Chess Tournament

[Levin]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

Who cares about chess. I bet the top 10 Risk players in the world are all American.

Who cares about Risk and Chess. I bet the top 100 Settlers of Catan players are American, even though the game was invented by a one Klaus Teuber of Deutschland.

My family is addicted to Settlers of Catan.

[Sleeping in EQ]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

Who cares about chess. I bet the top 10 Risk players in the world are all American.

Indeed. And exactly like the arguments used to dismiss soccer.

[MikeWaters]

if the game doesn't use dice, then Americans aren't interested.

[Sleeping in EQ]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

if the game doesn't use dice, then Americans aren't interested.

Dice or cards. And most of the game books Americans will read are about about Poker or 21. Dice and Cards are All-American. They feel a bit like the Wild West. The Nevada Casinos tapped into this right away.

[MikeWaters]

Btw, I was reading that computer programs, for the game "Go", can only achieve "intermediate amateur" status.

Whereas computer programs in chess are better than the best human.

Seems to me that we should be moaning about the lack of Go in America, not Chess.

[Sleeping in EQ]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

Btw, I was reading that computer programs, for the game "Go", can only achieve "intermediate amateur" status.

Whereas computer programs in chess are better than the best human.

Seems to me that we should be moaning about the lack of Go in America, not Chess.

The best computer programs for chess have always relied on humans. Their colossal openings databases have been filled with human games. The Deep Blue IBM teams, and the subsequent computer teams, have employed the world's leading experts to stylize the program against a particular opponent. Deep Blue was fashioned to play Kasparov. The most recent computer-human match had Nick de Firmian--the editor of the Encyclopedia of Chess Openings and the world's leading authority on the subject--heading up the computer's team. These contests have never been pure machine vs. man.

But why is how good computers are some kind of valid criterion? Oh yea, it isn't.

[MikeWaters]

Originally Posted by Sleeping in EQ

The best computer programs for chess have always relied on humans. Their colossal openings databases have been filled with human games. The Deep Blue IBM teams, and the subsequent computer teams, have employed the world's leading experts to stylize the program against a particular opponent. Deep Blue was fashioned to play Kasparov. The most recent computer-human match had Nick de Firmian--the editor of the Encyclopedia of Chess Openings and the world's leading authority on the subject--heading up the computer's team. These contests have never been pure machine vs. man.

But why is how good computers are some kind of valid criterion? Oh yea, it isn't.

Are you trying to say that humans don't program the Go-playing computers?

Which game is the more elegant, better game?

I say Go is.

[Sleeping in EQ]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

Are you trying to say that humans don't program the Go-playing computers?

Which game is the more elegant, better game?

I say Go is.

No, I'm just rejecting the criterion all-together.

Go is fun enough, but I prefer Chess. To each his own.

[MikeWaters]

So you feel zero twinge of regret that Go is practically unplayed in the West?

Yet, you have strong emotions that although chess is played all over America by many, many people, it is not played enough?

Just in my ward, is the scout who plays chess all the time. And the counselor in the bishopric and his son who enter school chess tournaments. Just off the top of my head.

[Sleeping in EQ]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

So you feel zero twinge of regret that Go is practically unplayed in the West?

Yet, you have strong emotions that although chess is played all over America by many, many people, it is not played enough?

Just in my ward, is the scout who plays chess all the time. And the counselor in the bishopric and his son who enter school chess tournaments. Just off the top of my head.

Chess is my game. I'm passionate about it in a way that I am not passionate about Go.

Humorously, I was introduced to Go at a chess tournament. Some people broke it out in the analysis room between rounds. I understand that Go is gaining in popularity a bit on the American west coast. When I was in the bay area three years ago, some guys were playing it in a park.