality and chess strengths. If you play "Alekhinely", then training will help you to find such conceptions at your level of expertise, but if your play more closely resembles another player, you're likelier to be creative in the corresponding fashion.]
Neil Gershenfeld's text, The Nature of Mathematical Modeling.. :-) Actually seriously, thanks and props to the Arena GUI, TWIC, ChessBase database discs, and tablebase servers and sources.
[DM: Okay...but I'm not sure how this answers my query. (Not that it has to. :))]
Dennis, Your predictions for the world chess championship ? :)
[DM: Carlsen should win comfortably unless: (a) Anand strikes opening gold on multiple occasions, and/or (b) Anand starts playing like he did 3-6 years ago.]
Hi Dennis,
I've used to read Steve Lopez tips from www.chesscafe.
It's useful to learn a lot about many chess programs functionalities.
[DM: That's part of what I'm after - thank you!]
With regards to opening training I create a book of the variations I'm supposed to know.
Then I can play fritz at fast time intervals using that book and practice my openings. Once you get a few moves past your opening you might see some interesting things and you can watch fritz execute you for a memory lapse, hopefully helping you understand why the book move is made.
This probably isn't unique for training but I find it helps b/c I don't have a detailed read it and keep it kind of memory. I have to play it, play it, play it to make it automatic.
[DM: Good suggestions. Not exactly what I was asking about, but that's okay, it's good advice that people can use!]
In "Amateur to IM" Hawkins suggests to play out technical endgames against an engine. I followed his advice and it worked out pretty well. I can actually remember the ideas and variations that I found in numerous tries against Houdini much better than stuff I just played over. But I was to lazy to keep it up.
Other than that I don't remember any particularly helpful advice regarding the use of engines. Which might be a reason why I don't use them much.
On another note: I recently used a suggestion of yours, the counter-counter-sac g4 against the countersac b4 in the Schara-Hennig. ;-)
I didn't remember anything from the chessvideo, but my opponent didn't know it as well, so I got an open fight involving a queen sac by white. I was briefly lost when I miscalculated but in the end made a draw against a youngster rated a hundred points above me. So thanks for that.
[DM: You're welcome. I wouldn't recommend getting stuck on that opening though...bad things may happen if you're a sitting target.]
Your might be right. ;-)
But until now I made 2.5/3, three 30-move games, one of them a win against a guy rated 200 points above me ... so using the Schara-Hennig as a surprise weapon definitely made good things happen. Nevertheless, once it shows up in the databases I will probably switch to the Noteboom.
Which leads me to an interesting question: What do you think of the role of versatility in an opening repertoire?
[DM: As long as you don't flit from opening (line) to opening (line) before you develop a good understanding of each, it's an excellent idea. It makes it harder to prepare for you and, at least as importantly, you grow in your understanding of the game.]
I'm not a very theoretical player, I try to be able to play many positions and to always have an alternative variation up my sleeve. And it works pretty well for me. But many trainers recommend specializing (or being "principled" about openings) and I see a lot of players of my caliber who play very well in "their" structures (which makes me try to avoid those structures --> versatility: Two sides of one coin, really).