Patrick wrote:
First off, I don't play against people. I know that may sound weird,
but I'm a noncompetitive kind of guy, and I have no interest in beating
people or being beaten by them. I do all my chess playing against a
computer AI.
I don't know about others, but I feel that playing people gives far more
diversity in games. If you don't want to sit over a board, I think
playing online chess might be a decent compromise. Also, some opponents
will agree to analyse a game afterwards. That is helpful to both you and
your opponent.
Another big question right now is time controls. In tournament mode
(for rated games), it doesn't seem possible to have separate time
controls. I don't want to sit and wait a long time for the computer to
make its move, but I don't want to be under time pressure myself either
(I blunder enough without having to worry about that).
I've tried this, by forcing the computer to make moves quickly. I'm not
convinced it is a good idea though. Since you can make use of your
opponents time. For any given time control (say 30 minutes for all
moves), you will play better if you give the computer 30 minutes too,
since you will be thinking during its move.
I personally tend to blunder more when playing against a computer. I
concentrate far less than if playing a person.
I believe you would improve more if you played human opponents and
discussed the game afterwards with them. Even if you don't want to
discuss it with them, I still think you should play humans. It is pretty
anonymous over the internet, which may or may not be acceptable to you.
Computers are good to practice endgames if you have tablebases. Playing
to queen pawns, or defend against pawns being queen is well worth doing.
Without table bases though, chess computers can tend to be pretty
useless in the endgame.
--
Dave (from the UK)
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