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Subject: Re: Crafty not that strong (2)

Author: Peter Kappler

Date: 17:04:25 04/24/00

Go up one level in this thread


On April 24, 2000 at 18:08:33, Robert Hyatt wrote:

>On April 24, 2000 at 17:22:05, Peter Kappler wrote:
>
>>>
>>>I'm not sure I am a respectable chess programmer, but I want to ask something:
>>>
>>>Why is Crafty's management of pondering supposed to be superior to Fritz'?
>>>
>>>Why is pondering=off supposed to handicap Crafty more than Fritz?
>>>
>>>Who can seriously believe that Frans Morsch is so lousy that he cannot take
>>>advantage of pondering as well as Bob does?
>>>
>>>
>>>    Christophe
>>>
>>
>>Good questions, Christophe, but don't be surprised if they go unanswered.
>>
>>This debate has been raging forever and I still haven't seen any convincing
>>evidence that "no-pondering" hurts Crafty more than it hurts other programs.
>>
>>--Peter
>
>
>You miss the point entirely.  The point is that it _does_ hurt crafty.  For
>several reasons.  But to hit them again::
>

I never denied it would hurt Crafty.  I'm just waiting for evidence that it
hurts Crafty more than others.


>(1) it screws up the time allocation, because I assume I will save some time
>and I use it before I save it up.  Without pondering, this doesn't happen.
>

Pretty simple concept.  My guess is most programs do the same.


>(2) I am very aggressive with null-move.  As you reduce the time per move,
>there is a noticable point where Crafty will start getting killed by a program
>that doesn't use it as 'carelessly' as I do.  This means that (1) above will
>cause (2) to happen since time trouble -> reduced search depth.
>

Then this problem is going to exist in any fast time control game, *regardless*
of the ponder state...


>I simply say that to play a match, you play the two opponents at their strongest
>(and best tested) settings.  Not at some crippled level where we spend the next
>year arguing which is affected the most.


Great, now I just need access to two *identical* dedicated machines so I can
play an "optimal" match.  So, should I go spend $2000 for that new machine, or
maybe it makes more sense for me to try to get an answer to the question in my
previous post?  See *my* point?

--Peter






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