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Subject: Re: impact of early queen exchange on performance

Author: martin fierz

Date: 11:44:45 10/09/02

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On October 09, 2002 at 14:23:03, Robert Hyatt wrote:

>On October 09, 2002 at 13:28:50, Mike S. wrote:
>
>>Percentages, based on a large comp-comp database:
>>
>>Engine          | #Games   total  W    B  | total eQE* W/eQE   B/eQE
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------
>>Fritz 7         |  784      69%  72%  65% | 59% (#57)   53%     67%
>>Chess Tiger 14  |  850      66%  71%  62% | 72% (#71)   73%     71%
>>Shredder 6/-P.  |  743      61%  65%  57% | 58% (#58)   63%     53%
>>Junior 7        |  799      55%  58%  53% | 41% (#60)   25% !   56%
>>
>>*) "eQE" = early queen exchange (within the first 10 moves)
>>
>>Fritz 7's white percentage after an early exchange of the queens was 53% only,
>>compared to it's general white average of 72%! Remarkable also Tiger 14's result
>>with black: Much better (71% to 62%) without queens. Desastrous was Junior 7's
>>result with white when the queens were off the board soon: only 25% (in 30 games
>>of that kind).
>>
>>It looks as if the engines each are very different, in how they depend on having
>>the queen... with Shredder 6/-Paderborn showing the smallest impact.
>>
>>For games with Black against Fritz 7 or Junior 7 (and probably against others
>>too for which I didn't search the statistics), it could be promising to have an
>>opening book which favours eQE variants... But that of course must not have
>>"wholes" in other (more common) lines, so it can't be done by simply generate an
>>opening tree based on an eQE games database only.
>>
>>Regards,
>>M.Scheidl
>
>
>I don't think it is too surprising.  It just highlights a weakness that programs
>fail to understand
>basic endgame ideas, and rely more on tactics than on knowledge to move along
>thru a game.
>
>If a program has some basic holes in its knowledge about endgames, then removing
>the queens
>is going to highlight those holes.  Or, the inverse, keeping queens on tends to
>cover up those holes,
>at least for a while.
>
>Programs that don't understand majorities, weak pawns, distant
>majorities/passers, which minor
>pieces work best with pawns in various configurations, the fact that pawns on
>both wings give
>better winning chances than pawns on one wing, etc, are going to have great
>trouble with GM
>players.
>
>I've given some examples of things I've had to fix after watching GMs pick on
>the same hole
>over and over.  Today I don't see those huge holes cause me a lot of trouble
>(yes I still have
>holes, to be sure, but not the building-sized holes some "tactical" programs
>possess..) and I
>don't particularly care if queens come off early or not.  If you hear someone
>complain about
>an early queen trade, you can rest assured they _know_ they have some serious
>endgame
>holes that need work...
>
>And you can also rest assured that after the kind of practice Kramnik has had
>with Fritz, that
>he _knows_ what kind of holes are there and he's going to park in them every
>day, since they
>can't be fixed due to match rules (stupid rules I might add).

just wondering: what do you think fritz' problem is and how would you fix it?
and do you think you could fix these problems in a single day?

aloha
  martin



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