Two issues ago in Chess EXTRAS I published, I believe, 4 such problems. Yes, they had solutions, but only in one case did a "chess engine" solve it. The problem with ALL chess engines is that sometimes they get locked into an idea like a bulldog chewing on your pant leg and they won't let go!
They were provided by GM Karsten Mueller. The one problem which was "solved" took more than 24 hours the others weren't close. How do you know when an "engine" can solve it? If you know the "solution" and you give the position a little rope (a "push") then the engine will often (not always) find it, eventually. If they get off the track from the first move, it will take them years (sometimes) to find the move because unless you have a computer which has terabytes of RAM it can't push and sort nor cajole. You end up with a board with pieces and no clear indication of what to do. This "horizon" type of effect has at this point meant that computers are not gods, though some people think they are.
Yes, those "unsolvable" positions were solved with HUMAN brains because they "intuited" what had to be done in order to "try something else."
TODAY
I am trying a new David vs. Goliath experiment in chess pricing. If you have not received a 5-page listing by this evening, send me your email address (and first and last name) and I will fire one to you... it's a SALE on Gambit's chess books. I hope you participate. I am trying to FIND a method of reaching chess players so that they will shell out some "I want to buy X" money. So my offerings are more dynamic than others who I swear never watch a DVD or read a book. Ever. They know zero about their products. There are many colleagues in this business (unfortunately) and all the time I find them to be weak players and who KNOW nothing about what they are selling. I wish I could describe them, with name, but then they would fire the employee or the employee's boss! Or go after me because they can't think of anything constructive.
I do not buy chess books from Amazon, ever. They list and depict books I have never heard of, books which haven't come close to being available yet, booka from idiot publishers, take your money and of course, make you wait. But it is WORSE than that. Recently I was looking for a particular business book and in one case it had one author on the cover and the other case it looked like the same book but it was edited by a different author but the same cover!! I wanted to make sure I got the "latest" book (edition). There was no descriptive copy to read. Other sellers created the same problem by having different editions, covers, etc. I did a lot of "thinking," chose what I thought "might" be the right one and ordered it. Thank God I got the right one, finally. It's too damn much "work" for them because on many book sales they are willing to lose money in order to get you to buy an electric razor, a computer, or something else. I can't talk more about it, it makes me crazy.
IN THE MEANTIME I RECEIVED, AS SUGGESTED...
new DVDs created by Simon Williams, the English GM who has done one on the Killer Dutch and one on the Killer French (2 vols.). I will be watching these over the next couple days. I've already been told they are great and I did watch a part of one online. So I am having high hopes. After all, the Dutch is a natural against QP openings and the French is so under-rated it isn't even funny! The French is sound, it is the player with the black pieces who isn't. How often have you heard of Korchnoi losing with the French? In fact, in the 1978 match in Manila, Korchnoi stymied, mightily, Karpov's French Tarrasch while no one else could.
Come to the Chess Clinic! Need details? Write me.
bob@thinkerspressinc.com
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