Author: Albert Silver
Date: 18:43:19 12/24/05
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On December 24, 2005 at 18:47:48, Rolf Tueschen wrote:
>Perhaps a stupid question, but let me ask it for my own interest. You give a
>couple of types with different results and then after 160 games each you get
>different results (one time some 50 points difference) and then I've read the
>item "ponder=off"; do you know something about the importance of that factor?
>I'm thinking about the importance of that aspect for say FRITZ with its
>tradition or better experience. Please dont go into all details, just give me a
>short estimation for the importance. Without knowing the answer, I see three
>critical points: ponder off, 160 games and difference of 50 points between two
>special types.
Relax dude. That other part was quite unnecessary. For anyone playing with a
single computer or single cpu/core, "ponder=off" is obligatory. What it means is
that the engines do not think during the time of the opponent. Otherwise one
cannot know if one engine is using the CPU more, if there is a problem in the
equality of the usage of the CPU, etc. Nowadays, there are even dual-core
processors (equivalent to two separate processors in one - the AMD Athlon65 X2
series is an example), so that people can run engine matches with Ponder=On, but
my processor is not one of them.
The engines do have separate and equal-sized hash tables (256 MB for me, which
is fine since I have 1 GB Ram total), and when it is their turn to think and
play, they make use of the previously calculated hash tables.
In theory, there should no change in Elo performance using "ponder=off". The
conditions of the matches I reported are this:
I tested 3 Rybka settings ('very positional', 'slightly positional', and
'slightly tactical') against identical opponents (Deep Fritz 8, etc.) using
identical openings (the Nunn2 set), in order to give each setting the exact same
conditions, and hopefully better show any performance differences, if any.
The Nunn2 set, in case you don't know, is a set of 20 opening positions chosen
by GM John Nunn, in which 2 engines play 2 games of each position, once as white
and then as black. So 4 opponents for each setting means 4 matches of 40 games,
or 160 games.
One can argue that the positions may favor one engine more than another, but the
positions are designed to try and provide a variety of typical types of
opening/middlegame problems to solve, and remember that the engines get to play
both sides of each position.
I am starting another series to test the Rybka settings against Junior 8 (don't
have J9), and see how it does.
Albert
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