Computer Chess Club Archives


Search

Terms

Messages

Subject: Re: Mate in 1 - but Fritz 6 needs 1 hour!!!

Author: Colin Frayn

Date: 10:06:52 08/12/00

Go up one level in this thread


On August 11, 2000 at 14:25:07, Adrien Regimbald wrote:

>As someone involved in computer chess, you should realize that it is a constant
>battle of compromises.  If you make seeing short mates immediately a priority > at
>the cost of overall playing strength, and the program starts playing at a
>grossly worse strength overall, would you be happy?

You'd be surprised how little difference it makes to the overall search speed in
normal positions.  ColChess spends a negligible fraction of its time testing for
checkmate, and I really don't think that it affects its ELO negatively at all.
Far from it, in those positions where it is advantageous it often helps ColChess
to win from equal (or worse) positions against stronger programs.

Remember that a doubling in search speed probably only improves ELO by 60-70
points.  I'm talking about a speed decrease of probably less than 1%, and the
occasional benefits are quite substantial.

Cheers,
Col



This page took 0.01 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.