I have been playing engines or dedicated units since 1978, when I got my first machine, a CC7. So I know well what effect has had in me and this has been to sharpen enormously my tactical acumen. By sheer practice I can calculate long lines at least compared with how much I did before playing computers. i am more accurate and think with more care. I have improved a lot,, exception made in openings and endings, because I simply refuse to invest one minute in learning nothing. As I look for fun and this is situated in the middle game, there is where I go and win or I am pushed to the ending and then certainly I lose.
When playing humans I have won some tournament with sheer tactical lethality, but if computer has a bad effect on my about that is that i have lost interests in playing human at all, lastly. I love a machine that does not put arrogant face winning, neither a bad face if losing.
Fern
