Bad Advice?!

In the May, 2010 issue of Chess Life renowned author and teacher IM Jeremy Silman said that while anonymously watching an online game where a GM was playing Black in what Silman described as a purely positional situation everyone was following the game with an engine. The engine gave White the better position but he disagreed. Everyone, including an FM who was online, advised Silman he didn’t know what he was talking about. It turned out he was correct and the GM won.


Silman’s comment on the incident was very revealing. He wrote, “I stopped making comments at that point because it was obvious that nobody wanted to learn anything…If you really want to enjoy chess learn the positional fundamentals that allow you to understand what’s going on in most situations. Once you do that, your engine will be something that gives you tactical assistance when looking over games/analysis-at the same time though you’ll be able to understand (and explain to those that want to listen) the strategic ABC’s of any position even if your machine is out of order.”