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Subject: Palm Tiger vs. ChessGenius

Author: Michael Conway

Date: 18:14:34 05/24/01


I noticed the following two posts on rec.games.chess.computer

POST #1

I finally received Chess Tiger (text version) via email and proceeded to play
several games against ChessGenius for the Palm at various clock settings with
permanent brain turned off.  These are my observations regarding their
respective playing strengths:

Tiger has a more comprehensive opening book and is therefore a bit stronger in
the opening.  This advantage can potentially grow since Tiger's opening book is
a separate file which can be augmented in the future.

Genius seems to be a little stronger in the middlegame.  In my games, Genius
typically gained a one- to two-pawn advantage at some point.  I wonder if
Tiger's hash tables work against it in the middlegame.  Perhaps someone can
comment on this.

Tiger has a significant advantage in the endgame, most likely thanks to its hash
tables.

In the seven games played, Tiger won six and the seventh was drawn.  In one game
Tiger gained an advantage in the middlegame and won it easily.  In the
remainder, Genius had the advantage, but tiger was able to come back in the
endgame.  One extreme example of Genius's weakness in the endgame occurred in a
five-minute match where Genius had an overwhelming two-pawn advantage according
to both engines' evaluations with over two minutes remaining.  It then blundered
into a mate-in-three.  The other endgames featured Tiger gaining its advantage
slowly but steadily.

Looking beyond playing strength, I expect the graphical (commercial) version of
Tiger to be more feature-rich than Genius especially when it comes to analysis.
On the other hand, Tiger (the text version) requires three-and-a-half times the
memory as Genius (270 KB vs. 80 KB).

If anyone else has had any experience with the new Chess Tiger for the Palm,
please post your observations.

Thanks.

Robert


POST #2 (from the same author)

Well, I've played some more Tiger vs. Genius games (yeah, I gotta get a life)
and I've concluded that Tiger is the stronger engine.  In a 60-minute match,
Tiger outplays Genius throughout and beats it rather soundly.  In short
(five-minute) games, however, Genius tends to get an advantage during the
middlegame, but invariably, Tiger comes back in the late middlegame and endgame,
as its hash tables take greater effect.  Genius also seems more prone to
blunders than Tiger.

I figure that in the middlegame of a short match, since there are so many
candidate moves, the processor time used by the hash table routines is mostly
wasted as it is less likely for positions to repeat during the search.  This
would give Genius the advantage since it is able to see and evaluate more
positions.  This advantage, however, is lost in circumstances where positions
are more likely to repeat during the search, such as in the endgame or at longer
time controls.

Anyway, that's my take on it.  Tiger is the stronger engine, but Genius may have
a slight advantage during the middlegame of matches with short time controls.

Perhaps someone with more knowledge of chess engine programming can let me know
if this analysis makes any sense.

Thanks.

Robert

p.s.  I've been playing these games with a 16MHz Palm overclocked to 32MHz
with Afterburner.  Glad I got these NiMH rechargables!

END OF POSTS



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