The tutor opens a discussion about the wide world of computer chess.

Back in the 70s and 80s, you (theoretically) needed an opponent if you wanted to play chess. (I think I’ve read that Bobby Fischer, as a kid, usually served as his own opponent – that’s how he learned.)

Since the advent of computer chess, however, you can play whenever you want – and even adjust the difficulty of your opponent.

When I got back into chess about a year and a half ago, I began with GNU Chess, which is convenient to download to a Ubuntu system. (Ubuntu is the flavour of Linux I use.)

GNU Chess has some great advantages:

1. It offers a very plain view in which the different pieces are easy to tell apart.
2. It’s (in my experience) fast and reliable, probably because it’s so plain.

GNU Chess offers three difficulty levels: easy, normal, and hard. I always play as black, so what follows is from Black’s point of view:

CAUTION: “Easy” doesn’t mean “beginner.” The “easy” setting is not “easy” to beat, unless you’re quite an experienced player. I’ve beaten the “normal” setting a couple of times.

On the internet I’ve noticed some people suggest that GNU Chess always responds the same way to the same moves. Not true. In my recent experience, White always does open with the same move (Kt to C3), but within a couple of moves, White’s can vary even if Black always makes the same ones.

Playing Black, I beat GNU Chess Normal Setting yesterday. It took me about 80 minutes; my brain was mush for the rest of the day.

HTH:)

Jack of Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane, Campbell River, BC.