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365 points lawrenceyan | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.217s | source
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tzs ◴[] No.41874291[source]
OT: what's the state of the art in non-GM level computer chess?

Say I want to play chess with an opponent that is at about the same skill level as me, or perhaps I want to play with an opponent about 100 rating points above me for training.

Most engines let you dumb them down by cutting search depth, but that usually doesn't work well. Sure, you end up beating them about half the time if you cut the search down enough but it generally feels like they were still outplaying you for much of the game and you won because they made one or two blunders.

What I want is a computer opponent that plays at a level of my choosing but plays a game that feels like that of a typical human player of that level.

Are there such engines?

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1. LanceH ◴[] No.41876292[source]
A long time ago I had the Fritz engine from chessbase. It had a sparring feature where if you maintained good play it would give up a tactical puzzle in the middle of the game. It could either warn you or not. If you didn't play solidly enough, you would just lose.

As far as I can tell, they got rid of this feature. It was the only computer opponent that felt real. Like it made a human mistake when put under pressure, rather than just playing like a computer and randomly deciding to play stupid.