I noticed that the queen's pawn opening has grown in popularity considerably.
I don't really play chess anymore, but two decades ago, I played quite a bit. Much of the time, it was against a computer. I couldn't win. I finally found a book that really worked for me, and it taught me the "stonewall" approach, where you (playing white) advance the queen's pawn, lock up the game, and start maneuvering very tactically to restrict the movement of black's king and get a mate.
I found that this was the only way I could beat the computer - largely because it allowed me to think along a very few narrow lines (often involving a sacrifice), while the computer would get bogged down in useless searches. This was all in the late 90s, my guess is that it wouldn't work anymore.
So, I'm wondering if the surge in queen's pawn opening is the result of people being conditioned to play against computers? And it brings up another point - I've heard (man, I wish I could find a link to this theory on the web) that chess masters who lament the rise of computers actually aren't particularly bummed that computers can beat the strongest human chess players. They're bummed that the best human chess players are now playing a style that is heavily influenced by years of practice against a very specific style of opponent - a powerful computer that can't really make a "mistake". Young people have opportunities to train that never existed before, but because they don't train against stronger human players as often, some of the style of the game has been lost. I'm not (and never was) good enough at chess to know if this is true, but if anyone has an angle on it, please chime in!
Oh - by the way, a very satisfying ending here. I knew a very brilliant guy who I couldn't beat at chess in high school. After I read this "stonewall" book, I was all ready for him. I advanced queen's pawn, all read to lock it down and take away his advantage. He simply advanced his king's pawn, basically telling me, go ahead and take it. The wide open game against an inferior opponent was worth far more to him than a pawn.
Good for him, though not so good for me ;) That's the kind of thing you do when you're experienced playing against people rather than computers.
I don't think that the current popularity of 1.d4 is due to playing against computers. The main reason it is currently more popular than 1.e4 at the highest levels is that Black has found a very effective way to counter 1.e4 (the Berlin variation of the Ruy Lopez) that makes it difficult for White to achieve more than a draw. This high-level popularity then trickles down to lower levels.
It is definitely true that the style of play has changed somewhat due to computer engines, but it's not so much the result of playing against computers (top players generally don't find that very rewarding), but of analyzing with computers. You can play through a game or an opening and explore variations, with the computer constantly telling you what it thinks the best moves are and who is winning by how much. As a result, players become trained to evaluate positions closer to the way a computer would. One example is that computers don't mind grabbing material and defending an unpleasant position for a long time if they don't think that the opponent can break through. This has given players confidence to be more materialistic than they were in the past.
This also reminds me of a Martin Amos novel "the information" (based on the publication date, I'd guess I read it around the same time I was learning the stonewall attack). There's a section where one writer is determined to defeat his friend at everything (tennis, chess, a few others), and he hires people to help him.
The chess teacher, I believe, teaches him something that sounds like the stonewall defense, and reflects that it almost feels like he's teaching someone to cheat at chess rather than play it. The writer isn't cheating of course (at all), but I think it feels this way to the chess master/instructor because he's learning the stonewall because he doesn't really want to engage in the actual competition. He wants to sidestep it in order to win.
I'm not trying to knock the queen's pawn defense, more the way I (and this writer) were trying to use it. I'm sure queen's pawn openings can be very creative. But in my case, this is why I considered my buddy's play of the kind's pawn a "satisfying ending." I was (to use the tennis analogy) using a pusher's approach. When you watch two people playing a game, and it's clear that one person is trying to win by shutting down the game rather than really playing it, you tend to root for the person going for creative play.
I don't really play chess anymore, but two decades ago, I played quite a bit. Much of the time, it was against a computer. I couldn't win. I finally found a book that really worked for me, and it taught me the "stonewall" approach, where you (playing white) advance the queen's pawn, lock up the game, and start maneuvering very tactically to restrict the movement of black's king and get a mate.
I found that this was the only way I could beat the computer - largely because it allowed me to think along a very few narrow lines (often involving a sacrifice), while the computer would get bogged down in useless searches. This was all in the late 90s, my guess is that it wouldn't work anymore.
So, I'm wondering if the surge in queen's pawn opening is the result of people being conditioned to play against computers? And it brings up another point - I've heard (man, I wish I could find a link to this theory on the web) that chess masters who lament the rise of computers actually aren't particularly bummed that computers can beat the strongest human chess players. They're bummed that the best human chess players are now playing a style that is heavily influenced by years of practice against a very specific style of opponent - a powerful computer that can't really make a "mistake". Young people have opportunities to train that never existed before, but because they don't train against stronger human players as often, some of the style of the game has been lost. I'm not (and never was) good enough at chess to know if this is true, but if anyone has an angle on it, please chime in!
Oh - by the way, a very satisfying ending here. I knew a very brilliant guy who I couldn't beat at chess in high school. After I read this "stonewall" book, I was all ready for him. I advanced queen's pawn, all read to lock it down and take away his advantage. He simply advanced his king's pawn, basically telling me, go ahead and take it. The wide open game against an inferior opponent was worth far more to him than a pawn.
Good for him, though not so good for me ;) That's the kind of thing you do when you're experienced playing against people rather than computers.