Computer Chess Club Archives


Search

Terms

Messages

Subject: Re: How much of a Genius must one be to create a 2400+ Program

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 11:25:40 04/26/00

Go up one level in this thread


On April 26, 2000 at 11:18:10, Dave Gomboc wrote:

>On April 26, 2000 at 03:59:17, Tom Kerrigan wrote:
>
>>On top of that, you have to know about alpha-beta. I have met a number of CS
>>grads who remember that minmax/alpha-beta is an algorithm but can't remember
>>what it's used for, much less how to implement it. And I'm sure that even the
>>best AI classes would not cover stuff like quiescence searches.
>
>Quiescence search was discussed in the initial AI class that I took back during
>my undergraduate program.  The professor wasn't a games person, but it was
>discussed during the section of the course on game-tree search.

I agree.  We do an AI class here, and both of us that teach it cover all of this
stuff.  The students even write an othello program (easier than chess by far)
and participate in a class othello tournament at the end of the term.  Lots of
fun and lots of interest.  A few hit my parallel programming course at the same
time and write a rudimentary parallel search version to cream everyone in the
AI class.  :)

>
>>Of course, now that massive online resources exist, people can simply surf the
>>web and immediately see exactly how to do this stuff.
>>
>>It took me about a year to write a solid program (I started in ~1994). Now I get
>>all sorts of e-mail from people who download TSCP, read it carefully, and write
>>their own strong programs in a matter of days or weeks. It's a little annoying,
>>but I guess that's progress.
>>
>>-Tom
>
>I think Christophe posted that it might take four years to write a 2400 program.
> I'm not sure what rating scale he meant, but I think that if someone is working
>full-time on a program, they should be able to have it reach 2400 SSDF in under
>a year, provided they have a CS degree or equivalent experience before they
>begin.  That's just my guess, of course, and it also relies on today's hardware
>speeds (e.g. I can easily believe that it would take four years if one started
>15 years ago!)
>
>Dave


I think if you mean 2400 ICC, it is not terribly hard.  If you mean 2400 FIDE
it is a _real_ challenge.  If you mean 2400 SSDF it is somewhere in between.



This page took 0 seconds to execute

Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700

Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.