Computer Chess Club Archives


Search

Terms

Messages

Subject: Re: Crafty at WMCCC

Author: Chris Whittington

Date: 11:20:51 11/03/97

Go up one level in this thread



On November 03, 1997 at 13:05:50, Chris Carson wrote:

>Chris,
>
>   Sorry, I did not mean to say that you (or anyone else)
>in particular was doing this.

And I didn't mean to imply that you were suggesting it :)

>  It was just a possibility
>in my opinion.

Yup. But I repeat, I think tuning and test games are mostly done against
available top SSDF programs. Crafty isn't on the SSDF.

The other factor mitigating against tuning Crafty, or including Crafty
in a test game cycle is that Crafty is a moving target. And setting it
up to Bob's satisafction is well nigh impossible.

I doubt you'll find one commercial using it in testing.

>
>   I do not think Bob/Crafty need defending!  I think
>Bob has done a great job with Crafty, as much talk and
>correspondance as we have on this just shows how much
>we all think of both Bob and Crafty!  :)

Yeah, agreed.

>
>   BTW.  Congrads on how well CSTal did this year!  :)

Thanks, it surprised a few people, me included. What we liked was the
real high density of unbalanced games. These tend to arise in CSTal-cptr
games because the evaluation functions stress very different things. It
woudl be nice if the sacs worked more often, trouble is in forcing them
to a good result against the deep searchers.

Chris Whittington

>
>Best Regards,
>Chris Carson
>
>
>
>On November 03, 1997 at 12:07:54, Chris Whittington wrote:
>
>>
>>On November 03, 1997 at 11:31:37, Chris Carson wrote:
>>
>>>On November 03, 1997 at 10:42:37, Howard Exner wrote:
>>>
>>>>I think one disadvantage Crafty may have is that it is
>>>>so easily available to everyone. There is no mystery about
>>>>its playing style, strengths and weaknesses.
>>>>
>>>>Here are some observations to support this theory. Note just a few
>>>>recent examples of programmer secrecy such as in Deep Blue for one and
>>>>the withholding of games from the French Championship a few
>>>>weeks ago as another. Secrecy in chess is commonplace for all chess
>>>>players. Also,I wonder how many programmers have now included opening
>>>>preperation against Crafty's ingenious forth move in the Ruy Lopez
>>>>(B-c4 instead of the common B-a4) that was seen about a year ago?
>>>>
>>>>How might Crafty fare in two years from now if Bob took a 2 year
>>>>break from releasing Crafty to the masses?
>>>>Call it "Hyatt's Hiatus" (say that quickly 3 times in a row).
>>>
>>>I agree with you and with Chris W. (in a different post).  I
>>>think Bob has done a great job with Crafty!  :)   I also think
>>>that with the popularity and ease to get source/opening book/
>>>learning.dat information, most programers use Crafty as a
>>>testbed anyway.  This means that they spare with Crafty all
>>>the time and improve as a result (Crafty gets a lot of play
>>>with the others on the servers, but not with the latest/well
>>>prepared versions).
>>
>>Crafty may play against the other programs on the servers but these are
>>not programs operated by anybody connected with his competitors. They
>>are just people who have bought the programs.
>>
>>I don't accept that there is heavy tuning or training games played
>>against Crafty. Most training will be against the usual commercially
>>available programs and done via automated interface. Genius, Mchess,
>>Hiarcs, Rebel, Fritz etc. Not Crafty. For example, I've never played one
>>game here against Crafty, Thorsten has domn a few, but these were for
>>himelf, and the games and/or conclusions never got passed to me.
>>
>>Its just not true that Crafty gets used as a testbad; maybe by some
>>relatively unknown amateur programs, but certainly not by the major
>>programs - their opposition is not Crafty.
>>
>>If you need to try and generate an excuse, anti-Crafty tuning is not
>>going to be it.
>>
>>
>>> Not sure how Bob can fight back?  Something
>>>we should all think about this year and perhaps help out with
>>>(perhaps a three month blanket period for Bob/Crafty to prepare?)
>>
>>Bob needs new concepts and ideas, mainly in the search. His evaluation
>>function is probably ok, given that he wants to stay as a fast program,
>>massive evaluation additions are not feasible. Its the search. His ideas
>>are behind the other fast programs. Simply getting speed by 64 bit stuff
>>obviously isn't enough, its algorithmic search improvements that he
>>needs.
>>
>>Chris Whittington
>>
>>>
>>>I thought Crafty did extremly well considering the competition
>>>and the fact that Crafty is a no secret project!   :)
>>>
>>>Best Regards,
>>>Chris Carson



This page took 0 seconds to execute

Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700

Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.