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Subject: Re: The Barrier

Author: James Robertson

Date: 13:44:20 04/01/99

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On April 01, 1999 at 15:14:05, Ian Osgood wrote:

>On April 01, 1999 at 12:25:15, Stuart Cracraft wrote:
>
>>
>>Maybe it's just my imagination but having been
>>working on a program that tests on FICS, I've had
>>a devil of a time getting the rating up signficantly
>>over 2000 on the FICS server. Usually it will get
>>up to 2010-2040 and then evoke some interesrt in
>>some stronger types and get pounded down to 1970-2000
>>before it creeps up enough to get the stronger ones
>>interested again (re-pounding, etc.)
>>
>>What's special about 2000 on FICS? Maybe just a typical
>>barrier for a program?
>
>What is the handle of your program?
>
>Typically, computers modify their formula to roughly select their opposition.
>Specifically,
>
>a) assesswin > k   to avoid dropping points to low rated sandbaggers
>                   and in general play higher rated players.
>b) !computer       to avoid getting crushed by 400MHz crafties
>c) inc > k         if your computer behaves badly at small search depths
>
>In addition, many computers will refuse playing more than
>n games in a row with the same person to avoid repeated losses.
>
>When I researched formulas a while ago, I found that programs with !computer
>and assesswin>0 were on average 100 points higher for the same processor speed.
>
>>If there is (or isn't) anything special about it,
>>then I'm wondering what I could do short of
>>increasing my hardware. It's an old Pentium 133mhz
>>but I don't want to spend the money to upgrade it
>>and would rather improve the program.
>
>What did you expect?  For comparison, Iodine is gnuchess on a P100,
>with assesswin > 1, and it maxes out at 2156.  PoorGnu on a P120 with
>assesswin > 0 maxed out at 2242 but is currently under 2000. Note that neither
>have !computer.
>
>An account I run is SapphireII.  It is a high quality program, but runs at only
>32 MHz.  It is routinely crushed by everything running on P166 or better except
>for a few rank amateur programs.  (This is actually pretty good!  Kittinger
>wrote some mean assembly.)  Search depth is everything in comp-comp games.
>Faster processors prevail in the long run.

I keep getting killed by SapphireII! And it is not just the search depth. What
depth does SapphireII usally reach in a 5 0 game? I am getting 6-7, and still
die almost every time....

James

>
>Get an upgrade.  K6's are good, cheap chess processors.  (IMHO, G3's are the
>best chess processors.)
>
>>The usual: PVS, null-move, hashing. Evaluation consists
>>of about 50 terms. Evaluation is done at the leafs
>>rather than pc/sq style for the most part. If you
>>need further details, feel free to ask. Code available.
>>
>>--Stuart



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