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Subject: Re: Tiger against Deep Blue Junior: what really happened.

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 12:28:49 07/26/00

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On July 26, 2000 at 14:38:14, Alvaro Polo wrote:

>On July 26, 2000 at 14:07:26, Ed Schröder wrote:
>
>>On July 26, 2000 at 07:31:12, Dave Gomboc wrote:
>>
>>>You can believe any of the scholarly sources of information with Hsu and/or
>>>other members of the DB team on it, like IEEE Micro for instance, or the paper
>>>from an AAAI workshop last year.  Or, you can believe the web page.  It's your
>>>call, Ed.
>>>
>>>Dave
>>
>>Okay... I get the point. Here is what I mean with all those contradictions
>>between the IBM pages and other papers, statements and I will be detailed.
>>
>>This forum is about playing strength mainly, 90%? more..?
>>
>>For this reason only DB is a hot topic even after 3 years. It is about
>>WHO is the STRONGEST. That is the MAIN question here and you can taste
>>in almost every posting.
>>
>>We want to know which program is the best TODAY. This topic for instance
>>started right after the Dortmund event, "is DJ stronger than DB" and off
>>we went... another new endless DB discussion. New DB discussions will
>>happen again and again until the question WHO is the strongest TODAY will
>>be answered. Not really something to look forward when candidate number
>>one is not present anymore.
>>
>>Now what bothers me is the following:
>>
>>PRELUDE: in this posting "IBM" stands for the whole DB team, Hsu and co
>>included.
>>
>>198x - 1995: DT/DB dominates computer chess against 386/486/6502 machines.
>>
>>1995: DT lost the world championship in Hong Kong (just 3.5 out of 5)
>>
>>1991: DT doing 7 million nodes (source IBM)
>>1995: DT doing 7 million nodes (source IBM)
>>      DT doing 2 million nodes (source Hsu)
>>
>>1996: IBM claims 100 million nodes.
>>
>>100 million nodes fixed a huge image problem IBM had because of the loss
>>of last year.
>>
>>It did the trick at least in my mind. Surely Hong Kong was a mistake and
>>it would never happen again. So there was no question about it who was
>>the strongest. Note that our minds are feed with information that comes
>>from a commercial source and this information is still playing a huge
>>role here in CCC even today trying to answer the question, WHO is the
>>strongest. Who can beat 100 million nodes a second? Answer: none and
>>this dominated our minds, even today.
>>
>>Until last year I had no single reason to doubt the numbers (or any other
>>information) that came from IBM and took everything for granted that came
>>from IBM. Today I doubt the jump from 2 million to 100 million. IBM had
>>a very good reason. Image was on steak after the Hong Kong debacle. IBM's
>>answer: 100 million. Problem solved. Most of us happily fell asleep.
>>
>>Now I am not the person to start conspiracy theories but this one touches
>>the soul and existence of CCC which is playing strength and WHO is the
>>STRONGEST.
>>
>>IBM has proven being a sloppy partner when the topic is giving right
>>information. I like to mention all the contradictions as pointed out in
>>the previous postings of the last days.
>>
>>I also like to point to the habit of IBM to come up with explanations
>>every time they lose or make a bad move. The last example of this are
>>the 6 games of DB-JR in Paderborn last year. The furious answer came a
>>few months later high lighted as follows, literally:
>>
>>  "Ed Schröder has misused this opportunity at will, to make false
>>   advertisement for his program".
>>
>>The story is pointed out on: http://www.rebel.nl/reb-css.htm
>>
>>Note this page needs an update as at the time I gave the case a rest.
>>
>>In email with Hsu one of the authors of Deep Blue it became clear
>>to me that at least one of the main items of their defence (Deep Blue
>>Junior thinking only 1 second per move) was not true as Hsu admitted
>>that Deep Blue Junior at least used "panic time" when Deep Blue Junior
>>found itself in trouble. Apparently this confession came because in the
>>discussion I kept my point straight up having seen Deep Blue Junior
>>thinking 10-15 seconds frequently, having witnesses of that too.
>>
>>I still keep my point straight up Deep Blue Junior using it's time
>>control in the same way as any other chess program playing blitz.
>>
>>After that confession I stopped believing the whole story Deep Blue
>>Junior just being a DEMO program of 2200 elo. Every time the machine
>>loses it is something else. Saying first "one second" as a main point
>>of your defence and take it back later doesn't sound good.
>>
>>Furthermore the documentation that came with the program (nor on the
>>screen) did not mention any of the playing strength restrictions as
>>pointed out by Hsu in the CSS article (see the URL above) so we took
>>the thing for real otherwise we would not have touched the machine.
>>
>>I take these 6 games for real coming close to DB-JR real playing strength.
>>
>>These 6 games were played out of curiosity. The opportunity was there
>>to learn something about the machine and we were expecting to be beaten
>>badly by the monster. The opposite happened leaving Christophe, the
>>spectators and myself in astonishment behind.
>>
>>There is also no doubt in my mind any other strong (amateur) program
>>could beat the Deep Blue Junior in Paderborn. I don't want any credit
>>for these games. This is just for the sake of the truth.
>>
>>Note: I have nothing against Hsu in fact I removed the 6 games from the
>>Rebel Home Page on request of Hsu. Not that I was in agreement with that
>>but I did it out of respect for him and his achievements and the joy his
>>program has given me and the whole chess community.
>>
>>For me 2 points are most crucial:
>>
>>a) 2M (1995) to 100M (1996) real or not.
>
>I don't know. Probably 100M are real (my opinion only)
>
>>b) Paderborn 1999 (DEMO program or not)
>>
>
>Christophe's results (1.5-1.5 against Chess Tiger on a Pentium 150Mhz with Tiger
>thinking 20 times more time than DBJ) seem to indicate that it was the real DB
>Junior, not a demo.
>
>Alvaro
>

Not really.  His hardware was certainly available in 1997.  And in 1997 a
single crippled version of a DB chip played the famous match that causes
so much discussion here.  And did quite well.  So his result was really
quite good, even against a broken 1 chip version of the program, when
you think in that context.  DB junior is a real horse, as many GM players
can attest to after losing to it during the tuning process for the 1997 DB
match.  I saw it beat several GMs like drums at exhibition matches at
conferences...



>>These 2 questions IMO are touching the heart and soul to make up your
>>mind about WHO is the strongest TODAY. Again IMO.
>>
>>Ed



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