Alan Turing, in the late 1940s, was the forerunner of artificial intelligence. During World War II he was famous because he cracked the encryption code of the Germans and their Enigma machine. Computer machines were his field of research. He wanted to create a machine that initially had a “brain” as a child and learned from experience.
He devised a test to determine if the solver was a computer or a human. Turing’s ordeal is becoming more and more difficult today. But do you know if you are playing chess against a machine or against a human being?
If you like playing against a computer, do not hesitate to consult the collection of electronic chess games on the world-of-chess.fr website.
Electronic chess game
Nowadays, it is not easy to identify the computer of a human playing chess. Programs are integrating more and more strategic ideas and are not based solely on their immense computing power. But they continue to make inhuman gestures and do not commit human errors. The latter would be the most obvious proof that you are dealing with a machine, the absence of errors.
Currently, the most powerful chess machines (modules) have an ELO over 3000. This means he could beat any human, including Magnus Carlsen. Already the competition between computers and people is insignificant. The legendary New York clashes between Kasparov and Deep Blue will not return.
Why play chess against the computer?
Most of today’s grandmasters rely on computers to analyze their games, including the powerful Chessbase database program. The most powerful programs deepen variations of any number of strokes in minutes. This is something that would take a real trainer hours to complete.
At a more modest level of play, computers are also very useful. This allows us to have a very good level rival at all times. In addition to this level, we can graduate it according to our needs. It is true that on online platforms we can play whenever we want with another human on the other side of the world. But we can’t play against players who are way above our level because the pairings are done by “Ranking”.
Computers allow us to do analysis at the end of the game and even during the game. This is very useful because we can correct movements during training and it allows us to study openings in depth.
As you probably know, all computer programs numerically assess whether you are better or worse. This type of machine evaluation is not foolproof. But with very powerful motors, it has to be taken very seriously. If what we see is an end, you can be sure of it. Nobody matters more than a computer.
Computers, as we have already said, do not make mistakes. This quality of their game allows us to train in very difficult situations. Faced with a machine, we must do our best without expecting gifts in return. And for our part, we must not make any mistakes either, so as not to be massacred.
So we see that playing chess against the computer has many advantages and, as we will see, some disadvantages.
On the Chess.com platform, you can play against the computer without even registering. You can scale the level of the machine from 0 to 9 according to your level. It’s not a very powerful machine but it’s very easy to access and shows you a game rating. It can also show you possible threats and moves if you want. It is also completely free. If you sign up with your email address, you can play online against humans from all over the world.
