Humans Are Getting Better At Chess – Thanks to Computers
Alex Knapp, Contributor
8/10/2011 @ 12:09AM
A recent study suggests that there are more great chess players now than there ever have been – and that players continue to improve. The authors of the study noted and confirmed that the ELO rankings used to determine how good you are at chess have been stable over time — that is, unlike grades and health care costs, they haven’t seen any inflation. (Indeed, they may have seen a slight deflation.) Despite this, the number of high-ranked players is significantly higher:
In the 1970’s there were only two playerswith ratings over 2700, namely Bobby Fischer and Anatoly Karpov, and there were years as late as 1981 when no one had a rating over 2700. In the past decade there have usuallybeen thirty or more players with such ratings. Thus lack of inflation implies that those playersare better than all but Fischer and Karpov were.
The authors don’t suggest a mechanism, but if I were to guess, I’d suggest that the reason for this has to do with competitive chess software and online play. When you can play chess on the computer, you don’t have to waste time setting up the board, finding other players, or anything else. The net result is that in the same amount of time, you can more games under your belt. Moreover, a lot of chess software will analyze your games for you and allow you to record them so you can examine your own play. All of these factors, I suggest, lead to a greater number of people having superior chess expertise.
What’s really fascinating about this is that if humans continue to perfect their games by practicing against computer opponents, it may be that humans catch back up to the best AI programs. It’ll be interesting to check out a game between a Grand Master and the best software in ten years’ time if the trend of stronger play continues. Between more practice playing computers, more games played, and the ability of the Internet to improve the collaborative study at chess, computers may end up having trouble competing with humans.
Source: Forbes.com
We all need this tech.
To say this means not having studied the problem in depth.
(IMHO)
Best regards
Stef
Hi Susan Polgar,
Well,I am always of the opinion that human beings are much wiser than machine and I believe that the same will prevail in century’s to come.
At least till,self learning and upgrading skill,machine comes to existence.
Having said this,it will be unfair,if skipped to say that practicing chess,with chess software,really tunes the mind stronger,which in turn,fine tunes the mind to over take machine.
As of now,chess software algorithm is just a representation of the team of developer’s wisdom,which means other team /individual can handle it,in their style.
Conclusive,men are wiser than machines,which means God’s creation is wiser than Human’s creation. Will be so always.
By
Venky [ India – Chennai ]