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Subject: Unfriendly computer blitz

Author: Ricardo Gibert

Date: 21:01:08 12/06/99


On ICC, I often see computers winning games against strong players by
"unfriendly" means. Consider what happens when the position is dead drawn, but
the computer player does not realize this and makes an unending series of
aimless moves that drains the human opponent of time on his clock. It isn't any
secret that computers have "faster reflexes". This is boring and inflates the
apparent strength of the program.

I propose that computer programs should offer/accept draws when the following
conditions hold:

1) There have been no pawn moves or captures played by
   either side over the past 10 ply played. Of course
   the 50 move rule counter is perfect for this.

2) The evaluation has remained relatively stable over
   this period of moves. Fluctuating within a _very_
   small range.

Notice the computer player could possibly offer/accept a draw when it is
material up. It is also possible that the position could be winning for the
computer, but I think that's OK, since the computer has demonstated an inability
to find the win. When a position is a winning one, the score should degenerate
in favor of the side that has the winning position. I know this is not perfect,
but restricting this to blitz or bullet would
keep the chess "friendly" and entertaining.

A second proposal I have to make the chess more "friendly", is to keep the
computer from forcing wins from sheer speed of play. Force the computer to
consume a little more time per move so that it does not win on time just by
virtue of its inhuman speed. You can have this trigger a draw offer when it gets
low on time, _then_ if it is refused, you can have the computer take the gloves
off and play at full speed.

The "drawback" to all this is that computers employing the above 2 ideas will
wind up with lower ratings, but I think those ratings will then reflect their
strength due to chessic reasons rather than non-chessic ones. Computer chess
programers egos will take a hit when their programs ICC rating goes down, but
they will gain in the long run by virtue of having produced a more enjoyable
program that is bound to thereby be more popular. In a serious competitive
setting or against another computer, these "features" should be turned off of
course. Perhaps this could be tested on ICC with unrated games to see what the
impact would be on playing strength.



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