[runeks]

> Stockfish might be able to tell you what it was doing, but not in a way that it would be reasonable for a human to follow.

I (a non-chess player) just tried to play a game against the highest level AI (and lost, obviously).

Doing an analysis of the game afterwards, this is exactly what I experience: I do "f4" and I'm told (through the analysis tool) that the best move was "Nf3".

Now, the obvious question this leads to is: why? Why was this a better move? I don't think that, as a human being, memorizing "best moves" is going to lead to much improvement: we need to know WHY that move was the best move.

I'm sure there is a human-friendly way to explain why one move is the best move, and why my move wasn't, but the computer probably doesn't know this explanation, because it's approaching it from a brute-force perspective.

Surely, a chess computer can brute force all possible combinations, and deduce that this was the best move. But when this is not possible for a human being, just informing the me that "what you just did was not the best move", doesn't really do much to help me (as an amateur player).

The game, for reference: http://en.lichess.org/ehWjHnIc#0

[joverholt]

"f4" creates a hole on "e4" in your pawn structure. This hole becomes a valuable outpost where your opponent can position a knight (or other piece) without it being harassed by one of your pawns. This means to get rid of it, you need to trade a piece for it, and when your opponent recaptures, it will give them a passed pawn.

"Nf3" protects your d4 pawn and also threatens the e5 square. Probably most importantly, it clears a piece so you can castle kingside.