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Subject: Re: When to resign

Author: Bruce Moreland

Date: 15:25:02 09/01/99

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On September 01, 1999 at 12:41:41, Alan Grotier wrote:

>
>
>At what negative evaluation figure is it reasonable to assume that a chess
>program can nolonger defend the position and will lose the game?

The answer is dependent upon factors that are not typically accounted for in the
score.  The score can be -10 and not take into account some of these factors.

For example, if the program is playing a weak player, it can have an objectively
lost position and still win more than half the time.  If the opponent is running
out of time, especially in a zero-increment game, the game will often be won on
time.  If the program is up material but is getting mated, often the score is
extremely negative but a small mistake by the opponent will spoil the mate and
lead to an absolutely won position for the computer.

One area where humans can learn from computers is psychology -- the computers
don't have any.  They do not despair and lose interest in the game.  Many humans
expect the opponent to despair when losing, so they begin to play sloppily and
let the game win itself.  This is effective against humans since when they are
losing they don't really want to play, and will just wait to be killed.  But
computers always want to play, and they will often win these games because
sloppy play is fatal against computers.

There is no simple answer to this question.

bruce



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