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Subject: Re: Who fixed the original settings of CM8000 ?

Author: John Merlino

Date: 11:14:27 04/05/01

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On April 05, 2001 at 05:30:58, Rainer Neuhäusler wrote:

>On April 04, 2001 at 13:42:55, John Merlino wrote:
>>On April 04, 2001 at 05:52:17, Rainer Neuhäusler wrote:
>>>Who fixed the standard settings of the CM8000? And ist it the strongest setting
>>>in the opinion of J. de Koning and J. Merlino ?
>>>Perhaps this could be simple questions to J. Merlino.
>>>Rainer
>>
>>The settings for the Chessmaster personality are believed to be the strongest
>>FOR ALL TIME CONTROLS AND ALL HARDWARE CONFIGURATIONS -- this last part is VERY
>>IMPORTANT to remember! CM8000's minimum spec machine is a PII-233 with only 48MB
>>of RAM. This is why the default personality only has a 1MB hash table. If
>>(knowledgable) users want to increase the strength for their hardware or
>>personal needs, then they can easily do so. The default personality is designed
>>for our default user, which is IN NO WAY representative of the typical member of
>>this board.
>>
>>The ONLY personality setting that MIGHT improve play UNDER CERTAIN GAME
>>SITUATIONS with modification (other than the increasing the hash table size,
>>obviously) would be the "Selective Search" value. But, a value of 6 is best for
>>ALL time controls. I promise you, if you play a blitz tournament on a PII-233
>>with one personality being the default and the other having a 32MB hash table
>>with SS=12, the default one will be stronger.
>>
>>People have confused the idea of strongest OVERALL with strongest FOR TOURNAMENT
>>TIME CONTROLS. These two are not NECESSARILY the same (although they might be --
>>nobody has proved anything either way).
>>
>>Not only that, the SS setting is now even in doubt, as some people have recently
>>posted personalities that they feel are the strongest that only have SS=8. So,
>>in other words, there's absolutely no proof that the default settings (apart
>>from the hash table size) are not the strongest for tournament time controls.
>>
>>jm
>
>Hello Mr. Merlino!
>
>Many thanks for your answer. Yes I understand your philosophy of an average
>machine. Hash, maybe selectivity are the variable parameters. But all the other
>default settings are the strongest for every hardware and for all time controls.
>
>But many people for example Germans don't believe this and they are testing and
>testing... and they perhaps find one day the most powerful settings for the King
>Engine. But then there already is the Chessmaster 10000 and so on .....
>
>I am Bavarian, I believe you Mr. Merlino ;-) But tell me the following if you
>know it:
>
>Which settings uses Johann de Koning if he takes part in a tournament with the
>Chessmaster 8000? (But don't say he's using the King Engine in a special GUI,
>please!).
>
>You check it out or you tell me how I can get this "Secret of Johann de Koning".
>
>Yours sincerely
>
>Rainer from Munich in Germany

I asked Johan about his setup for the last Dutch Computer Chess Championship.

-- He used v3.12 of The King (the same engine in CM8000).

-- The processor was a K7-550 (pre-Thunderbird), as reported on the website.

-- Since The King is now a Winboard engine (i.e. a DOS console program), he used
DOS 6.2 with a DOS4G extender. Unfortunately, you would probably consider this a
"special GUI" ;-)

-- He used a 15MB hash table.

-- He used a special anti-computer opening book written by Cock de Gorter, but
claims that there were no "obvious" book wins in this tournament.

jm



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