Robin Smith Talks About Intuition

    Robin Smith (1952-2009) is largely unknown, but he was an American correspondence player who held the ICCF title of Correspondence Grandmaster and was a two-time US Correspondence Champion (1995 and 1999). His last ICCF rating was 2642, which he achieved in only 64 games from 1997 to 2008. He also authored the book Modern Chess Analysis which was published in 2004. 

    In the book he told how to use engines to analyze. In those days strong players could still defeat engines. in fact, Smith called them “stupid.” 

    In those days engine use was allowed on some sites and not on others. On those where they weren’t, more than a few prominent players got kicked off after they were caught using engines. 

    Needless to say, the book (and most of Smith’s advice) is badly outdated today, but it still has some usable advice. I was astonished to read one review of the book where the reviewer gave it only one star calling the book a joke and claiming that using engines is cheating. He added that just because the International Correspondence Chess Federation allows their use it is still unethical and cheating. He then belittled Smith’s skill as a player. 

    First of all, if engine use is NOT against the rules then it is not cheating if you use one. Second of all, top level correspondence players, while they may not be Grandmasters over the board, they do have a good understanding of chess plus they know the limitations of engines. 

    One interesting chapter is on intuition. He wrote, “the more complex the position, the more you will need to rely on intuition to make a decision.” While that was true of correspondence play using engine in 2004, it’s not so much the case today because engines like Stockfish are pretty much unbeatable. The advice probably holds true in OTB play though. 

    What about intuition? Smith wrote that after playing and observing enough games one develops a feel for which moves are good, which plans might work and which ideas should be investigated further. 

    Regarding intuition and engines he added that some people had proposed the idea of using “exotic" neural network engines, but at that time they had not worked very well because in most chess positions exact calculation is more important than intuition. 

    Smith was quick to point out that intuition is not a substitute for analysis even though in OTB play intuition might work. In the following game against the Spanish player Francisco Bisquert, a Senior Correspondence Master, Smith describes how he used both intuition and an engine to his advantage. Of course the ancient Fritz engine he used doesn’t even remotely compare to the output of today’s engines and what took Smith many hours of analysis both on his own and with Fritz we can get in seconds today...plus the output from the engine is much more accurate. Let’s take a look

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[Event "World Correspi\ondence Champ (via e-mail)"] [Site "ICCF"] [Date "2000.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Robin Smith"] [Black "Francisco Bisquert"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C10"] [Annotator "Robin Smith/Stockfish"] [PlyCount "41"] [EventDate "2000.03.30"] {C10: French Defense} 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nd7 5. Nf3 Ngf6 6. Nxf6+ Nxf6 7. c3 Be7 8. Bd3 O-O 9. Bf4 b6 10. Qe2 Bb7 11. O-O-O Qc8 (11... Nh5 {turned out poorly in Kobalia,M (2632)-Stupak,K (2567) Moscow RUS 2015} 12. Be3 Nf6 13. h4 Qd5 14. Kb1 Qh5 15. Rh3 {with the better gane.}) 12. h4 c5 13. h5 { Smith did not comment on this move, probably because it has been played befpre, but engines find it neither better nor worse than their preferred 13.Be5 or 13. Kb1 forst.} h6 {Smith gave this a ? stating that black has entered a line that ECO gives as +/-, buthe did not think black's position is probably not quite that bad. He did ask the question why would black want to ply this line considering books evaluate white as beong better? His answer was that most engones (of the day, of course) evaluated black's position as fully equal. Smith's opinion was, " In reality it just creates a target - either for a g4-g5 P push or for a B sacrifice on h6." That's what happens in the game, but Stockfish says white is only slightly better (his initial slight starting advantage). Stockfish actually likes 13...h6 or perhaps 13...Rd8 first.} (13... cxd4 {is a reasonable move that has been played before.} 14. Nxd4 {Blacs two good replies: 14...Rd8 and 14...Nd5}) 14. Kb1 Rd8 {Stockfish now prefers the routine 15.Rhe1 or the neutral 15.Kb1 with about a half a P advantage. After his next move Smith discusses how he made his intuitive decision to play it.} 15. Rhg1 {Engines fond no fault with this evaluating it at about 1/4 of a P in white's favor instead of the half P after 15.Rhe1. When it comes to intuition Smith commented that in many ways this move is obvious. The point is that white supporst the advance of his g-Pawn and at the same time gets his R off the long diagonal and unpins the N on f3. The question is what if black just tales the h-Pawn? At the time the game was played no engine liked 15. Rhg1 thinking that it just lost the h-Pawn. He added that wen he analyzed the position after 15...Nxh45 black seemed to br equal.} Nxh5 {Smith comments that after this black not only picks up a P, but gains a crucial tempo by by attacking the B. Smith stated that every retreat he looked at allowed black to survive, but at this point he was looking for a quick win. His intuition told him that instead of retreating the B the position must offer something more. However, he observed tha when examing a position objectively intuition is often wrong. So he set up the position and let Fritz think for a day and it came up with the interesting 16.Bxh6 and evaluated the position as equal. Still. he decided to analyze the position more deeply and the more he did, the more he liked 16.Bxh6. That's the way it was 25 years ago, but what about today? The oldest engine I have is Fritz 5.32 and it favors black by about 3/4 of a P and thinks white should now play 16.Be5. What does Stockfish think? It see white's next move instantly and puts white's advantage at a bit over two Ps, so Smith's intuition was correct. Dragon by Komodo, Fritz 19 and Berserk 13 all like the B sacrifice.} (15... cxd4 {is Stockfish's equalizing suggestion.} 16. Nxd4 Nd5 17. Bc1 Bf6 {equals.}) 16. Bxh6 {[%mdl 512] Smith points out that this is the other point of 15.Rhg1 and it's the best way to secure an advantage because the opening of the h-file and in some lines also the g-file create big problems for black. As far as Fritz 5.32 is concerned there isn't much difference between 16.Be4 and this sacrifice.} Nf6 {Smith gave this a ? Black is better off taking the B. Now his podition quickly deteriorates.} (16... gxh6 {was no better defense.} 17. Qe3 {Black has no good answer to this.}) 17. Rh1 {This move was rightly given a ! by Smith. According to Smith, 16.Bg1!? was also possibly good enough to give white a winning advantage, but the text move is more forcing and thus easier to analyze. nTo quote Stockfish,white is clearly winning.} cxd4 {Now it's too lte to take the B.} (17... gxh6 18. Rxh6 Bf8 19. Rxf6 Bg7 20. Rf4 Bxf3 21. Qxf3 Qd7 22. Rg4 { is utterly hopeless for black. Here's the best line after a couple of minutes thinking time by the engine...} f5 23. Rg6 Qf7 24. Qh5 cxd4 25. Rh1 Kf8 26. Qg5 Rd7 27. c4 Rc8 28. a3 Re8 29. Rh7 Qg8 30. Qh4 Ree7 31. Rgxg7 Rxg7 32. Rh8 { Even after winning the Q white has no forced win and it will take some technique to sevure the win. Whote's advantager is 5.5 Ps.}) 18. Bxg7 {[%mdl 512] White would still have a winning position if he recaptured on d4, but the B sacrifice leaves black;s K completely naked.} Kxg7 19. Qd2 {The Q joins the attack.} Ng8 20. Rh7+ Kf8 21. Ne5 {Black resigned. He has to give up a huge amounbt of material to avoid mate.} 1-0