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Subject: Re: Computer Chess is pointless

Author: Bas Hamstra

Date: 11:42:35 01/07/02

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On January 07, 2002 at 12:06:24, Uri Blass wrote:

>On January 07, 2002 at 11:44:44, Bas Hamstra wrote:
>
>>On January 07, 2002 at 10:29:12, Uri Blass 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.
>>>
>>>The ssdf does not say that hardware is an enourmous factor
>>
>>Are you serious? When has there EVER been a program in the top-3 that was not on
>>the fastest chip?
>>
>>>A1200 against K6-450 is more than2 times faster and
>>>Crafty on A1200 is not better than the best programs
>>
>>What does this prove other than that it is hard to overcome a factor 2? It
>>hardly occurs! Clearly a BIG factor...
>>
>>>on K6-450.
>>>If your program is really better than GambitTiger
>>>when the hardware difference is only 2:1 then
>>>you may do it a commercial program.
>>
>>On 2 to 1 hardware advantage I fear not a single program. But that's easy to say
>>because that holds for everyone with a not too crappy program. Better at 2:1? I
>>don't know, it would certainly be an interesting experiment to test it.
>>
>>Bas.
>
>By your definition most of the programs
>are too crappy programs
>
>see http://home.hccnet.nl/leo.dijksman/index.html
>
>The programs in the second devision and lower devisions are
>most of the programs and I expect all of them to lose a match
>of 10 games against Tiger when the hardware difference is 2:1
>against Tiger.
>
>I expect even most of the programs in the first devision
>that includes Crafty to lose a match against Tiger
>in the same conditions.
>
>Uri

I have seen the programs. Tell me why you expect that, maybe we can solve the
problem. Are you willing to take a bet? My money is on YACE bigtime. Let's say
8-2 for YACE if the books are about equal.

Bas.

Bas.







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