What "syle" are you talking about?
What principles are you learning?
Using computer player to practice against specific opening styles
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Good question but hard for me to answer as I'm a beginner. I think I'm just talking about common openings and attacks that would challenge a beginner but would be confidently handled by a more experienced player. Maybe setting the computer level low has this effect?
Of course over time I would learn openings and their "lines" just by playing games, but I feel being able to limit the computer to specific openings provides useful repetition which is a more efficient way for me to learn.
Another option would be to edit the initial board layout and then let the computer start playing, but I've not seen away to do this at present on chess.com.
Thats what im talking about. You want a "style" but you dont know how to answer the question. As a beginner you dont want to limit what your opponent will play. The more youre exposed to, the more youll learn.
If u want to play against the computer in a specific opening line you can do it with Lucas Chess. Here's how--1. Click desktop icon. 2. Click Play 3. Click play against an engine of your choice. 4. Click Initial Moves. 5. Find your variation in Game Explorer on this website and copy fen. 6. Click Initial Moves. 7. Click clipboard Icon. 8. Click accept.
If you want to play against a specific style such as a tactical style or positional style you need to find a specific engine that has a reputation for playing in that style. This may take some research.
@Diakonia: Yes, exactly. I need to work on my openings and development. That's why I'd like to use the computer player (rather than waste a real player's time) to practice all the principles... but in a way that is more focused. (Thanks for the game analysis. That's pretty cool)
@DrFrank124c: Thanks. I appreciate that. I'll give it a look.
@Diakonia
"Thats what im talking about. You want a "style" but you dont know how to answer the question. "
Yeah well I understand him just fine. If you want to practice e.g. Queen's Gambit Declined, but CPU keeps accepting the gambit, you keep getting into another line. Yes you can edit the board starting position, but it's not the same. People like havelock3 and myself want to try to learn a certain opening variation by practicing the moves. If the CPU plays different moves each time it makes practicing more difficult.
For future people searching this, I think this is the way it's done. Hover on "Learn" on the left dashboard column, then another dropdown menu comes up, select "Openings." You can practice whatever opening they have there. Should be common ones with e4, d4, and "other," but if you're looking for something specific type your opening into the "search" box. Click the opening you want and it will bring up the position. To practice with this position click the computer looking icon (as of 2021 it looks like a laptop, actually).
The only problem that I can't figure out is how to change the difficulty of the computer. It's set on 3200, which is so insanely high. I came in search of this feature and can't find it. Any help would be appreciated. Not exactly intuitive to find the settings to change here.
Nevermind, I found it. At the bottom there's a "Change Bot" icon.
Oldmanwalter wrote:
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The only problem that I can't figure out is how to change the difficulty of the computer. It's set on 3200, which is so insanely high. I came in search of this feature and can't find it. Any help would be appreciated. Not exactly intuitive to find the settings to change here.
There is an icon at the bottom to change bot.
Glad I found this!
Follow-up question — when I open a line and select 'Play vs. Computer', how do I switch sides so I'm the one playing the line instead of the computer? I tried selecting the 'Flip Board' option but this only changes the 'view' and not the side I'm playing. My goal here is to practice different variations and work my way up by playing it vs bots.
learn
One sneaky way of accomplishing the any opening vs any bot is to set up the first however many moves of the position you want to practice on the setup/analyze board, then chose "play against a computer", then change to the bot you want to practice against. This works twice because you get the specific opening and position you want to practice with, AND you can have the computer telling you what move you could have played as the game goes on.
The lessons are very helpful for me, particularly the ones on opening defense plays for black.
Is there a way to set up the computer player (on the web site or app) so it plays using only a certain opening style (as white)? Or is there a chess app elsewhere that does something similar? This way I should be able to repetitively put into practice the principles I've been learning. Well, that's the idea anyway.