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Subject: Re: Poll Question ? { Dream Match }

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 13:54:40 01/08/00

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On January 08, 2000 at 10:25:45, Graham Laight wrote:

>On January 07, 2000 at 23:33:30, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>
>>Based on my own experiments, faster hardware is much more significant in
>>comp vs comp games than it is in comp vs human games.  Based on _thousands_
>>of games played on the servers.  For several months I tried two machines on
>>the same account, alternating...  a P5/133 and a P6/200, which was about 2.5X
>>faster.  The rating did not change up or down nearly as much as the 2.5x
>>speed-up would suggest (ie nowhere near 100 rating points).  In fact, it
>>wasn't uncommon to see both machines with very similar ratings, when only
>>playing against humans...
>>
>>That is my data...  I thought it interesting, not surprising, and only ran the
>>test for fun.  Crafty's rating, when only playing humans, on ICC reached over
>>3250 and stayed there for a month.  Once the computer guys woke up (No idea
>>what they were doing) and started playing me again, the rating dropped back
>>to about 3000 where it has stuck.  That is Crafty playing 250 points stronger
>>vs humans than against computers.  Real data, over thousands of games...
>
>This is good quality information. Thankyou.
>
>Having received good information, it seems churlish to complain - but if a game
>is played via the Internet, how can you be sure of how your opponents are
>playing? In many cases, you won't be playing a solitary human relying solely on
>their brain!
>
>-g


No.  If you watch just one GM play crafty you will see a serious flaw if you
want to use just his games on one day.  I have seen Crafty clean a GMs clock
(ie play GM Dlugy 30 games, win 30.)  The next day it may win a 30 game match
with a 20-10 score.  Which is more accurate?  Hard to say.  I have a lot of
book randomness in crafty to avoid repetition.  But this allows oddball poor
openings to creep in. As a result, I look at hundreds of games, rather than
just one day's worth.  ICC mails me every game.  I can extract a week's worth
and analyze the results, assuming I know what was 'different' about Crafty for
that week.

I don't know that GM/IM players never 'cheat' with a computer.  But I haven't
seen anything to suggest that any I consider "good players" have done so.  I
tend to look at such results carefully to avoid getting snookered, of course,
as anything can happen.  But I can't imagine a GM 'cheating'.   It just isn't
in their psyche...



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