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"The robot is going to lose. Not by much. But when the final
score is tallied, flesh and blood is going to beat the damn monster."
-Adam Smith
Comparison of Computers and Humans with respect to Chess!
| Characteristics | Computers | Humans |
| Weaknesses | Horizon effect Power cuts Bad heuristics Pawn grabbing |
Too much alchol, Lack of sleep Bad opening preparation Emotional swings Mortality |
| Average weight | Varies from a few stone to several tonnes (in the case of Deep Blue) | generally under 18 stone. |
| Emotions | None, but will soon simulate by electronically laughing at your moves. Fritz 4 is becoming a bit of a cocky program. | Excited when winning, Annoyed when losing. Can also simulate to trick opponent (if opponent is not a computer). |
| Calculating speed | Millions of moves a second | A few moves a second. |
| Appreciation of aesthetics | None | Pleased when getting attractive looking positions, when pieces are coordinated, and harmonious. |
| Usage of numbers | Used extensively to assess and compare chess positions. Alpha-beta pruning is a popular technique used in chess playing programs. |
Limited to calculation of grading points, and prize money. Sometimes also used to count pawns. |
| Experience of fear/ worry / nerves | None | Sometimes concerned when playing much stronger players or uncomfortable with the position which came out of the opening. |
| Plan formulation | From the "bottom up" - i.e. from looking at millions of variations and then giving the impression of having thought a strategic plan through the normal "top-down" route when the moves produced seem "centralised" by a well conceived plan. | From the "top down" - Position generally assessed, and then plan formulated based on this assessment. Implementation generally checked by calculating a few variations. |
| Effect of observers | None | Can become conscious of observers |
| Feelings about moving pieces twice when they could have been moved once. | If the number assessment is high enough, the computer will "swallow its pride" and not care about the history of its previous moves. | Feeling of stupidity inhibits making what could possibily be the best move- the history of the game therefore has a bearing. |
| Tiredness thresholds | None- as long as there is electricity there is untiresome calculation. | Towards the end of a long game/ match, tiredness can creep in. |
| Use of "experience" | To train heuristic function | To form concepts about the game. |
| Improvement curves made possible by | Better, faster hardware; Evaluation function improvement. | Practice and study. Losing to stronger players sometimes helps. |
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