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Subject: Crafty not that strong (2)

Author: A.L.Mourik

Date: 11:42:36 04/24/00


Hello to everyone,

Two days ago I played a Nunn 2 match between Fritz 6 and Crafty 17.10.
This whether to check if Crafty as supposed by e.g Jouni Uski was really as good
as been told .

The result in a Nunn 2 match that I held was disappointing because it ended in a
clear 29,5 – 10,5 victory for Fritz6.
Timelevel 5min +3 sec. PII 400 each 8 MB HT, pondering off.
The only reason that I played a Nunn 2 Match between these two engines, was to
TEST which program under equal circumstances, as in this case in the Fritz6 gui,
scored the best. This as an indication of the “chesspower” of that engine.
Imho these are the best circumstances with one computer to tell which program
produces the best chess.

You can’t argue on the fact that the circumstances for the given engines were
not the same.
As far as I can see it, your only real point is the presumption, that Crafty
does a better time saving in the pondering on mode, than Fritz6.
So I agree that with testing on two different computers and with both programs
pondering on, this presumed negative effect for Crafty would be neutralised.
On the other hand I wonder what Morsch or other respectable programmers opinion
on these presumption is.

I would like to end this discussion with quoting Cock de Gorter who has written
in his article on Kasparovchess.com

"Crafty is extremely strong in tactics, but it makes positional errors and
misplays some endgames. It doesn’t understand piece mobility. Despite its high
rating on the Internet, Crafty is a weak program compared with the best
commercial chess programs."

I agree on that but still I must say that I am very glad to have Crafty for
free.





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