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Subject: Re: Nimzo 8 is my favorite to win the Dutch Open

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 13:35:47 09/26/00

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On September 26, 2000 at 05:23:07, Uri Blass wrote:

>On September 25, 2000 at 21:33:28, Vincent Diepeveen wrote:
>
>>On September 25, 2000 at 09:22:30, pavel wrote:
>>
>>>On September 25, 2000 at 08:53:37, Vincent Diepeveen wrote:
>>>
>>>>On September 24, 2000 at 22:56:34, Mike S. wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On September 24, 2000 at 22:34:50, Jorge Pichard wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>Of course that my second choice would have to be the King an experimental
>>>>>>version of the future CM8000.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/thstorm/partic00.htm
>>>>>
>>>>>I wonder why Quest (=Fritz) should run on a dual Celeron 433 only?
>>>>
>>>>He used dual 433 previous year.
>>>>
>>>>>Btw., Nimzo was my favourite for the London WCh. I predicted the outcome (but
>>>>>the participants didn't stick to my prediction):
>>>>
>>>>>http://f23.parsimony.net/forum50826/messages/515.htm
>>>>>
>>>>>For the Dutch Open, I think that - in addition to the 4 professionals - Diep
>>>>>(dual PIII/800), furthermore a new version of Kallisto II, and probably Patzer,
>>>>>are the dark horses which deserve attention.
>>>>
>>>>There are 2 programs dual at dutch open: Diep and Quest.
>>>>
>>>>However let's face it that there are 3 programs out there with a real
>>>>good and especially well tested book: Nimzo and Quest and Tiger.
>>>>From those only a single program is dual. Nimzo heavily relies upon
>>>>outsearching its opponents after having an openingsposition that's better
>>>>for it.
>>>>
>>>>The King has a book which is not that bad, but definitely not anymore
>>>>a 'todays' book. Further The King is an engine which plays very interesting
>>>>chess at slow hardware. Just sacrafice a pawn and play a cool game. At
>>>>nowadays programs searching 11 ply or more with very aggressive tunings,
>>>>that simply is getting a more hard way to play chess, as nowadays they don't
>>>>only swallow the pawn, but also win the game.
>>>>
>>>>apart from that, i doubt whether The King will *ever* win from DIEP,
>>>>as from testgames it appears that DIEP is the worst opponent for The King,
>>>>as DIEP is not only outsearching The King positionally (not tactical),
>>>>but also having more knowledge, so the only advantage the king has against
>>>>DIEP is better tactics, which nowadays hardly works. This where nimzo's
>>>>cool tactics work usually excellent as it's backupped by a superb book.
>>>
>>>you kidding me !!
>>>
>>>can you paste some of the sample games?
>>
>>Yeah plenty, just go to a chessserver and look to cm7000/6000 and others
>>playing diep. Note past years at dutch open The King didn't manage to win,
>>all games for the same reason.
>>
>>>*ever* win is (more than) a bit harsh IMO, you can come to such conclusion
>>>because DIEP is not as much commercially available as the king (CM) engine is.
>>>So only you and few others get the privilege of testing DIEP with CM.
>>
>>This is not true. I don't test a single game against CM by hand against diep,
>>i only see games as played on the internet and at dutch open.
>>
>>CM doesn't allow to play unattended somehow as far as i know.
>>
>>>by the way I think DIEP has played more tournaments than any other chess program
>>
>>this is not exactly true. perhaps i play the tournaments you take a look at!
>>
>>i join basically world champs, dutch champ and german champ. Other tournaments
>>i usually depend upon whether people want to operate it, though if spain
>>champ would get organized at a better date i would go there too.
>>
>>Of course it's true that i join even if it's sure that i have just introduced
>>a big number of bugs in the program, like for wmccc. Also it would be result
>>wise perhaps not so smart to join dutch open. despite that i fixed many
>>of the bugs as introduced before wmccc, i'm just not ready for dutch open
>>to face the Kure and Noomen books.
>>
>>>I know of......so how many did it win? (not that it is of any importance)
>>
>>I won paderborn nearly 2 years ago, after diep fought back from all lost
>>positions. Like against shredder it was a pawn down, but got to a won
>>endgame, but then blundered the endgame. It was not so well out of book
>>against nimzo, but got also a won far endgame, but blew it to a draw too,
>>despite the loss also in endgame against P.Conners, it also could have
>>gotten a draw there with a better endgame.
>>
>>It has a better endgame now and still improving, but in the meantime the
>>commercial books have gotten really better. Shredder is already having
>>problems keeping up with the new books, but with superb endgame play it
>>still manages to keep draws in lost positions resulting in a worldtitle.
>>
>>Note that diep lost end of 99 also the spain champ title by losing to
>>tiger in the one last round. It appeared that this was also a lost bookline.
>>
>>I was using some rather old openingsbooks (from 20 years ago) and some
>>lines are completely refuted. I had prepared the line that came on the
>>board, but it is nowadays seen as won for black.
>>
>>So it's obvious what i and MANY others should focus at right now: improve
>>book.
>>
>>Like nimzo in wmccc 2000 came out of book against SOS with +mate_in_12.
>>12 moves later...
>>
>>Zchess came out of book against nimzo with over a pawn down, lost the
>>pawn and the game real soon.
>>
>>Most engines aren't far from the strength from nimzo.
>>
>>In fact i don't have much respect for nimzo as an engine. It's just
>>an aggressive tuned engine which is tactical real strong, good blitz program,
>>excellent in doing nothing. But compared to most other engines it is
>>much worse.
>>
>>I'm amazed people keep on betting on this engine.
>>
>>I find my own program, zchess, SOS, The King, Gandalf and many others
>>miles better as Nimzo.
>>
>>Yet i doubt whether The King's book will ever get to equal standards with
>>nimzo.
>>
>>As long as nimzo can win games with a +mate in 12 score on its screen,
>>then it can still go for tournament wins.
>>
>>Yet even with a piece up out of book against shredder it couldn't win!
>>
>>With a pawn up against diep short after book (pawn win was forced by
>>book) in dutch open 1998 it couldn't win against DIEP.
>>
>>I'm amazed people bet on nimzo. It's made to solve testsets and to
>>finish games from a won position. Obviously with material up after book
>>you *can* chose for this approach, and i'll never blame Chrilly for that.
>>he has made something that sells, simple as that!
>>
>>In the end most people are not
>>very in depth studying programs. They just care for the number of points
>>it scores and whether it solves a few tactical shots in testpositions which
>>all programmers saw already years before the user saw it.
>>
>>If i manage to not only get a better book, but also test in which lines
>>diep plays well, then i'll bet it will do real well too. Right now i'm
>>loaded with other work, so i can't do that within 3 weeks time.
>>
>>Zchess book will also improve bigtime. I'm sure Insomniac too.
>>
>>I think James Robertson also was bigtime dissappointed in WMCCC about how
>>many games were won just on book. People just don't realize it till they
>>join themselves in a world champ, or when they analyze games of it.
>>
>>I would have had 2 titles at least with a better book with DIEP and with
>>the current endgame of it. Zchess would have perhaps already had a world title
>>if jaap v/d herik had done a fair pairing, and nimzo would not
>>get close to winning any tournament if people would have a better book.
>>
>>Obviously it will be only a matter of time before books improve of the
>>different programs. Mine for sure will. Zchess for sure will.
>>
>>The King i doubt. Its book was never real bad, but it's simply not getting
>>free points like nimzo does. Shredders book is not bad, but definitely
>>a mile behind Kure/Noomen.
>>
>>Most engines will remain losing points because of it, yet a number of them
>>will improve this.
>>
>>Getting out of book with +mate in 12 is just unbelievable.
>>
>>Note that Kure book to human standards still sucks. A human is MUCH better
>>prepared as any todays playing engine is.
>>
>>Of course with exception of SSDF testing, as you test against something
>>from which you know what it is gonna play. I'm relating here to tournaments.
>>
>>I'll be really amazed at dutch open if nimzo doesn't get a few games with
>>over +2.xx out of book.
>
>This is something that I do not understand.
>It is easy to prevent coming with -2.xx out of book by having a small book that
>every move in the book was analyzed manually and playing for quiet lines.
>
>Sos played for a tactical line with mate attack out of book.
>If you add the fact that Sos is weak in tactics and could not see a simple mate
>you can understand the fact that nimzo had evaluation of mate out of book.
>
>
>Shredder blundered against nimzo with Qxb2.
>
>I believe that Shredder could avoid this mistake by using better strategy when
>database say 100% and only one move for the opponent.
>
>It was easy to guess without book when you use a big database that the move of
>nimzo is going to be Bxb4(100% score and the only move out of book) so shredder
>could instead of playing Qxb2 to wait and calculate the position after Qxb2 Bxb4
>and after seeing the drop in the evaluation to go back and find a better
>move(Rxe1+ instead of Qxb2).
>
>If there is not a drop in the evaluation it can save time by playing the next
>move in 0 seconds and the only cases that this strategy cause loss of time in
>the clock  are cases when the mistake was a previous move or cases when the
>opponent does not play the known move that gave 100% result from human-human
>games.
>
>Uri


This only partially works.  IE I have such a mode in Crafty (book random 0).
The problem is that many of the book lines have traps deep enough that a search
won't see the problem.  Of course, it will see some of them, and avoiding even
one bad line is a good idea.  But it doesn't cure the problem 100% of the time.



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