Author: Tord Romstad
Date: 06:34:00 10/19/04
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On October 19, 2004 at 05:57:06, Vasik Rajlich wrote: >It's a sort of interesting accident that computer vs human is balanced at the >moment. If the game was more tactical, humans would already be crushed and we >would accept it as a matter of course. If it was more positional, humans would >still be stronger, maybe much stronger. I don't think it is quite that simple. Consider the game of shogi, which is arguably a more tactical game than western chess. The best computers have no chance against the best humans. I think there are two main reasons why computers are so good at chess: 1. Material is very important in chess. A material advantage is usually sufficient to win. This makes it easy to write reasonably accurate evaluation functions for chess. In shogi, material is much less important, while factors like initiative and king safety (which are much more difficult to quantify) play a more significant role. 2. The branching factor in chess is not too high. This means that computer programs running on current hardware can afford to waste lots of time analysing nonsense variations, and still search deeply enough to see the relevant tactical lines. This is not yet the case in shogi. The horizon effect is still a very real program, and top human players are able to outsearch the best programs in tactical lines. Even in chess, I am not sure it is strictly true that computers are better than the best humans in tactics. The picture is a bit more complicated. Computers are extremely good at finding short, bushy tactics, while the best GMs are better at finding very deep, narrow tactics including non-checks and quiet moves near the end of the lines. Consider the Nolot test suite, which consists of problems solved by human players at a normal tournament time control, but which the computers still struggle to solve. In chess, computer hardware has reached the stage where the programs' superiority in short, bushy tactics almost exactly compensates for their relative weakness at understanding deep, narrow tactics. In shogi, we will have to wait a few more years before this happens. Tord
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