Author: Dann Corbit
Date: 11:14:12 05/24/99
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On May 23, 1999 at 22:44:04, Roger D Davis wrote: >It's only one game, certainly, but it doesn't really look like Rebel had much >understanding of the game from the time it left book (other's appraisals, not >mine), and Rebel's lose supports the argument that the micros have their own >weaknesses, and aren't yet a real match for GM players. > >So where does that leave previous opinions about a DB board for the desktop? >We'll have to see what the next months of Rebel-GM games hold, but the market >for a DB chip is starting to look better and better. > >If Rebel consistently loses to the GMs, doesn't this just set the market up for >the entry of Hsu? Too much extrapolation from a single match. When computers win, people rush to say that computers are now GM's. When computers lose, they say that they are vastly inferior. Quite frankly, we really don't know. Rohde played brilliantly, and I would not be surprised to see another GM fall to the same attack. So what does it all mean? Too early to tell. But this sort of experiment (GM verses computer at 40/2) is just the sort of data we need to answer the big computer ability questions once and for all. My warmest possible commendations for Ed ponying up the cash for experiments like this. He has moxy. That a computer should lose to one of the best players on earth at 40/2 should not surprise anyone (nor should it be terribly astonishing if a computer should win such a match -- after all, even a GM can make a blunder or at least a less than optimal move). I think the Hsu chip market will not be enormous. He will probably sell thousands, maybe tens of thousands. But how many computer operators have the desire to open up the case and install a board? Probably one in a thousand. A lot of people have enough trouble with a normal software installation. Asking people to do surgery on a computer is a bigger leap than many realize. To people comfortable with such ideas, it seems ludicrously simple. But many expert chess players are simply not the hardware type. I will be first in line to buy one. But if millions of people buy one, I will be astonished.
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