Hi, I thought the annotated game was at first interesting but black should have
done something earlier about the h pawn and I would fianchetto the other biship
as potential threating of a knight capturing the e pawn if white plays bh6 for
example!
Sorry about my bad typing, Steve
From: mordue andrew
Sent: Saturday, February 11, 2017 9:49 PM
To: usbca_chess
Subject: [usbca_chess] Re: Some Questions About Shredder
Evan et al
Depends on your definition of normal! To me normal would fit within a system
but a system may be aggressive, solid or passive.
Take the game i just posted - a French Defence. Black 'normally' develops his
King's Bishop somewhere on the a3-f8 diagonal and that's according to the
variation adopted. My opponent played a fianchetto instead which is definitely
not normal. I woiuldn't call it passive because from g7 the Bishop is involved
for the fight for the e5 square. Nor would I call it solid because White has
the h2-h4-h5 advance to open up lines as per the game. Is it aggressive?
Probably although it doesn't look it at first glance.
Labels are funny things. One of my favourite stories is about Jon Speelman. As
Black he opened a game with a Pirc/Modern Defence. A short way he did something
odd and the game left Pirc/Modern theory. When he wrote notes to the game he
treated it as if they were on virgin theoretical territory. What he hadn't
realised was that he'd transposed into a main line of the Alekine's Defence!
Labels - fuuny things!
Tyson
On 11 February 2017 at 21:11 Evan Reese <mentat1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Thanks Andrew.
I hope you’ll forgive me if I appear a bit dense, but if Solid is somewhere
between Passive and Aggressive, then what is Normal. I would have thought
Normal would be somewhere between Passive and Aggressive.
Evan
From: mordue andrew
Sent: Saturday, February 11, 2017 1:53 PM
To: usbca_chess
Subject: [usbca_chess] Re: Some Questions About Shredder
Evan et al
Aggressive and Passive (levels) are what they seem. Solid is somewhere in the
middle but once again these are subjective labels. An apparently solid move may
be a mistake because a dynamic (a level beyond aggressive possibly?) reply was
needed instead. Too much solidity can lead to passivity.
Once again it's all about judgement.
Tyson
On 11 February 2017 at 17:52 Evan Reese <mentat1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Thanks Charles.
I did notice the different playing styles in the Settings. It’s set to
Normal by default, and I think I’ll leave it there for now. Some of the labels
for the different playing styles such as Aggressive and Passive seem pretty
self explanatory, but do you know what Solid means?
I’m going to keep the clocks off for now. I just want to play some games
with no time pressure for the time being.
I also like the Hints feature, and that it tells me when it thinks I’ve
made a bad move. So far, I’ve found that when it says that, I’d better
reconsider. I haven’t gotten into a situation like the ones Jim and Tyson have
described, but I’ve just started, so we’ll see.
Evan
From: Charles Rivard
Sent: Saturday, February 11, 2017 7:57 AM
To: usbca_chess@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [usbca_chess] Re: Some Questions About Shredder
You can change a lot of what you see on the screen, as well as how the app
plays, from within the settings tab. Work your way through them and you will
see what you can do with it. For example, you can turn the “don’t rate my
puzzles or games” setting off, and it will then rate your play. You can set
the app’s playing strength and the style of play. You can choose to use the
coach or not. You can choose whether to use the digital clocks or not, and how
much time each player is allowed to take for your entire game, and whether to
add time to the clocks after each move.
“This game can still be rated.” means that the app is rating your skill.
If you win, the next game will be more difficult. If you don’t, the next game
will be at a lower skill level. As you play games, it keeps track of your
progress. It will give you an estimated ELO rating. Just for kicks, I erased
my rating at the beginning of this year and set the app to play it’s easiest
game, and I set the style of play to “aggressive”. Unfortunately, I have had
time for only 1 game so far. I use clocks, and set the time we each have to
120 minutes, which is the maximum allowed. I turn the “coach” off. Although
it is too soon to mean much, after I won the first game, it gives me an ELO
rating of 1,250. It will play a better game the next time we play. As for the
opening, when you make your first move, Shredder will choose an opening at
random from those in it’s opening book. If you use clocks, you will notice
that it begins using it’s thinking time if you vary from the chosen opening or
if the opening has been played all the way through. The evaluation number
shows how much you, or the app, has, as far as an advantage in the game. A
point value is given for each of the pieces as well as who the app thinks has a
better board position at the current time in the game.
Shredder is a great app. About the only things that I’ve found that you
cannot do using Voice-Over are to set up a board position and play from that
point, and you, as far as I know, cannot have two humans playing each other
using Shredder as the referee and time keeper. You also cannot use Shredder as
the interface for playing against someone online. But it sure is one heck of a
good electronic chess opponent that will play with ELO ratings ranging from 850
to 2,600! I hope this answered most of your questions. If it didn’t, ask
away. Have fun with it!
If you think you're finished, you! really! are! finished!!
From: Evan Reese
Sent: Friday, February 10, 2017 7:28 PM
To: usbca_chess@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [usbca_chess] Some Questions About Shredder
Hey Guys,
I just played my first game against Shredder. I went twenty moves before I
gave it up. But I’m going to start another one here in a minute.
I think I could get hooked on this app pretty quickly. I know it’s not the
same as playing against a human, but it’s a lot of fun and there are no points
on the line, as well as being great to be able to take moves back and get hints
if I want.
I just had a few questions.
Firstly, does anyone know what this Evaluation number means? It seems to
change every time I look at it. Currently it says Evaluation 3.68 after my 20th
move.
Also, is there a manual for this program that explains the various
features? I hit the About button and the Info button, but I didn’t notice any
kind of documentation. For example, I played White in this first game, and I
did not consciously try a specific opening because I don’t know any, but here
it says Opening C26. How did it get that if I wasn’t playing an opening?
Another example of a question would be that it says at the bottom right of the
screen, “This game can still be rated. Image.” Does anyone know how to activate
that with Voiceover. It doesn’t appear to be a button. I just brought up a
Ratings screen, and it says zero games and zero ratings, so how do I get it to
start rating me. Can I get an ELO rating from it?
Thanks for any advice.
This is truly a great app, and extremely accessible with Voiceover.
Evan
