Prophylaxis in women's chess • page 4/4 • General Chess Discussion • lichess.org

@Janellemax20 @QueenRosieMary @rachel8 @Motherrussia_Yeehaw I very much appreciate your important contributions to this debate. Thanks to you I am doing more tests putting more emphasis on the playing strength factor.

CM Sarg0n

#32

It rather depends on the position and playing strength.

KMcGeoch edited

#33

@shaashvat said in #19:

Isnt 75 a small number?

It depends on how you use it. Generally political opinion polling has 1000 to 2000 respondents so you could argue that a similar amount of games would be required. Having said that if you assume that time to actually get games where players are of equal strength, similar openings and the requisite men/women spread along with the analysis of games takes on average lets say 30min per game then you're looking at around 500 hours research minimum.

Starting with 75 gives you a chance to test your assumptions as if there was a clear pattern you'd expect it to show to some extent as it's quite a manual process. It's also a blind test in same way you get blind taste tests for Coca-Cola.

If using an automatic process then you can just do a database search of players between certain ratings (e.g. 1900 to 2000) and see the % of prophylaxis (according to criteria) and then do same with a male and female filter and compare the results. Unfortunately I don't think it's possible to search a database for prophylaxis as at least in ChessBase 16 the only search masks are for Pin, Skewer, Discovered Attack, Trapped Piece, Back Rank, Promotion, X-Ray Attack, Sacrifice, Double Attack, Overworked Piece, Remove Defender, Decoy, Zwischenzug, Clearance, Demolition but not Prophylaxis although if something along those lines existed then it would be a quick, easy and accurate way to settle the question.

@shaashvat said in #19: > Isnt 75 a small number? It depends on how you use it. Generally political opinion polling has 1000 to 2000 respondents so you could argue that a similar amount of games would be required. Having said that if you assume that time to actually get games where players are of equal strength, similar openings and the requisite men/women spread along with the analysis of games takes on average lets say 30min per game then you're looking at around 500 hours research minimum. Starting with 75 gives you a chance to test your assumptions as if there was a clear pattern you'd expect it to show to some extent as it's quite a manual process. It's also a blind test in same way you get blind taste tests for Coca-Cola. If using an automatic process then you can just do a database search of players between certain ratings (e.g. 1900 to 2000) and see the % of prophylaxis (according to criteria) and then do same with a male and female filter and compare the results. Unfortunately I don't think it's possible to search a database for prophylaxis as at least in ChessBase 16 the only search masks are for Pin, Skewer, Discovered Attack, Trapped Piece, Back Rank, Promotion, X-Ray Attack, Sacrifice, Double Attack, Overworked Piece, Remove Defender, Decoy, Zwischenzug, Clearance, Demolition but not Prophylaxis although if something along those lines existed then it would be a quick, easy and accurate way to settle the question.

binjetzterstbeimArzt

#34

Prophylaxis in women chess is wearing a neutral colored handbag ,eating no onion or checken the mirror before leasing the house

#35

SaltWaterRabbit

#36

I like the top women's tournaments. They are generally competitive, active and aggressive in their games. Less of the piece vacuum cleaner chess. More of the games are struggles. Maybe less prophylaxis but better players tell me that I should do more prophylaxis moves.