Author: Robert Henry Durrett
Date: 15:03:38 08/28/98
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On August 28, 1998 at 16:36:29, Serge Desmarais wrote: >On August 28, 1998 at 12:55:57, Robert Henry Durrett wrote: > >>Why not obtain, and create a library of, the opening books of all of the current >>chess engines [maybe others not so current too - maybe] and test all engines >>with all of the books? >> >>This may be too big a project, so may not be practical for that reason alone. >> >>The thought behind this suggestion is that such a testing program would point >>out any dependences on books as well as to make comparisons of the "engines >>without their books" more informative relative to the true inherent strengths >>and weaknesses of the engines. It might also point out highly specific needs for >>improvements in some of the engines. > > > You are assuming that the opening books are a kind of "cover up" of their >respective program's weaknesses, if I understand you well? > >Serge Desmarais (1) Disclaimer: Please recall my previous "admission" that I am not a professional chess software programmer. What I was thinking may or may not make sense to a person with intimate knowledge of the inner workings of such software. If not, I hope one of those people will squelch this idea now. (2) I do not regard modern chess engines to be "weak" at all. They are, it seems to me, very strong indeed. (3) The purpose I had in mind was to unmask the basic [but very strong] engine from the opening books so that any inherent "weaknesses" could more easily be identified. (4) Currently, any weaknesses which would cause the engine to not perform perfectly in the early opening are masked by the opening book. (5) But people here on CCC have recently posted some very good reasons why chess engines should not be entered into competitions "naked" i.e. without an opening book. (6) The competitions between engines are both competitions in inherent strengths of the basic engines [without books] and competitions in development of better books. (7) Keep in mind that programs like Fritz have rating increases of only a few points every now and then. The threads dealing with statistics have shown that it takes quite a few games to determine with any confidence that such a rating increase is "real." (8) When you are dealing with very small rating increases, as noted in another thread, it is unclear whether this increase was due to an improved book or to an improvement in the way the engine arrives at it's next move when out of book. (9) So, maybe I am thinking that the books "cover up" engine performance weaknesses, as you say.
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