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

Author: Alvaro Polo

Date: 13:54:58 07/26/00

Go up one level in this thread


On July 26, 2000 at 15:28:49, Robert Hyatt wrote:

>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...
>

This famous match was done on an equal time basis, I suppose. DBJ against CT was
done with Tiger thinking 20 times longer than DBJ, and thus an equal result can
be explained. As for the DBJ-GMs matches, I believe that most of the games
played at conferences were short games, 15 minutes/game or so.

Alvaro

>
>
>>>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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