Author: Colin Frayn
Date: 01:35:07 08/11/00
Go up one level in this thread
On August 10, 2000 at 20:06:15, Adrien Regimbald wrote: >Fritz is designed to play well in a "normal" game of chess. Fritz would have >absolutely slaughtered the opponent a LOOOONG time before that position arose >had the opponent been playing as per the sample line leading to that position. >The chances of a position like that ever coming up in a real game of chess are >about nil. If I were Frans, I wouldn't even give this position a second of my >thought (well, beyond possible implications that Fritz' capture extensions are >a bit too greedy..). Fritz is a chess engine. This is a chess position. Fritz can't do it despite the fact that a 5 year old child could easily see the mate in a few seconds. This means that Fritz has failed. The problem is not that Fritz can't do _this_ position, but rather that Fritz spends over an hour on a problem which should take it a tiny fraction of a second. It shows that the algorithm is doing something wrong. Imagine a ramp down in problem complexity with an associated ramp-down (not necessarily linear) of time required on average. It's still going to be taking far too long to solve other pretty obvious problems which aren't as contrived as this one. Checking for mates before you do any searching is not only fast, but it vastly improves search times on positions like this. I've often seen ColChess analyse 4 or 5 ply deeper in some positions than, say, Crafty in the same time. That was because there are lots of CMs flying around to avoid. Cheers, Col
This page took 0.02 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.