Walter Montego: I saw that you did this. I can't beat the SMIRF any more and yet I can hold my own against you. I'm confused.

You should not! What i do perfect is to play with anti-computer style! That obviously doesn't work well against humans....:-)


What I want to know is, what is this anti-computer play you talk of?

Well it is just one rule that you have to find the way to make it work over the board! Play moves that would result in a favourable position for you that goes beyond their horizon!
Easy to say yeah? Difficult to make of course....
What does this mean? Well my main strategy is to play Pawn moves at the opening and create a kind of position that limits the movement of the computer, WHILE i place at clever places and always in the side of the opponents King the more heavy pieces. At the same time there should be a closed center all the time! Most of the time i try to weak my other side(the side i don't place the heavy pieces)
and the computer tries to take advantage of it weakening it's King position and losing many tempo's for gaining material. That means if the development goes normally, (the computer can't attack my King since i preserve a good Pawn structure as i've said and a closed center) i would have a hidden attack. Hidden from the computer's search. Horizon effect! The rule i gave. Then i advance the Pawns on the opponents King side and the result is always the same.....

The games with Smirf was my too first Embassy Chess games so i didn't managed to understand the way to do it. My brain hasn't worked the patterns for this game for obtaining an anti-comp strategy. But even this way, i've managed to create with white something similar to what i have said. And i would win easily if i would be a little more patient and didn't played a bad move(move 20). If i've waited 2 more moves then result would be much easier.

In my black game i didn't followed the afementioned procedure of anti-comp but of course followed the basic rule. I had prepared from move 3 only a Queen sacrifice for an Archbishop that Smirf didn't accepted! I was impressed by Smirf at that point!
If Smirf accepted it would be positionally lost although i would have given my Queen for the Archbishop. But game have more surpises for Smirf.
After some clever manoeuvres by me, we resulted in an endgame where i had an Archbishop against a Rook. Every human knows that this is better for the Archbishop side....But it was not easy. I have found a way to make it easy giving my Bishop with 35...Ke6!! So how can one play such move?
You play againt a computer. You give it material for free at a first glance. But you know that after Ad2+ Axb3 you would get 2 passed Pawns. Computer can't see this as it is many plies beyond its horizon! Our rule. So play it.....2 horses are too far away from the passed Pawns so....No computer can see that Bishop sacrifice.....!

So my anti-comp system is to play Pawn moves at the start blocking the position and keeping a closed center, bring heavy pieces in the side of the opponents King and wait, wait, keep your King safe, give the computer the chance to prevail in the other side of the board and then start the attack with Pawn pushes. As long as the center is closed with no fear to open and you have 3-4 pieces attacking at the King by means of be in the same side with him, the success is guaranteed.....
Closed center is easy for me to achieve at Gothic Chess but i find it more difficult to achieve at Embassy Chess maybe because i didn't managed yet to understand he game....Closed center means that whatever Pawn move the opponent makes (D,E,F,G Pawns the others are not any disturbing for us)
the center can't open.....


Does it work against human players?

Of course not! It might work against weak players but against strong it doesn't....Actually it worked against Caissus and Mely and Matarilevich when i played as Chessmaster1000 Gothic Chess and i was surprised by that.....!


How come the computer programmers don't keep such plans in mind while designing their programs?

It's not that easy to make a workaround to prevent anti-comp play, as it may seem..... Reinhard(author of Smirf) after i offered him 2 new Embassy Chess matches after i won 2-0 Smirf, told that he must modify Smirf before he can play against me again. And that this would take much time before it happens if it happens at all. This is sad for 2 reasons. Of course because i think Smirf has the potential to become a very good program, even more than it is now, and second because i just wanted to play 2 more games while now i have to wait so long.....Greg Strong(author of ChessV) after i defeated his ChessV 2-0, was very interesting on how i'm doing this and i've given him my way of thinking. He said that he would try to create a new ocncept of thinking at ChessV to think more like me....I haven't had any news from then....Ed Trice(author of Gothic Vortex) often mentioned that he has added many improvements to its King safety from Vortex games against me.
BUT still i have the impression that i will be able to beat all these programs for the next 2-3 years....

Does this work against the Backgammon programs?

No! In a game where luck comes to play too, this can't work! And also remember: While at Chess-type games humans are better in the positional area while comps at the tactical area, at Backgammon the exact opposite happens! So you can't outplay them at positional decisions.....Only on some technical decisions....


These neuronets you speak of for Backgammon, why aren't they used for Chess type games?

They have been used in some projects but they have completely failed to give a strong Chess engine!


And what about Dark Chess?

What about it? Neural nets can't be used there also as there are many difficulties on that. Even if someone succeed the result would not be good.....
Dark Chess has to be programmed by the usual computer Chess type algorithms. Alpha-beta/transpositions/iterative deepening, etc... Well that's how i plan to do it....But only after i program a Chess program first. So i'm afraid that you have to wait a bit more....:-)