I am not competent enough to comment on the design of computer chess programs, however, as a chess player, I can state that computers perform well in very tacti

I am not competent enough to comment on the design of computer chess programs, however, as a chess player, I can state that computers perform well in very tactical positions. When the positions are more strategic, such as a closed position arising from a large number of queen pawn openings (1.d4) and such openings like the Ruy Lopez Closed, the human's ability to take into account very subtle strategic ideas usually give the human the upper hand. That is why Kasparov tried to keep most of his games against Deep Blue closed. What was interesting is when Kasparov played Fritz and Deep Fritz, he actually chose some very tactical openings and didn't perform too poorly. Then again, it's Kasparov. Kramnik had equal results.