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Subject: Re: the best?!?!?!?!?!?!

Author: Shep

Date: 01:32:18 12/29/99

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On December 29, 1999 at 01:30:52, pavel wrote:

>hi,
>     i think its a very contravercial topic about whose the best chess playing
>program.......for example lets say.......chess tiger is said to be the best
>program so far (even though its not out yet)because of its ssdf rating. on the
>other hand shredder is the world champion......but still some how underrated(or
>is it iverrated?) then comes strong programes like fritz, nimzo chessmaster
>.....and so long. and ofcourse not to forget our very own favourite "crafty"
>---> this program beats any commercial programs " on daily baisis" in ICC even
>chess tiger loses games 2 or 3 times in a row.......and still its not considered
>to be the best?

Don't forget Crafty's huge hardware advantage (quad Xeon vs. Celeron 466 or
whatever Lex has). Crafty undoubtedly is _very_ strong at Blitz.
OTOH, at 1/game on my PIII-550's, Tiger currently leads 23.5:6.5.
So for every "X is better than Y", someone will find "Y is better than X". :)

>then actually who is the best??? i think whatever rating that is being used to
>rate a chess program is not at all a very good one......its not stable at all.
>
>anyone with threir point of veiws?

I think it's almost impossible to find _the_ best because it will largely depend
on where you look at.
No program will be able to consistently get to #1 in every tournament.
No program will be able to score 70+% against all opponents in a longer series.
(At least none of the ones available now - maybe if we wait for Tiger 14... :)
And even if so, a program that's "the best" on a 400 MHz machine will not
necessarily be "the best" on a 1000 MHz machine (verified by me).
A program that's "the best" at Blitz will not necessarily be "the best" at
40/120 (obviously).
Etc. etc. etc.

That's why I think it's really a waste of energy to fire off long debates of
"Why X is better than Y" or "Everyone says Z is the best but I think it sucks".

As the old Latin saying goes, "de gustibus non disputandum" (no sense arguing
about personal taste). :)

---
Shep









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