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Subject: Re: Ooops

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 17:54:05 06/19/03

Go up one level in this thread


On June 19, 2003 at 18:19:58, Tom Kerrigan wrote:

>On June 19, 2003 at 18:01:57, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>
>>On June 19, 2003 at 17:17:15, Tom Kerrigan wrote:
>>
>>>On June 19, 2003 at 16:43:52, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>
>>>>I take the comment as what I said.  The original position 2 had 8 pieces.  He
>>>>complained about the evaluation.  Even taking three pawns off it _still_ was
>>>>wrong.
>>>
>>>What in the WORLD are you talking about?? What article are you referring to? I'm
>>>going to this URL, which is at the top of this thread:
>>>
>>>http://www.clubkasparov.ru/521772350.html?462691585533321
>>>
>>>What do you mean, "original position 2"? Has the article changed?
>>
>>"original position 2": the position given in the article.
>>
>>"modified position 2":  the position you get if you "remove three pawns
>>as suggested by the author."
>>
>>Was that too hard to understand???
>>
>>
>>
>>>? Because the
>>>current position 2 has 7 pieces (not 8) and if you take the pawns off (for what
>>>reason?), you're left with KB vs. KB, which you'd think Junior and Fritz would
>>>evaluate as a draw, and the couple sentences of discussion about it don't talk
>>>about databases at ALL.
>>>
>>>-Tom
>>
>>
>>On the other hand, you are correct.  I meant position 1.  Not position 2.
>>
>>So in the above replace 2 with 1 in both places.  And we are back to the
>>point.  Removing three of the pawns produces a bogus evaluation.  Because
>>the tables were _not_ working.  He _should_ have known that before writing
>>an article and publishing it.
>>
>>If you remove three pawns, it will be in the 5 piece tables.  If he really
>>had them.  He implied he did.  But he didn't.  And that leaves out the fact
>>that _some_ programs can get this one right without tables, even with the
>>original 8 pieces on the board.  Mine can, for example.
>>
>>There is little excuse for saying something doesn't work, when it doesn't
>>work because of a user error.  Publishing it is even worse.
>
>I think it's not optimal. It seems like he should have thought twice when his
>5-man databases didn't give him the solution to a 5-man position. One can argue
>that his complaints are legitimate because the programs gave him the impression
>that the databases were installed when they weren't.
>
>I've always agreed with that point though.
>
>Now that you've dropped your assertion that the guy is an idiot because he
>wasn't counting kings as pieces in his 5-man positions, it seems like this has
>been discussed to conclusion.
>
>-Tom

That was only _one_ implication in my post.  What he meant isn't extremely
clear.  Complaining about a bogus eval before reaching 5 pieces is wrong for
the reasons I have given before.  Complaining about a bogus eval after reaching
5 pieces is also wrong because something is _obviously_ broken.  But there are
other things.  The title is about "computers are dumb at endings" although not
exactly in those words.  That is _also_ wrong.  I get position 1 right without
tables.  Others probably do also.  There is a version of crafty that will get
the totally blocked positions right, although I don't run with that code
enabled at the present, even though it seems to work well.  So the base
premise is also flawed.  There are _other_ flaws.  Whether he thought position
one should access a table or not is only one point out of several.

I don't know what made it _the_ point in my post...




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