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Subject: Re: Are comments about Crafty 16.6 to harsh or just accurate observations?

Author: Mark Young

Date: 22:53:44 01/11/00

Go up one level in this thread


On January 11, 2000 at 23:11:27, Robert Hyatt wrote:

>On January 11, 2000 at 22:45:52, Bruce Moreland wrote:
>
>>On January 11, 2000 at 18:25:44, Mark Young wrote:
>>
>>>No one is just talking about one game, i agree any program can have a bad game,
>>>even Ferret, and you know my opinion on Ferret. And it has nothing to do with
>>>like or dislike of the programmer. I judge Ferret on what it shows me in games,
>>>as I do with Crafty. And I don't think it is smear to express ones opinion on
>>>any program as long as it is accurate. The only smear I seen was to the person
>>>who wrote one article and devoted a few words to Crafty that were accurate. Now
>>>some on this board think it is insane to say Crafty is weaker then the top
>>>commercial programs, and it is smear to explain why it is weaker. So I think the
>>>only way to resolve a dispute like this is with some games.
>>
>>I didn't like Cock's article because I thought it used bad data to try to
>>support a proposition that Crafty was weak.  I don't say that I am going to
>>fight to the death to prevent anyone from presenting that proposition.
>>
>>Pick a random person who doesn't like Bob, and have them write an article about
>>Crafty.  Do you think it is possible that there'd be little truth in the
>>article, even if every sentence in the article were literally true?  I can
>>easily believe this.
>>
>>Just take that Hiarcs-Ferret game and annotate it as if white is brilliant and
>>black is completely incompetent, and you'd have an article that is factually
>>true and yet allows hugely different conclusions than if you write the same
>>article about Ferret-Fritz.
>>
>>Perhaps the issue here is that Cock raised doubts in my mind about his motives
>>because of the way he presented his case.  Even if everything is true I think
>>the article still stunk.  Notice that I didn't argue against the truth of the
>>article, since I don't know if it is true or not.
>>
>>I think people have a tough time talking about computer strength because very
>>few people are competent enough to analyze the games properly with their own
>>minds.  Instead they use statistically meaningless short matches and
>>tournaments, analysis made by other programs, and emphasis on class-B mistakes
>>that every program still makes.
>>
>>If someone wants to talk about games from a higher-level perspective, I would be
>>happy to listen, and I bet Bob would be as well.
>>
>>Likewise, if someone wants to learn enough statistics to perform a match and
>>accurately express what the results mean, it would be hard to argue with the
>>result, although if this effort is undertaken as a precursor to telling Bob that
>>he's wasted his life, or something similar to this, it might reflect rather
>>poorly upon the experimenter.
>>
>>bruce
>
>
>As far as your last sentence goes, I have been hearing that for years.  Until
>my wife gave up telling me.  :)

Regardless of what Bruce thinks. I know computer chess would not have advanced
as far as it has without the Skill and Ideas of you Bob Hyatt. I don't think you
wasted your life, computer chess owes you many thanks. And I always remember
that regardless of what I think of any crafty chess program.



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