Author: Miguel A. Ballicora
Date: 15:10:42 05/28/02
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On May 28, 2002 at 15:24:14, Dann Corbit wrote: >On May 28, 2002 at 14:47:17, K. Burcham wrote: > >> >> >>I have been curious about what motivates chess programmers. What do they really >>want from their creation? >> >>1. Money > >Not gonna happen. The best chess programmers in the world are not millionaires. > If they turned their talents to other fields, they could easily make a heck of >a lot more money. > >>2. Number one on SSDF list > >Probably a goal of most chess programmers, but not a driving force. > >>3. To Win most games against human GM > >Probably a goal of most chess programmers, but not a driving force. This is >something that Robert Hyatt particularly enjoys, I think. > >>4. To gain more Fans > >Probably a goal of most chess programmers, but not a driving force. > >>5. To be looked at as number one programmer > >I doubt if anyone cares much about this. Probably, most people cannot even name >the programmers of the top ten chess programs. I suspect that .001% of the US >population or less knows who wrote Chess Tiger or Fritz. In fact, I suspect >that there are less than 10,000 people in the whole US who know who programmed >Deep Blue (except generically "IBM"). > >>6. Attention & fame > >Probably a goal of some chess programmers, but not a driving force. There are >better ways to attain these, if that is what people are after. They will >certainly be dissapointed if that is their goal. >My opinion -- of the top ten chess programmers in the world, most of them post >here. None of them are famous and much of the attention that they get is >negative. > >>7. Only to beat their last version > >Everyone wants to do this, but it has very little connection with chess >programming. > >>8. could care less about any of the above---just a casual hobby > >Nobody who tries to write a chess program can be casual about it. > >9. People write chess programs because it is a terrific challenge. And learn a language on the process... (C in my case) >10. People write chess programs because it is great fun to compete against other >chess engines. > >11. People write chess engines because chess itself is inspiring and beautiful. CC for me is a way of art, uncontrolled art. You do not choose the final product, you just set the rules and the rules (program) find the product. At that time you evaluate it: Is the product beautiful? >12. People write chess engines because it is interesting to write a machine >algorithm that can out-perform the one who wrote it. TRUE >13. People write chess engines because it pushes the envelope of programmming >technology. Search theory, AI, all sorts of wonderul tricks. > >14. People write chess engines because they want to find out if they can do it. One of the reasons whay I chose the name Gaviota is because of a book I read when I was a child. "John Livingston Seagull" is the book and Gaviota means Seagull. If anybody read the book will understand why. >15. People write chess engines because there is a rich literature available in >postscript/PDF format from universities and other sources and it is exciting >reading. > >16. People write chess engines because of exciting results like the Deep Blue >match verses Kasparov. Actually, this made the final push to get into it. It was the game (1st match) that Kasparov squeezed DB. I asked myself, how is it possible to analyze millions of positions and play so bad? There must be something missing in the evaluation! That was my impression and what drove me to understand fully how a program operates. So, my ultimate goal is 17. Play decent chess (beyond the results). Bas Hamstra wants Tao to play like Tal. On the contrary, my ideal would be that my program plays like Karpov, Capablanca, Botvinnik or even better Akiba Rubinstein. Sound, logical and rounded chess. If we are talking about dreams, I am going to dream big :-) Playing decent chess is not that easy! Regards, Miguel >For me, none of the reasons you listed had any real importance. It is an >exploration for me. I want to try things that nobody has tried yet. I want to >come up with algorithms and techniques that have not been invented or >implemented. I want to discover algorithms in the literature that are seemingly >unrelated but that have direct application to chess. Mostly, I just want to >have some fun at it. I have no illusions whatsoever about making money. I can >make lots of money doing regular programming for companies that need my >assistance. I don't care if I ever get on the SSDF list or get fans or any of >that stuff. For me, it is an intellectual exercise that stretches the limits of >my brain.
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