Author: Uri Blass
Date: 09:13:20 01/07/02
Go up one level in this thread
On January 07, 2002 at 11:56:49, Bas Hamstra wrote: >On January 07, 2002 at 11:32:42, Vincent Diepeveen wrote: > >>On January 07, 2002 at 07:35:14, Bas Hamstra wrote: >> >>>On January 07, 2002 at 07:08:08, Vincent Diepeveen wrote: >>> >>>>On January 06, 2002 at 21:17:43, Bas Hamstra wrote: >>>> >>>>>...because the fastest hardware simply wins. You can invent all kind of >>>>>ingenious tricks, but it's nothing compared to faster hardware. On 2x faster >>>>>hardware Tao just crushed GT 3x in a row and won the latest 10 15/0 games at >>>>>FICS against strong opponents on slower hardware. Come on, the only fair way to >>>>>compete is on equal hardware. I don't want to buy a computer twice a year just >>>>>for CC tournaments, that's ridiculous. IMO the competition would be much more >>>>>satisfying on equal hardware. Factor 2 hardware difference means hard to win for >>>>>any program against a not too bad opponent. Anything above that makes the >>>>>chances *way* too small to be fair. Yet that is quite normal in tournaments and >>>>>you won't hear anyone about it. Program X played this AMAZING knight sac >>>>>againtst program Y!! Hardware differences seem to be simply ignored. And that's >>>>>crazy, in fact. >>>>> >>>>>Bas. >>>> >>>>Then why didn't Zugzwang win IPCC99. It is not a bad program at all. >>>>In tests it completely annihilated the commercial programs they tested >>>>against. >>>> >>>>Zugzwang was at like 512 alpha processors and getting millions of nodes >>>>a second. I can't even remember how much, but zugzwang is already a slow >>>>program on a PC... >>>> >>>>...it was using (making use of message passing and thereby losing many >>>>factors of speed but it is worth it) global hashtable and was having more >>>>Mhz and bigger hashtables than anyone else. >>>> >>>>This though the 17 ply searching Cilkchess at like 256 (or 500?) >>>>sun processors wasn't searching undeep either. Yet it lost chanceless from >>>>8 ply searching Lambchop. >>>> >>>>How do you explain that? >>> >>>Yes, I expected this. >>> >>>a) The probability that the "best" program wins a tournament is far smaller then >>>you would expect. We once did some math and simulation, the shocking conclusion >>>was that the probability that the best program wins the tournament was only 50% >>>or something near that. >>> >>>b) CilkChess is a bad program. If you practically only do piece square then even >>>17 ply won't help you. >>> >>>The server or the SSDF gives better data (more) to draw conclusions from. Both >>>indicate that hardware is an enourmous factor. >>> >>>Best regards, >>>Bas. >> >>Your problem is tactical sufficiency. With Tao you finally get above or >>close to tactical barrier now, you didn't in the past. Now that >>kicks butt suddenly with some better tuned eval. > >Eval is the same, everything is the same. It just searches 1.6 ply deeper on >this HW. But I definitely have the feeling this brings it to another plane. > If it searches 1.6 plies deeper then the hardware is certainly more than 4 times faster. The normal branching factor of top programs is bigger than 2.5 and 2.5^1.6 is bigger than 4. Uri
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