The World vs. Arno Nickel

On chessgames.com they are starting The World vs. Arno Nickel, and it's not too late to sign up. Should be very interesting.

I don’t understand this. According to FIDE records this guy played 6 rated games in 2001 and got an FIDE rating of 2101. It’s not like he was some kid. He was born in 1952 so was 49 years old at the time. Now he’s a CC GM? Sounds like another guy with an engine.

Arno Nickel uses several engines although he is a "correspondence grandmaster" (whatever that means). It is an insult to call oneself a grandmaster simply for using an engine.

Perhaps they should scrap the CC GM title and call it a CC Messenger title, showing who is the best messenger of the engines available.

To me CC ratings which allow engine use are useless. This person at our club is a CC master 2250 or during his better days but in OTB he's only around 1700 when he used to play chess.

That doesn't mean anything. I bet a lot of the top player over here could be CC Master if they were allowed to use engines. Apart from openings and some middlegame, chess programs do a great job in the middlegame and especailly the endgame because of all the tablebases. So basically the only work you have to do is pick solid openings which you can choose from books, Db's etc...and let the computer do the rest.

What chess do you really play besides picking which computer moves you like? So you're a CC master but I bet if they came to Rhp and did not use engines a lot of us could beat them. That's what I think anyways.

Originally posted by RahimK
To me CC ratings which allow engine use are useless. This person at our club is a CC master 2250 or during his better days but in OTB he's only around 1700 when he used to play chess.

That doesn't mean anything. I bet a lot of the top player over here could be CC Master if they were allowed to use engines. Apart from openings and some middlegame, chess pr ...[text shortened]... me to Rhp and did not use engines a lot of us could beat them. That's what I think anyways.

Originally posted by masscat
Was the guy at your club 2250 pre-computer? If so, a 200 point spread wouldn’t be unusual, but 450 seems a bit much. Not everybody in CC uses engines. It seems to be prevalent only at the higher levels. Couple of years ago I was in the finals in the CCLA’s Grand National and all my opponents that played both OTB and CC had similar ratings-mostly experts. ...[text shortened]... were playing around 1900-2000 because of engine use, but it's no longer a problem at my level.

Originally posted by powershaker
Screw correspondence! WHo wants to meet me in Waikiki Beach here on my island and play me some real OTB chess! Engine users suck! Aloha!

Bucky from o'AHU

Originally posted by masscat
Not everybody lives in Paradise! Some of us live in the sticks and can't play otb without dropping a few hundred to go to a tmt. Can't argue the point on engine users though.

Originally posted by powershaker
Awww! But, we do pay the price to live in paradise. I've been missing the real fattening food lately. So tired of chinese and vietnamese food. hehem And, at least you have a better chance of a decent chess tournament on the mainland.

Originally posted by masscat
Was the guy at your club 2250 pre-computer? If so, a 200 point spread wouldn’t be unusual, but 450 seems a bit much. Not everybody in CC uses engines. It seems to be prevalent only at the higher levels. Couple of years ago I was in the finals in the CCLA’s Grand National and all my opponents that played both OTB and CC had similar ratings-mostly experts. ...[text shortened]... were playing around 1900-2000 because of engine use, but it's no longer a problem at my level.

This Arnie vs World thing, Are they allowed to use engines? I read on the site that if you are not allowed it would say on the page but I didn't see it anywhere so i'm guess they are allowed to use an engine and so is Arnie? So it would be Arnie+ engine vs World+ many many engines?

Originally posted by RahimK
He is a 1800 at best but a 2250 with a computer program in CC. Maybe I would be a 2300 with a chess program who knows. Those ratings don't mean much to me. If you have a decent program and reasonable opening book you don't even have to do that much work and still get a nice rating.

17th World Correspondence Champion Ivar Bern plays Advanced Chess in CC, but says that the computers are far from perfect. I think he uses them to tactical check rather than choose moves. A Postman would only get so far; it has to be chess knowledge on top that counts.

Originally posted by TommyC
17th World Correspondence Champion Ivar Bern plays Advanced Chess in CC, but says that the computers are far from perfect. I think he uses them to tactical check rather than choose moves. A Postman would only get so far; it has to be chess knowledge on top that counts.

Originally posted by dottewell
But that's easy for him to say. If Ivan Bern plus (say) Crafty played dottewell plus Rybka, I'd fancy my chances. But I'd be contributing nothing to the game.