Matthias Bluebaum

German GM

“A very important point that can’t be overlooked during preparation: the human factor remains extremely important. After all, when you play a chess game, you’re not playing a computer, but a human being. And, in my opinion, that’s the key point.

Computers are incredibly strong, but they don’t give clear answers to questions like: How difficult is this position for a human? How easy is it to play?

It doesn’t help me much that an incredibly strong engine says, ‘Objectively, it’s a draw,’ if I have absolutely no idea how difficult it will be for my opponent to find all the right moves… Or how difficult it is to play such a position in the first place.

And this creates a paradoxical situation. Ten or twenty years ago, every chess player dreamed of stronger engines, better hardware, the most powerful computer possible, in order to analyze variations as deeply and accurately as possible.

But today, we’ve reached the point where virtually anyone can analyze this deeply. And now, sometimes the opposite happens: people deliberately use weaker hardware or even a weaker engine, because it better conveys the sense of how difficult the position really is.

For example, if a relatively weak engine says, ‘White has a slight advantage’, it’s quite possible that a super-strong engine will immediately say, ‘The position is completely equal’. But for a human, it’s often much more important to understand whether there’s still room for play in the position.”