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Subject: Re: This guy is still not a cheater

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 19:01:26 11/15/00

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On November 15, 2000 at 17:09:30, Bruce Moreland wrote:

>On November 15, 2000 at 16:44:27, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>
>>On November 15, 2000 at 12:57:54, Bruce Moreland wrote:
>>
>>>If you want to use numbers, be more careful with the numbers.  You could have
>>>said it the way it is, or you could have understated the distance between the
>>>ratings, or you could have overstated the distance.
>>>
>>>It doesn't help your case that you start out by overstating.  Was the computer's
>>>rating 3000?  Was the human's rating 1800?  This can easily be verified by
>>>looking at the ICC history.
>>>
>>>The human's rating was 1884, prior to the game.  The computer's rating was 2645.
>>> This is a big delta, but not the 1200 points you suggest.  It is 761 points.
>>
>>I generally consider _all_ decent computers to be around 3000 on ICC.  Some
>>are not due to operator actions such as switching hardware, etc.  But if they
>>all played for a good long while, I can't imagine any really staying below
>>3000 or so...
>
>The program runs on a 450 mhz machine and the account will play low-rated
>people.
>
>>>If you look today, which you can do, nobody is stopping you, the human is up to
>>>2001 points.  He beat Hossa in a 4 0 and he beat another human near his rating
>>>in several games of 3 0.
>>>
>>>The game against Hossa is appended at the end of this post.  It is a human game.
>>
>>I don't doubt that.  However, as I said before, this has nothing to do with
>>the first game discussed.  Cheating on one of every N games is not uncommon.
>>And when I originally wrote that first post, 'cheating' wasn't really the
>>issue.  IE I wasn't trying to label the human as a cheater.  I was trying to
>>point out that drawing a conclusion from an 1800 player beating a computer is
>>not always safe, because many times, that 1800 player has some silicon behind
>>him...
>
>http://www.icdchess.com/forums/1/message.shtml?138536
>
>Your first post on the issue.
>
>"It is highly likely that the opponent used a computer here.  I base this on a
>couple of things.  Near the end, there is a deep mate.  He played it
>_perfectly_.  Which I don't think an 1800 player could do.  If I were betting, I
>would bet that white is a computer."
>
>and
>
>"However, on the other hand, Tiger was playing a computer in human clothing.
>Nothing good can come of that, and drawing conclusions is harder.  I would
>_never_ believe than an 1800 player can beat today's programs."
>
>There is more.  The whole post is essentially an accusation that the guy was
>using a computer.
>


No it isn't, but I'm not going to argue about it further.  The whole post
was about the fact that I suggested that rather than assuming tiger played
like a patzer, perhaps the opponent was something other than what was
assumed.

I would bet, in 99% of such cases, that rather than the computer playing
like an idiot, the opponent was cheating, when such games show up on the
chess servers.  That leaves 1% for legit wins, and that is rare enough
to fit the Elo stats reasonably.

I really wasn't trying to pin the guy as a cheater, although I do agree
it sounded like it.  I am neither convinced he did or didn't, in fact.  I
would need more data.

If you think I "was after him" so be it.  I didn't intend that.




>>The thread diverged at that point, partly my fault no doubt, because I didn't
>>word things very carefully.  But the above was my original point, _not_ the
>>fact that I think the human cheated.  I ran a quick tactical check, on a single
>>game, didn't find any errors, and suggested that this _could_ be a computer
>>rather than a human.  One game isn't enough.  But for the original point of
>>the thread, it was a (to me) reasonable remark to make...
>
>See above.
>
>>>>>And the guy's ICC name was featured in the original post, so he is being tarred
>>>>>with this.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>I didn't look at the PGN, which was unfortunate.  And you are right in that
>>>>respect.   However, I am also not against calling a spade a spade, and in this
>>>>game, to me, based on my (and computer) analysis, it looked a bit fishy.  It
>>>>might be perfectly legit.  Or it might not.
>>>
>>>This is insane, Bob.  Yesterday you as much as admited that your "mate in 7"
>>>argument doesn't fly, because you actually looked at the end of the game and
>>>realized that a C player could play those moves.  And you looked at the rest of
>>>the game, and the other game I showed.  What, other than the result, are you
>>>having a hard time swallowing?
>>
>>The fact that for 30+ moves I found _zero_ tactical mistakes of any kind, in
>>a fairly fast blitz game.  Unusual.  Very unusual.
>
>There were only a few actual moves in the game.  He lumped around in the
>middlegame and then the computer killed itself.
>
>>>>>The guy isn't a cheater.  He's someone who played a decent attack against a
>>>>>computer and it worked.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>I don't think you can conclude that from one game, any more than I could
>>>>conclude that he did cheat.
>>>
>>>Things happen but you can't start talking about evil and devious intent until
>>>you have some reason to do it.
>>
>>I didn't suggest evil or devious intent at all.  I pointed out that when a
>>computer loses to a supposedly weak human, quite often things are not what they
>>seem.  And concluding that Tiger had therefore played weakly might not be a
>>good assumption.  IE when I wrote the post, the subject was "did tiger play
>>bad enough to get beat by a weaker human?"  Not "did this human cheat to beat
>>tiger?"  I merely suggested that this latter conclusion is possible, so that
>>the original conclusion about tiger playing weakly could be seen "in context".
>
>Just look at the game.  It is very obvious what happened.
>
>bruce



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