Author: Christophe Theron
Date: 09:41:09 11/10/98
Go up one level in this thread
On November 10, 1998 at 00:14:21, Les Walker wrote:
>On November 09, 1998 at 23:56:24, Detlef Pordzik wrote:
>
>>On November 09, 1998 at 08:59:19, Micheal Cummings wrote:
>>
>>>Looking at the lastest SSDF rankings I was wondering where CM5500 was, the only
>>>ones they have are CM5000 ranked 26th then CM4000 at 51st.
>>>
>>>Can someone please tell me why even though CM6000 is very new, why there is no
>>>mention to adding it in the December ratings and CM5500 was not tested at all.
>>>and that program has been out for a while. I find the SSDF ratings very
>>>incomplete. and mis-guiding.
>>>
>>>If someone can answer why the most bought chess program versions in the world
>>>are not tested then I would like to know why please.
>>
>>While printing the new SSDF list I recognized something similar and asked Mr.
>>Karlsson in a email concerning this today.
>>
>>I doubt, I'll get an answer.
>>" No autoplayer " is absolutely no reason for my opinion, not to test a brandnew
>>product of this value.
>>As weather de Koning nor Distributor Mindscape have the slightest lobby down
>>there, nobody will have a look at the settings, that make sense. So, if at all,
>>CM will be sent into games with the standard settings - of 1 MB Hash tables -
>>against progs who refuse to start below 48 MB.
>>But, as said, they didn't care the least about this in the CM 5.000 Vs - they
>>didn't even use CM 5.500 - why should they use CM 6.000 at all ?
>>
>>ELVIS
>
>
>In my opinion, if the Chessmasters were included in the list, and everything
>were set fairly, i.e. hardware, software settings, etc., Chessmaster 6000
>would be number one, with Chessmaster 5555 being 2nd or 3rd on the list.
>It is also my opinion that the Chessmasters are not included for this very
>reason. I believe it is a "smart" business decision.
>
>Kind Regards,
>
>Les
Fortunately there is the SSDF, so that people doing the kind of unverified
assertion you are doing here can be taken as they deserve: not seriously.
Anybody can claim the program they like would be #1. Especially when a new
version is released. It is the best time to claim "if they would test it, it
would be #1". So that nobody can really check.
In case you didn't notice, there are a lot of stronger programs out there.
You can question the SSDF results, as it has been done, and give concrete
evidence if you can. We are not blind enough to 100% trust this list.
But even taking it with a grain of salt (or 2 grains if you want), CM is nowhere
near the first place. You can claim that De Koning has improved his program by
100 elo points or more, based on several impressive games played against you.
And so what?
You'd better give evidence, if you can, by posting games played against strong
programs.
About the default hash table size: CM5000 comes with ttable_size=20 by default.
As I understand, this means "20 bits of hash table indexes", and it could mean
1M bytes, or 1M ENTRIES (what is the size of an entry? 8, 12 or 16 bytes?). I
don't know about CM6000.
Even if it is only 1M byte, as The King has a very slow nps, I think CM does not
suffer a lot from a small hash table. Of course it would be a little stronger
with more HT, but don't overestimate this.
And BTW, if it is really an issue, it is up to Mindscape to provide the
necessary information about how to change the hash table size. As far as I know,
the only way to change this size is by editing the CM.INI file. Or did I miss
something?
Anyway, I think Mindscape doesn't care about the SSDF. They know they wouldn't
be close to #1, and even if they were it wouldn't increase their sales.
You should better be thankful to the SSDF for the job they do. What have you
been doing personnaly to help them achieve better results? Send them an email to
explain how to increase the HT? Provide games yourself?
Or do you think your critisism and assumptions about SSDF unfairness is the best
you can bring to the computer chess world?
Christophe
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