Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Tough as Nails





















After the 1,623 FICS 0/4 bullet games since July and surprising myself (but probably none of you!) by only taking a single days rest, after taking a peak at BDK’s recent ICC history and seeing his playing wimpD and knowing that Blunderprone had been playing this similar engine or (C) at ICC repeatedly, and even watched him do so now and again, I found myself thirsting for more chess blood and proceded there to see what ‘it was all about’.

I just played 237 2/8 blitz games against 'wimpB, an enhanced Crafty Engine' Designed to play at a skill level 'between 1600 and 1800' elo 'for players below 2100 elo'.

I won 71, lost 145, and drew 21 games for those 237 games, concluding with a blitz rating of 1509, or up exactly 200 elo from what I now call the Vicodin rating, when I started playing at ICC again, a year ago, on painkillers from a broken rib and the surgery on my right elbow for the ulnar neuropathy or numb right hand. That is an increase of +200 elo while ONLY winning 29.96% of the games. Anyone here want to try this?? This amounts to roughly 22 games a day for 11 days. Wew.

I am as balanced in my study as I have been ever, at chess, at once analyzing games with Fritz between fine cooking not far from this desktop or while half watching or listening to foodTV, The Discovery Channel, or of course the ceaseless CNBC Financial News Network ‘round the world’.












I focus a lot more on endgame key positions, often at great depth, and sometimes of course, openings now. What is lost in breadth is made up in depth, at this time. I can do one postition for hours this way.

My next step is to deeply study those games, and as Blunderprone and I agreed in email exchanges on this subject, wimpB at class C+ and emergent B- is an excellent tool for rounding out an at times somewhat predictable opening repertoire (that is to say, in playing aginst the program or oppositions predictable but relatively error free tabiyas or 'opening book').

Lastly, not being sure where to start, I did try wimpD and it was too silly, quickly tried wimpC and it too wasn’t strong enough, and after three games, I think it was, found my match. Thereupon it hit me that blunderprone was playing only the B form, and those three games to start were with the wrong engine. :)

I would play a wimpA if it existed but does not, nor after so many bullet games need I play JSBach despite it’s higher threshold, but it requires 3/3 and that is just too close to home. I have my eye ball on standard games, but now need a few hundred 2/12’s against more human fare, to say the least, using this for transition from 0/4 for sure. I might investigate StrongBach (C) at a latter time, but not sure if it will play 2/12 [1].

And very, very lastly, I hasten to repeat, my work now is to do a LOT of analysis with some play, in complete reversal of tons of play with some or scant analysis. I must for the next month or two see if I can make my ratio of analysis to play more like 3:1 or 5:1, not 1:30! Good day to all of you. Warmest, dk


















[1.] The rub is this: you cannot just say that StrongBach is 1600 or 1800, etc, but depends on the time frame--OBVIOUSLY. The is the charm of wimpB. It only plays 2/8, and is optimized for specific performance at the prescribed level. It surely can throw odd moves, crazy moves, but it rarely blunders except in its rare random move generator. It can also play like 2000 elo and just mow you down. Really.

12 Comments:

Blogger drunknknite said...

Nice. You certainly play a lot of games. I play like 10 and I have to stop because I want to look at the positions. I'm too easily distracted sometimes. Good point on CNBC, too, I could leave that on all day (except Deal or No Deal, I can't stand that mindless show). On to 1600!

Tue Nov 20, 11:08:00 AM PST  
Blogger transformation said...

damn. you got that right!

i HATE deal or no deal. i turn it off. i admit that, at times, i have left it on, so involved in a game or opponent or position or cooking, that i forget--honest--to turn it off, it irritatingly running in the background, and i hate it, but dont want to stop.

yes, limits or ten or six is much better, but, for YEARS ALL i did was study and not play much, so needed to bootstrap my 'practical' experience.

warmest, dk

Tue Nov 20, 11:51:00 AM PST  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Nice work DK! It would be really interesting to see some of your analysis work of your games here. Will you be posting some in the future?

Tue Nov 20, 12:36:00 PM PST  
Blogger tanch said...

My congratulations on your ratings improvement, dk! Well done! :)

Tue Nov 20, 03:44:00 PM PST  
Blogger drunknknite said...

I'm the opposite, when I was younger I refused to study and played all the time. When USCL first came out I was on it constantly. I have the handle MrChess, which is sweet. Then I started studying and I get in a game and I just want to go back and look at all the neat lines.

Tue Nov 20, 04:39:00 PM PST  
Blogger transformation said...

thank you happy hippo.
----------------------
ive not forgotten you, and promise to come by soon, but have been between utter crazyness at my work place (not so much the two mutual areas of 'operations', or 'finance' as in emotionally!

as for improvment, ive off and on 1600 for a while, but not at icc, and simply need to recover it. i had 78 games on strong medication last year, and i fell like a stone.

as for a true rating, whatever it is, i am well below its true range. game or puzzle or not, i qame inches from 2300 elo at CT-Art 3.0 without any hints or resources to any tricks, just sit and grind. my technical ability is well over my playing level, which is why, to begin with, i had to play so many thousands of games to push myself into battle.

i am very, very, very type A. driven mother. personally and professional and with self. so play is to 'take on tension', as the gurus language it, and study in lieu of play ALWAYS AMELIORATED that. but now its time to get the two in syn, pracitcal play with theoretic knowledge.

kevin
-----------------
thank you. same comment as above!

i am very appreciative of your fresh and sincere comments, and a visit from you is a good day. promise quid pro quo in days ahead, when i get time off.... home for lunch now, so gotts to runs nows.

is USCL an alternative you prefer over FICS, ICC, or playchess? why there, sir? respectfully asked!

warmest, dk

Tue Nov 20, 06:22:00 PM PST  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dear David,

I know those kinds of days well. They happened to me a lot during tournaments. Sleep is vital!

Good luck on getting your rating points back! The ICC trembles.

Smile.

Yasser

Tue Nov 20, 06:26:00 PM PST  
Blogger Temposchlucker said...

I'm always more inclined to study. Even when playing unrated games at the club I'm always experimenting. I'm not very competetive at all. Which all too often is the cause of a draw. Luckily my style of play isn't drawish.

Tue Nov 20, 07:26:00 PM PST  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Fine cooking, huh? How many other chess bloggers double up with high-level cuisine as a second interest? (Derek instantly comes to mind.)

The numb right hand: chronic or temporary (hopefully the latter)?

Re: balance in chess. So many people have different ideas as to the best routine type. And what's optimal must different for everyone. I believe in throwing a bit of everything together, and hope some skill increase sticks.

Happy Thanksgiving, etc.

Wed Nov 21, 09:56:00 AM PST  
Blogger transformation said...

liquid egg:
-----------------

early on in my computing usage, i made a decision to use my right hand for the mouse, and am lefty. big surprise to anyone??? this was to keep my L hand for finer work, and wear must occur, let it be the right! im glad i did this.

i already had the surgery.

but a year ago, had to go to my left, to save the right, before and after the surgery.

now my left is starting to bother me. most folks have a muscle that splits over the elbow, i am now told, but mine did not, so they split it and thus decompressed the nerve. $10,000+ (mostly insurance).

i couldnt start my car, or turn the key on my Saab, is how bad it got. now my R is as strong or stronger than my L.

i did see these same hand surgeons 4 years ago, as my L arm bothered me, and no diagnosis, just exercises. in retrospect, my L elbow is probably covered, but not as bad, for sure.

so now i switch back and forth. i believe which hand i use, in blitz and bullet, not as regards speed but in brain functioning greatly effects my chess thinking, as has been proven in tests done on retarded persons, in the brain bifurcation or Bicameral mind discussion, of Julain Jaynes, is it...

the nerve in my right arm, forever, will be sensative, but aught not to cause problems, but the right hand comes and goes, but way better than it was.

i sense that i must pace my typing, and inhibits email and blogging, in that i must decide when and where to tax myself.

of course, i need improved better ergonomic set up ...

lastly, i am 100% certain, and as confirmed by my holistic doc:

'David, i am not saying your dont need the surgery [i did] but your problem is further up'...

quite certain my neck contributes! remember, i am an architect, so 20 years at a drawing board, bending over... then dialing the phone with my right hand for 8 years as a broker, THEN 44,000 CTS and 4,000 chess games with my right hand...

yikes. i am negotiating these options as we speak, but this further 1. invites me to a lot less blitz, 2. more standard or rapids 25/10 etc, or 3. a lot more book work, to get off the pc, which, of course i must use to discuss why excess use hurt me!

warmest, dk

Wed Nov 21, 01:16:00 PM PST  
Blogger transformation said...

liquid egg, addendum:
---------------------

chess foodies. yes, i considered a career as a chef when i left wall street.

i dont consider myself as particularly gifted there, but competent, but elected not to go to culinary school, feeling (and correctly i believe) then as i do now,

that the last thing i needed was yet another competitive career, as again, i am very, very, very 'type A' and simply 'dont know where to stop alf the time'. i felt that if i went down that road, i had to become the best, and decided i could do it better working my way up (i'm a good self learner [Architecture, Chess, Japanese, Stocks, Food) instead of school.

which is precisely why ive not gone to law school. i feel that i should be teaching college, not GOING to college.

but, if i could 'have my druthers' would be fighting major corporations, on the other side as it were, and feel that most of them need a bad flogging, and to be punished, for many misdeeds in labor, employement, environmental, and finance.

id almost do it without pay, for sport, but, alas, at age 49.2 dont have it in me to go to school again, or a SECOND set of rigourous professional exams.

39 hours, over four days to become an architect ...

(includes final exam on day four, of a 12 hour total building exam test in one sitting, where TO START, YOU MUST READ A 10 PAGE PROGRAM guide booklet, to comprehend the project requirements, in detail, including square footage, egress, code, access, special equipment, site restrictions, etc) ...

no breaks, and then 'The Series 7' exam over 6.5 hours of multiple choice on stocks, options, bonds, fudiciary regulations, and finance or 100 seconds per question, if i recall correctly. the hiring investment firm gives you two months to prepared, on site, fully paid to study for 12 hours a day, and you are IMMEDIATELY terminated if you dont pass the first time.

their assumption is that if you dont pass the first time, since they test for IQ and personality test (Minessota Personality Inventory Test) already and know you can more than attain the 75% result, that you

'lacked sufficient application' to do what it takes to become a broker, and of course, most of us pass, but not without great effort and travail.

lastly, why yes, i had found Derek at The Resssembler long before ANYONE ELSE HERE had found him, and we do have this in common, that is to say love of fine cooking.

But i must cook low fat, which limits my choices innormously.

warmest, dk

Wed Nov 21, 05:22:00 PM PST  
Blogger likesforests said...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thu Nov 22, 12:17:00 PM PST  

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