A GAME ANYTIME YOU LIKE:
PLAYING WITH A CHESS ENGINE
Some books about computer chess go to great lengths in discussing
Internet chess sites, places where you can play chess online; this book
won't be one of them. This omission is deliberate, as online play at its
core isn't terribly different from face to face chess – subtract the players'
faces, substitute a 2D representation of a chess set, use a mouse instead
of your hand, and it's pretty much the same.
Likewise I'm not going to go into minute detail about how to play a game
against your chess software program. The first thing everybody does
within five minutes of finishing the installation of a chess program is play
a game with the danged thing. I did it, you did it, there's no point in
mentioning that you can play chess with a chess program. What I want to
do is show you how to better use your chess program's playing functions.
Right off the bat I'll tell you that it is completely pointless to play against a
chess engine at its full strength (unless you're a master or grandmaster).
Unless you use one or more of the well-publicized “anti-computer” tricks
(which is, again, pointless when it comes to your development as a
player), when you play against a chess engine at its full bore strength,
you lose. Many programs offer to let you limit a chess engine's strength
by setting casual time levels like “5 seconds a move”. If you're an average
club level player, you'll still lose – at five seconds a move, most chess
engines running on current (the year 2012 as I write this) hardware will
look ten to sixteen plies (five to eight full moves) ahead within one second
of the time they start their analysis.
So why would you want to buy a mega-strong chess engine if the infernal
thing is just going to tear your head off in a straight-up game? For its
analysis features, of course, which we'll learn about later.
This book is not about “how to beat your chess computer”. There are
plenty of those books around, and most of them are a waste your money
being as the point of owning a chess computer isn't to beat it, but to use
it as a tool. But, for those who would be disappointed if I don't at least
mention the topic...
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