Computer Chess Club Archives


Search

Terms

Messages

Subject: Re: Management Of Knowledge - In Crafty And In General

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 14:56:57 07/25/00

Go up one level in this thread


On July 25, 2000 at 16:48:01, Ralf Elvsén wrote:

>On July 25, 2000 at 14:52:06, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>
>>
>>
>>I don't see "big" holes.  I had a chat with two GMs this week, in fact, and
>>neither came up with any serious flaws they thought needed immediate attention,
>>this for the first time in a couple of years that this has happened.  This is
>>not saying there are no holes... just no "gaping holes" that they noticed...
>>
>>Which is a good sign, as they had been reporting 'gaping holes' regularly until
>>the last couple of months...  Now we start on the 'sorta-gaping holes' I guess.
>>
>>:)
>
>From my somewhat less informed perspective I have to agree. I also
>own Hiarcs and for that program I have a long list that I think
>should be fixed, i.e. things I can see with my limited chess knowledge.
>For Crafty, the holes are more difficult for me to put my finger on.
>Although Hiarcs wins more often than not on my machine...
>
>Of course, there are sometimes I think Crafty misplays
>some endgame positions with relatively few pieces. I have a nagging
>supspicion this is because you always (?) use 5-man TBs and I
>don't. Do you think it is possible that you miss "bugs" because
>of this?

Sure...  a year or two ago, someone reported that it couldn't mate with B+N
vs a lone king, yet I stole that code directly from Cray Blitz.  But somewhere
between putting it in, and last year, I screwed up a table of values, and sure
enough, it couldn't mate without tablebases.  I fixed it quickly and easily,
but on my machine, it never happened as I always have tablebases around...




>
>I also think Crafty would do better in comp-comp games if it
>valued space higher, but I know that's none of your priorities.

It does in a way, but it doesn't understand it particularly well.  The danger
is that you wreck your pawns to get more space, and that can turn into an
endgame nightmare...




>
>Btw, I hope you finally find the time to add those singular extensions.
>If this makes Crafty tactically sharper (does it?) it will be even more
>dangerous for the commercials.
>
>Ralf

It should definitely be tactically sharper.  Of course, there are costs as well,
which makes it harder to evaluate.






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.