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Subject: Re: Future of Chess: Will GMs be able to draw computers?

Author: Uri Blass

Date: 03:23:01 10/19/04

Go up one level in this thread


On October 19, 2004 at 05:31:34, Tony Nichols wrote:

>On October 19, 2004 at 05:08:18, Uri Blass wrote:
>
>>On October 19, 2004 at 04:50:16, Tony Nichols wrote:
>>
>>>On October 19, 2004 at 03:52:10, Uri Blass wrote:
>>>
>>>>On October 19, 2004 at 02:56:31, Tony Nichols wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On October 19, 2004 at 02:31:54, Roger D Davis wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>Several years ago, back before RGCC even existed (before Rec.games.chess split),
>>>>>>computers were lucky to beat human masters. Then the masters fell, then the
>>>>>>international masters, and now computers are as good as most GMs, maybe as good
>>>>>>as all but the top GMs, and maybe somewhat better than the top GMs. Who knows.
>>>>>>The point, however, is that progress is indeed being made, and it doesn't show
>>>>>>any sign of abating.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>My questions are these: Will computers ever become so strong that GMs will feel
>>>>>>lucky even to draw? Will the percentage of GM versus computer draws slowly
>>>>>>diminish, even among the top humans, so that computers will someday completely
>>>>>>and totally dominate?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Remember...chess isn't a solved game. Perhaps white always win. So as computers
>>>>>>improve, they should begin to win more and more often as their strength comes to
>>>>>>approximate perfect play. But even if white doesn't always win, it may
>>>>>>nevertheless be that if the 2nd best move is made in any position, that side is
>>>>>>lost. Maybe perfect play can only draw and anything else loses. And just which
>>>>>>side do you think might make the 2nd best move...the human or some future
>>>>>>Quantum-computing beast?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Another reason to believe that eventually even the strongest humans will be on
>>>>>>the losing side: Recently, it was posted that as computers have become faster,
>>>>>>programs authors have actually been REMOVING knowledge from their evaluation
>>>>>>function. In other words, deeper searches are better than explicit knowledge,
>>>>>>this presumably because chess has proven to "consist" more of combinatorial
>>>>>>tactics than of positional strategy.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Accordingly, it would seem that the humans are the ones with the "horizon
>>>>>>effect" (Surprise!!), meaning that the combinatorial tactics that computers
>>>>>>handle quite nicely just doesn't reduce as much to positional rules as we might
>>>>>>like. Sure, humans might learn a few tricks from computers as computers continue
>>>>>>to improve, but once we've lost the lead, we won't ever regain it. What happens
>>>>>>when a computer regularly searchs to double the number of plies we see today.
>>>>>>Can a human GM even draw such a beast?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Roger
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Hi Roger, I believe that most GM's can easily make a + score against the
>>>>>computers.
>>>>
>>>>In that case they could prove it in the israeli league when the result was
>>>>importnat for their teams and not only for themselves by beating humans
>>>>convincingly when the teams could choose the person to play against the computer
>>>>but they did not do it even there and score near 50%.
>>>>
>>>>I remember for example that Yona kossashvili lost against Fritz6 and we are
>>>>talking about human who did 6/6 in humans against machines in 1997.
>>>>
>>>>I remember that computers had bigger problems against weaker players and 3 chess
>>>>programs could only draw against arnold hasidovsky that has rating near 2200.
>>>>
>>>>Remember that computers today are clearly better than the level they were in the
>>>>time of the Israeli league so my guess is that most GM's cannot have positive
>>>>score against the machines.
>>>>
>>>>Uri
>>>
>>> Hi, Uri
>>> I'm not familiar with the Israeli league but I will accept your information. I
>>>think Human players understand chess programs better today than they did then. I
>>>would also say that if the engines had trouble with a 2200 player that helps my
>>>argument not yours. I agree that programs have gotten stronger but surley not
>>>500 elo. So if programs draw against master level players how can they be better
>>>than GMs?
>>>
>>>Regards,
>>>
>>>Tony
>>
>>I think that the reason is simple.
>>
>>The 2200 player played for a draw when the GM's wanted to win.
>>When you try to make a draw against computers your task is clearly easier.
>>
>>Uri
>
>
>I agree. However it's not so simple when playing Kramnik!:)
>Tony

Or maybe it is simpler when your name is different than peter leko.
Peter leko did not play for a draw in a correct way.

Uri



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