Computer Chess Club Archives


Search

Terms

Messages

Subject: One more try! I was hoping to see if 0ther programers have any comments

Author: stuart taylor

Date: 06:07:34 04/30/00

Go up one level in this thread


On April 28, 2000 at 15:27:16, Dan Newman wrote:

>On April 28, 2000 at 10:48:14, stuart taylor wrote:
>
>>On April 28, 2000 at 08:47:05, Aaron Tay wrote:
>>
>>>On April 28, 2000 at 06:44:16, stuart taylor wrote:
>>>
>>>>On April 28, 2000 at 04:39:53, Aaron Tay wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On April 28, 2000 at 00:35:30, Michael Neish wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>On April 27, 2000 at 21:58:09, stuart taylor wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Is it possible to program a computer to set many possible future scenarios of
>>>>>>>favourable positions possible to arrive at with same material ballance (from
>>>>>>>that current position-some time later, even 40-60 ply's or more), then have >>the program find ways how to get there?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>I'm not sure I understand what you're saying.  Do you mean having the
>>>>>>computer shuffle the pieces about on the board without removing any,
>>>>>>until it finds a position which is positionally superior for itself, and
>>>>>>then try to find a way to get there move by move?
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> I'm no expert, but this sounds terribly difficult to me, especially since its >opponent isn't exactly going to allow the computer to reach that position >without a fight,
>>>>>
>>>>>It seems to me that many chess books try to discourage the "I move there, you
>>>>>move there, then I will move there" kind of thought..Not that ,tactics arean't
>>>>>important.
>>>>>
>>>>>But it seems that many times,intermediate players like me are advised to do
>>>>>this..
>>>>>
>>>>>1)Visualise the best squares where your pieces should go,
>>>>>2)form a plan based on the pawn structure, etc etc then
>>>>>3)try concrete moves to achieve that plan..
>>>>>
>>>>>I think he is sugguesting that..But I doubt that such a plan if succuessfully
>>>>>implemented would lead to "Top class human planning skills".
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>I mean-with or without exchanges. If the computer could know which type of
>>>>"possible" position "would" be good, then it can know what to try and >calculate.
>>>
>>>
>>>>So the machine will be doing three things instead of the normal
>>>>two. Normally it calculates, and it does so based on knowledge and its
>>>>positional assesments. But a third thing would be to visualize plans and >counter plans by way of something which a computer could do-to estimate >possible resulting possitions, and to decide which of those positions should >be striven for.
>>>
>>>Isn;'t your third aspect already covered in a sense by the first two things?
>>>"Visualize plans and resulting positions?" sounds extremly general, something
>>>that computers are not good at yet...
>>>
>>>I suspect though, most engines already have special codes that trigger off, when
>>>caluculating positions that will lead to a big change in character or position
>>>i.e after large number of exchanges to a endgame,
>>>
>>>
>>>> That would be the easy part.
>>>
>>>It;s sounds hard to me..
>>
>>The computer has to imagine future scenarios which "could" be reached.
>>Then it has to decide which of them would be good to reach.
>>Then it has to see what it can reach even against good play.
>>And that if the plan isn't refuted, so it will be carried out, or better.
>>And if it is refuted, the program must not have become worse as a result.
>>
>>I'm speaking of conjuring up positions independantly of ply count, and before
>>knowing exactly how it will be done.
>>  They do that already? I don't think they do that exactly.
>>It's a deep concept I was thinking about it for a long time. And I want to know
>>if any top programmers have any opinion, or could actually do it.
>>The machine would be quite creative!
>>S.Taylor
>
>I've thought about doing something very much like this--it's very like the
>process I go through when I play chess...  Unfortunately it's a lot easier
>to do what's already been done before (because it's inherently easier and
>because it's more or less fully described) and simply do the usual alpha/beta
>search.
>
>There is a short section in the book "Problem Solving and Artificial
>Intelligence", by Jean-Louis Laurière, that describes a program called
>Robin, developed by Jacques Pitrat in 1972, that did something very like
>this.  What the program did was to come up with several plans (move
>sequences by one side that achieve some goal).  Then it would proceed
>in a backwards direction from the goal identifying (and attempting to
>eliminate) things that the opponent might do to stop the plan.
>
>A plan might be to take some piece with your queen.  But that move is
>blocked by another opponent piece, so the program would look for some way
>to drive that piece off its square, and so on.  It would then add
>these elements to the plan until it got back to the root.
>
>(So, as you can see, every idea that you can come up with has likely
>already been thought of by someone else back in the dark ages :).  I do
>think (given the improvement in programming tools and so forth) that
>it's an idea that ought to be explored though...)
>
>-Dan.



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.