How has computer chess changed how humans play humans? (I.e. when you take the computer out of thr equation).
Competitive players can now prepare easily for individual opponents, which is cool and used to only be feasible for pros.
For pros, it means that everyone plays the same safe openings, because they’re all “booked up” thanks to engines. Also many super sharp tactical lines have been conclusively decided by engines so can no longer be played. End result is world championships like the last one of all draws, which was just pathetic.
Most of the GMs I’ve asked about this in the last year have expressed that they no longer love playing classical chess because it’s so boring. Hence the rise of legit Chess960 and rapid tournaments at the top level.
Yeah, this sucks. We've reached local maxima.
Something simple like a draw is 1/4 point for white, 3/4 point for black, might re-invigorate matches in classical format.
I do wonder though, in a drawn situation, can't one player push for a win if they are ahead on time, which one of the players is sure to be? Why would anyone accept a draw if they are ahead on time?
AlphaZero and Lc0 have played many beautiful games against Stockfish. All three of these engines are far stronger than the strongest grandmasters. That implies that the drawishness of classical chess has to do with the conservatism of top grandmasters, who generally aren't willing to play the dynamic, seemingly risky style of an AlphaZero or Lc0. You have to really trust your own intuition and calculating abilities to play in that style.
I have no experience in the format, but I imagined that patterns would emerge (and Chess players are already good at spotting transpositions), and people would start studying a different form of opening theory.
I expect Chess960 to rise significantly in popularity and relevance as classical chess declines, at which point theory will become developed.
But that will take a few years, and even then, being booked up in 960 will only provide a small edge compared to classical.
This is such a large amount of time, and the players get rest days with loads of time in between, that preparation becomes a huge factor. Players use top engines as well as databases (of every single move played by their opponent in tournament play) to cover every possible sharp line, leading to a lot of extremely safe (and correct) openings.
All of the above gets thrown out the window in the fast time controls (blitz and bullet). Players fall back on a mix of intuition and calculation and the games become highly dynamic, often with multiple opportunities for both sides (in a close match, rating-wise). Needless to say, it's a lot more fun to watch than a dozen draws in a row.
As an added point, the higher in rating you go, the more draws you see (against evenly matched opponents) at the classical time controls. This is because, while the rules of chess haven't changed with respect to what constitutes a draw, the number of draws by agreement goes way up. At the highest levels, there are many lines which can lead to a situation where neither player is willing to make even a slight concession to their position, thus they agree to a draw or a draw is forced by threefold repetition.
Other tournament time formats are "rapid" with 10 to 15 minutes per player, "blitz" of 3 to 5 minutes and "bullet" with 1 to 2 minutes.