I suffered some chess burnout earlier this holiday season, but hope I’m making a recovery. I still lose more than I win, but computers aren’t prone to error the way a human might be.<\/p>\n
Rooks need open files to operate, or course. In a recent game I had a chance to snatch a centre pawn from the computer; I didn’t, because it would have opened a file. The computer is better with its rooks than I am.<\/p>\n
In early training about chess, one hears about the advantage of opening the board to mobilize pieces. The heavy pieces – rook and queen – benefit most from an open field. However, the computer has a much greater awareness of the board than most humans can.<\/p>\n
As often as not, I make moves to try keep the computer’s pieces bottled up. For instance, if a bishop is in front of a rook, I try to leave that bishop alone, hoping it will stay there. Often, a player’s own pawns stall movement of other pieces. Even when I can snatch such a pawn, I’ll often let it be. This may represent a beginning towards understanding positional play.<\/p>\n
HTH:)<\/p>\n