Author: Graham Laight
Date: 08:31:47 11/17/00
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On November 16, 2000 at 09:07:23, walter irvin wrote: >to me programs fall into 2 list bean counters and knowledge based . >bean counters >fritz >junior >nimzo >lg2000a > >knowledge based >shredder >hiarcs >rebel >tiger >diep >crafty >king > >now you would think that the knowledge based programs would destroy bean >counters .but that is usually not the case .bean counters are some of the best >and strongest .which makes me wonder if trying to put so much knowledge in a >program really makes it better .i think that depth of search would count for >more than knowledge . Hi Walter, I've read the other threads in reply to your post, and I disagree with them profoundly. In fact, at the risk of being insulting (sorry chaps!), I think they're stupid. What is meant by "bean counting", as used by Chris Whittington (aka Joe Besogn) is evaluating a position by generating as many "nodes" in the "game tree" from this position as possible, and selecting the move that allows the least worst position to be achieved by the opponent. The emphasis is on generating as many Nodes Per Second (NPS) as possible. "Knowlwdge" (or at least what I think people should mean by "knowledge") is how much you know about something. It is estimated that human GMs know 50,000 discrete things (or recognise 50,000 different patterns) about chess. (Source: chess skills in man and machine). Where we have access to the source code for a program, we can make an estimate of the amount of knowledge that exists. I have done this for the evaluate.c function of Crafty.x (modified 6/1/00) which I downloaded from Dann Corbitt's site. I counted 150 discrete pieces of knowledge. I don't claim that number to be 100% accurate (I did the count quite quickly), but I do claim it to be of the right order of magnitude. Now, if we accept that both the 150 and the 50,000 number are of the right order of magnitude, one would have to agree that the human GM is strongly "knowledge" based, wheras Crafty is strongly "bean counter" based. What the other threads from your post are about, goodness only knows. -g
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