3 ms·
I am sorry but you're completely wrong. Modern engine's moves are usually easy to understand if you can play around with the engine running. The engine is just
by bluecalm 5y ago
I am sorry but you're completely wrong. Modern engine's moves are usually easy to understand if you can play around with the engine running. The engine is just way more precise. Usually the variations needed to understand the moves aren't particularly long either. For me (2300 ELO) it's usually 3-6 ply deep when I go "ahhhh obviously this is better".
The method you're referring to is based on detecting how often a human picks the top move out of 2-3 similarly rated ones and most of the time understanding which one of the 56.5%, 57.1% and 57.3% moves is the best is difficult but understanding why 55% move is better than 51% one is usually pretty easy. I am using AlphaZero/Lc0 evals here btw as I find them more intuitive than traditional engines ones.
I think your opinion might have been formed many years ago. There was indeed a time where engines like traditional Stockfish (before NNUE) were already much stronger than humans but their strategic play made little sense. It turned out that they were in fact weak strategically and modern crop of engines showed it. Try running Lc0 with modern network vs say Stockfish 7 and you will see games which could be described as humiliating defeats one after another.
It turned out that we are actually very good at figuring chess out. Not very precise, slow and inconsistent but we've got most of the high level concepts right.
It doesn't mean engines don't come up with occasional move that is just too deep to get without long analysis and too counterintuitive to consider during play. It's just rare. Most of the moves are intuitive, and make a lot of sense to a human.