As some of you know, I like to play a game of checkers (aka draughts) against a free ware checkers program. I am a casual player.

I have lost hundreds of games against it.

I have only managed two draws against it. One of them recently.

Well, I have been studying a particular opening: the Second Double Corner.

So anyways, I play a few games and it chooses to play 9-14 in response to my opening of 11-15. We are in the Second Double Corner! Imagine, my delight when the computer falls into a published loss on its 18th move. Unfortunately, I failed to converting, blundering.

So, I had to settle for a draw. I now have three against it.

It has a chink: an opening book that does not go beyond 17 moves.

The moment was akin to Dorothy pulling back the curtain and discovering the Wizard of Oz was nothing but an old balding man.

Did you shreek in horror too?

No. But I just got another draw. Four draws now. Always seem to draw as black playing first not as white playing second though.

The Machines have had their day.

John Connor is here.

Yasser Seirawan once pointed out that computer opening books are designed by humans: Frequently tired, eminently fallible computer programmers who may imput moves incorrectly, misjudge positions, etc. As such, he asserted that humans should view the dreaded "opening book" as a weakness, rather than a strength. Food for thought.

Edit: GM Yasser Seirawan was referring to chess computers, of course .

That logic kind of makes sense until you see the comical moves some computers play when left to their own devices from move 1 when it becomes oh so clear that opening books are a huge advantage for computers.

I'm not completely sure. In the earlier Kasparov-Deep Blue match, a clerical error resulted in the machine playing one of the games without its opening book (!). With Deep Blue on the black side of a Reti, the players followed a 60s world championship game and landed in a complex, nontheoretical position.

I take your point about the funny suggestions that pop up in Fritz analysis boxes, of course .

nice, that was quite poetic lol

Two more draws.

I discovered the secret against this thing: You just have to know the moves!

I had a second Wizard Of Oz Moment. I lost against the free ware due to a positional defect in the endgame. I decided to analyze the game and during analysis the software found a two move win (capture of material with no compensation) from a critical juncture where during the actual game it had allowed me to play a two for one shot after it immediately captured a checker. It has AI but I had never really noticed it. It is like walking under the very edge of a raincloud, where you can walk in and out of the rain. The thing has limits.

I am currently at 19 or 20 draws against the machine. I cannot hold it to a draw at will yet but I can avoid losing every now and again.