HOW TO BEAT YOUR CHESS COMPUTER
There are a lot of ways to beat a chess computer, all based on playing to
your own strengths as a human while capitalizing on the computer's well
publicized weaknesses.
First, there's the “general” method. Chess engines love wide open
positions with lots of mobility for the pieces, and the danged programs
can always be counted upon to crush you tactically in just such positions.
So the first thing you need to do is keep the position closed. Keep the
central pawn position locked up and avoid exchanging off those center
pawns; openings that start with 1.d4 are especially good for this. It's even
easier if you've studied strategy and positional chess, since computers
tend to stink at long-range planning. Block the center to keep the
computer cramped, then use your positional knowledge to maneuver,
maneuver, maneuver, getting your pieces (especially your Knights) to
good squares.
After you've ensured that the center will stay blocked (especially if the
chess engine has moved a lot of its pieces to the Queenside), wait for
the computer to castle Kingside (which it will do most of the time, unless
its opening book directs otherwise), and then launch a Kingside pawn
storm straight at the opposing King. Make sure your pawns are backed
up by your heavy pieces. This is especially effective if you've studied
pawn structures and other general pawn play.
After the breakthrough, when files are opened, swarm in with your heavy
pieces and checkmate the silicon monster.
It's that simple. I know average club players who can do this at will
against many chess engines, especially older programs. In recent years,
programmers have improved their engines so that this technique isn't the
“insta-win” that it used to be, but it can still be pretty effective.
There are more complex ways to beat your computer. If the chess
program you bought gives you the ability to look at the engine's opening
book (also known as the opening tree), you might be able to discover a
“hole”, a variation which is bad for the computer but which (due to an
oversight on the programmers' part) the engine will always play. I can still
remember when a 1300 Elo player found just such a bad variation in the
opening book of an early version of the Fritz program. After 1.d4, Fritz (as
Black) would invariably fall into this same hole, which allowed the human
player as White to block the center, launch the Kingside pawn storm, and
win (exactly as I described earlier). I checked the opening book and, sure
enough, there was a hole. The next version of Fritz fixed the hole, and the
version after that added a feature which made the engine stop playing
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