CHESS AND THE COMPUTER

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Since the advent of computer man has attempted, with varied degrees of success, to program electronic devices to play chess. Today's modern computers with their lightning calculating speeds and their vast solid state memories indeed do play chess.

 

Tournaments in which computers play computers are being held, and the best computer programs using the biggest and most powerful machines, are being pitted against each other. However, even with the advances of modern technology, contests between chess players and machines have proven man to be vastly superior.

The human brain possesses two miraculous attributes which set it apart from any machine, intuition and originality or creativity; no computing device no matter how sophisticated can boast of these capabilities.

The number of possible moves and counter moves in an average game of chess staggers the imagination. In an attempt to define this number the term googol has been created where a googol is a 1 followed by 100 zeros.

When a chess player ponders over a chessboard position, trying to decide on his next logical move, he does not consider each one of the googols of possible moves, countermoves and answers, he does not analyze exhaus­tively all possible chains of combinations as such task is beyond any man or machine.

The chess player draws on his recollection of proven principles of sound play and uses his intuition and creativity to intuitively discard all irrelevant and meaningless choices, concentrating his attention on only a handful of relevant and plausible moves, and from among these he selects his next play.

This instantaneous and intuitive narrowing down is not possible without intuition and creativity.

 

When a computer analyzes a chess position stored within its electronic memory, it is confronted with the same googols of possibles, and not having the ability of arriving at creative and intuitive solutions it must reach its decision by using the principles of sound play programmed into it, and comparing each and every possible move, countermove, and answer against those principles and against each other.

This task is so staggering that even the fastest and most powerful machine would require a memory larger than a city and it would take years to complete a game.

Thus a perfect chess playing machine is technologically not feasible at this time; and although a machine capable of holding its own with the best humans is theoretically possible, it is highly impractical due to the space, energy and millions of dollars it would require to build.

 

Spurred on by the desire to create a small and portable chess playing machine within the economic reach of the average chess player, It was necessary to compromise the quality of the game by limiting the size of the electronic memories and the allowable time to analyze the game; thus randomly discarding the vast majority of move choices.

 

The fruits of these efforts have been a few small electronic chess playing machines which dot the market, and more undoubtedly will be designed and produced.

All such devices however suffer from common shortcomings; they are expensive, in the $100 to $200 price range; they either take an inordinate amount of time for each move or they are only capable of a ludicrously low level of play denying any challenge to all but the most inexperienced beginner.

The few computers capable of fairly decent play are large machines which utilize sophisticated mass storage devices and whose $100,000 plus price tag places them outside the affordability range of the average chess player.

 

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THE CYBERCHESS   PRINCIPLE

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In order to create a chess playing machine which is small, simple enough to make it affordable and yet capable of playing superb chess; it was necessary to adopt the computer's ability of following a preprogrammed path and at the same time preserve the human brain's ability of intuitive and creative reasoning.

Certain compromises were necessary, but they were made where they detract the least from the game's integrity.

 

By limiting the computing time and memory size of an electronic machine the number of choices presented to the computer and requiring its analysis has not diminished, only its ability to reply has deteriorated.

 

CYBERCHESS   limits the actual number of moves presented to it by you the player thus limiting the number of required answers.

The moves discarded by a computer when it runs out of time and memory space, are discarded randomly, without consideration to their soundness and plausibility.

The moves discarded from your consideration by CYBERCHESS   are discarded by a human brain, the brain of a highly rates chess master, who has used his talent, intuition and creativity to preselect the most meaningful and plausible moves, for your level of play; and it is from among these moves that you make your next choice. Just as in a live game, the majority of the discarded moves would have been intuitively discarded by you anyway.

The compromise of not allowing you the whole range of all possible moves and variations is more than amply compensated by skillful chess analysis coupled with a method of presentation which faithfully preserves the challenge, thrill, penalty/reward characteristics and playing ability require­ments of a chess game.

 

CYBERCHESS   programs are carefully designed by a chess master; they are checked, verified and tested; and, when used with the CYBERCHESS   machine, they will require your concentration and judgment and will offer you the total submersion to the exclusion of everything else, experienced by chess players.

In an actual game of chess if your opponent is much stronger than you, you will lose very fast. If you set CYBERCHESS   to play at a much higher level than your own, your loss will be as imminent.

In a live game you would quickly defeat an opponent much weaker than you. You will defeat CYBERCHESS   as quickly if set to play at a level much below yours.

A chess game starts evenly before the first move, but soon changes to lost or won or fluctuates back and forth as each opponent makes moves consistent with his skills. Playing against CYBERCHESS   will recreate the above condition exactly.

Many a game has gone from lost to won or won to lost as a losing position elicited a higher level of concentration or a winning position invited careless play. The same holds rigorously true when playing CYBER-CHESS.

In a game against a live opponent you only win if you do not make any major blunders, play better than he and checkmate him before he mates you. Again the same holds true with CYBERCHESS  .

You cannot win a chess game by playing your moves at random. Selecting moves at random against CYBERCHESS   will also invariably end in your defeat.

 

 

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CYBERCHESS   AND YOUR RATING

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CYBERCHESS   can be played at 8 levels and each higher level is more difficult than the preceding one.

At its lowest level CYBERCHESS   play can be compared to that of a beginner who knows the moves but does not formulate plans and who has been playing a very short time.

At its highest level CYBERCHESS   demands knowledge, coordination and precision worthy of a master.

It is impossible to establish an exact comparison between CYBERCHESS   levels and an established rating like that of the United States Chess Federa­tion (USCF) for instance; however, a very approximate parallel can be drawn and when done so, it becomes very useful in your initial determination of the level of play.

The following chart attempts to correlate CYBERCHESS   levels to USCF ratings.

It is only an approximation and it may vary not only from level to level but from game to game within the same level, as no two chess games or opponents are exactly alike.

CYBERCHESS   LEVELS            APPROXIMATE USCF EQUIVALENT

Beginner Amateur                                    Below 1200

Intermediate Amateur                              1200-1350

Advanced Amateur                                  1350-1500

Top-Rated Amateur                                 1500-1650

Beginner Professional                              1600-1750

Intermediate Professional                         1750-1900

Advanced Professional                             1900-2050

Top-Rated Professional                            2050-2200

As you play CYBERCHESS,  you will soon find your proper level of play and the above guide will be unnecessary to locate your level.

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IMPROVING YOUR GAME WITH CYBERCHESS 

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CYBERCHESS   is inherently designed to improve your game not only by allowing you to play more often and anytime you wish, but by exhibiting certain characteristics which cause you to play better almost naturally and effortlessly.

As you play regularly against CYBERCHESS   you will soon notice that the present level of play becomes easier and you start winning games at levels which previously meant a certain loss. You will be pleasantly surprised as these enhanced abilities will begin to manifest themselves in actual live play.

You will start recognizing certain bad moves, be able to see deeper into a combination, you will instinctively select better moves and gain new familiarity with openings, defenses and lines of play.

This learning is a slow and almost unnoticeable process, however, it is there; and the following paragraphs will allow you to use the machine's inherent teaching features to the fullest.

 

CYBERCHESS   teaching process operates through 2 very strong principles: a continuous numerical indication of what is ahead, acting as a strong motivator to concentrate and analyze more carefully; and an instantaneous reinforcement through punishment/reward, acting as a powerful memory engraving tool.

 

As you play a game against CYBERCHESS  , each time you advance, you expose a positive number in the level window, which you add on the status dial. This number is an indication of the difficulties lying ahead in selecting the right move. The higher this number the harder it will be to find the correct move, and consequently you should make an extra effort to find it, as the penalties you may incur could swing the status dial deep into the losing side.

Each time you select and verify a move, you expose a reward or penalty which is an indication of how good or bad the move is:

A rating of +1 or 0 means you have chosen well; the move is very good although not the right one.

A rating of -1 is not bad, but it is not the best move. You cannot lose a game by constantly choosing - 1 rated moves.

A rating of - 2 or higher indicates bad moves, and the higher the negative number the worse the move. These are the losing moves.

A move rated X is a disastrous move, you will not forget it easily as it ends the game abruptly. It is not very likely that you will hit X moves unless you are not concentrating, playing at random or playing extremely above your level.

CYBERCHESS   can help to develop some positive insights into the game.
However, it does that through repetitive play through all levels of difficulty and requires a thorough exploration of the reasons for not selecting the bad moves. 
The approach used in CYBERCHESS   keeps the concentration level up and forces you to study the score to a greater degree than you would have in just reviewing the game on your own with the cryptic notation generally supplied as comments by most chess analysts and editors.