Strong chess players playing WITH a chess program (or chess engine as aficionados call them) can easily defeat a higher-rated chess program playing without a human. Kasparov mentioned that in a recent NYRB article. Getting pummeled by a series of ruthless jabs and hooks is bad for both humans and chess engines I would guess. ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html