Take a look at this game, between ChessCarpenter and myself, played on the CowPlay.com website at the end of 2004:

http://www.gothicchess.org/gotm_2004_10/game.htm

Now fast forward to my 14th move as black.

14...h5 looks to be an error as it lets my knight
be taken. It looks like I gave up my knight for "no reason".

This was a strategic trap to bait the white
archbishop to attack in a sector of the board where it would soon be out of play and useless.

While still down material, I was able to open up the center and get his king in trouble. No matter how he decided to deal with my advanced pawn, taking it would spell disaster, and not taking it only delayed the invevitable.

This type of "look ahead thinking" is far beyond the search horizon of a computer. In fact, if you replay some of ChessCarpenter's moves as white, Gothic Vortex will make similar moves, taking the material (my knight) without understanding the "big picture".

Vortex thought white was winning from move 14 onward, and I would play that position against any program on the planet and be able to win it.

Again, I mention this because some people's posts on here seem to think I use Gothic Vortex when I play on here. Nothing is farther from the truth.

At fast time controls, like game in 10 mins or faster, Vortex kills me. At time controls slower than game in 2 hours, there is no program that can win against ANY strong willed player of skill.

This has been well documented in the chess playing community for decades. Strong correspondence players still outperform computers.