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Subject: Re: Two computers vs. one computer

Author: Ralf Elvsén

Date: 16:14:49 06/24/00

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On June 24, 2000 at 17:42:30, Peter Kappler wrote:

>On June 24, 2000 at 17:13:47, eric guttenberg wrote:
>
>>I have noticed quite a few recent posts reporting program vs. program
>>results obtained on a single computer. I continue to be a little mis-
>>trustful of those results as a reliable indicator of the relative
>>playing strengths of the programs.  It has always seemed to me that some
>>programs are more greatly affected by the 1-machine format than others.
>>Is my concern misplaced here?  Is there now some consensus that the
>>results are not in the long run different because a single machine rather
>>than 2 separate but identical machines are used?
>>
>>eric
>
>
>I've always thought it doesn't make a big difference as long as both programs
>play with pondering disabled.
>
>A couple of months ago, someone (chessfun?) played a long series of matches
>played between Fritz and Crafty.  Several different time control were used, with
>each match played first on a single computer, and then on two computers.  As I
>recall, the results were practically identical over a large number of games.
>
>Crafty seemed to do better as the time controls got longer, but that's another
>issue.
>
>Maybe that person could post the results again?
>
>--Peter

And at the same time, some people started arguing that ponder = ON was
the best setup, preferably combined with some system utility that could
check that the programs got 50% each of the processor power (I'm talking
about one-processor systems). Was this a shift in the conventional wisdom,
which for quite a while had been that ponder = OFF was best. Eh... conventional
wisdom for those who cared about one-processor matches :)

I am still as confused as ever. I comfort myself with the fact that these
matches never have statistical significance so it doesn't matter anyway :)

Ralf



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