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Computer Misevaluations
by
Kelly
Atkins There’s something about chess-playing
programs such as Deep Blue, Fritz, Shredder, and Chessmaster that fascinates
us human chess players. We love to have them as training & playing partners,
but fear that they’ll soon become so strong, that not even the best human
players will stand a chance against them. We follow the matches against them
by top players such as Kramnik and Kasparov the way other people follow the
World Cup or World series, fervently hoping that the human players will hold
the line against the ever-improving silicon monsters.
Undoubtedly, chess-playing programs have made huge strides over the past
decade or two, and the top programs play at high GM strength. They’ve always
been tactical monsters, but faster hardware and better programming has
allowed them to make enormous improvements understanding & application of
positional concepts, thus making them even stronger. Still, in spite of
their awesome ability to calculate variations flawlessly, attack
relentlessly, and defend tenaciously, they aren’t perfect by any means.
Despite the big improvements in most programs’ understanding of positional
play, there are some concepts that they still have trouble understanding and
applying. Give most programs an open position where they can calculate
combinations, and they’ll slaughter you. Put them in a very closed position
where there are no forcing lines to calculate, and their lack of positional
understanding will cause them to drift and underestimate their opponent’s
advantages and overestimate their own. They simply don’t have the ability to
understand certain concepts… yet!
Below is an exaggerated, but still accurate and instructive illustration of
what I’m talking about. Black, with a huge material advantage of two rooks
and a bishop, still can’t win. If you give this position to any
chess-playing program, even if you let it analyze the position for hours, it
will incorrectly evaluate it as Black having an overwhelming advantage due
to the extra material.
Black to move Nothing could be further from
the truth. Any average human chess player would need only a few seconds of
glancing at this position to realize that it’s an easy draw for White. With
the pawns completely blocked and Black having no way to force open lines to
get his pieces into White’s camp, Black has no way to put his extra material
to good use. He can’t even find a way to sacrifice a piece to break up this
impenetrable wall. In fact, this position is so easily drawn, that any
typical six year old child, with no previous chess knowledge, could be
taught in less than 30 seconds how to hold the draw against anyone, even the
world champion or the strongest program. All White has to do is shuffle his
king back & forth until the 50-move rule comes into play, while Black
gnashes his teeth!
What’s blatantly obvious to us humans, is simply beyond Fritz and his
brothers right now. As I mentioned above, none of them seem to understand
the truth about this position. They all see Black as having a won game. On
top of that, most of them (though not all) play …R5a6 here, throwing away
the only hope Black has of winning. Although Black can’t force the issue,
his only hope is to leave the rook on a5 and hope White is foolish enough to
capture it, which would allow Black to eventually force open a file and
invade down it for the win. A few of the programs recognize this - Shredder
6.02, among a few others, immediately discards the poor …R5a6.
Despite the fact that a few of the programs recognize that leaving the rook
at a5 is Black’s best bet, they all still think Black’s winning handily.
There’s still hope for us human players against the silicon monsters! |
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