Computer Chess Club Archives


Search

Terms

Messages

Subject: Re: Beta -Testing Proficiency in Rebel Tiger Case

Author: James T. Walker

Date: 11:09:59 11/22/00

Go up one level in this thread


On November 22, 2000 at 12:30:31, Fernando Villegas wrote:

>On November 22, 2000 at 11:51:17, James T. Walker wrote:
>
>>Hello Fernando,
>>I can only tell you there are many problems with all programs.  None of them are
>>perfect.  As a beta tester you can only report what you find.  There are
>>literally hundreds of special positions which many programs do not understand.
>>Tablebases will cure many of these problems but not all.  The programmers are
>>aware of many of the shortcomings of their programs.  They make the decision if
>>it is important enough to fix or forget.  I guess they only have so many hours
>>in a day and they have to decide what is most important at the moment.
>>Jim
>
>OK, Jim, but you must concur with me that B+N mate is not just one problem
>between many, but a clasic kind of position every current program must solve
*****
I agree!  I remember when David Kittinger took the B+N mate info out of the
Forte computer (It was in it's predecessor the Super Constellation).  I asked
him why and he said he needed the memory for something else.  I never bought
another Novag computer after that.
*******

and
>every tester must look at as a matter of fact. The same with:
>a) king + pawn againts King
>b) King + Rook againts King
>c) King+ pawn in the h or a file
>d) oposition rule
>e) king +queen against king +rook
>... And maybe some more. I think that these kind of situations should be tested
>as a minimal test of proficiency. Should be kind of a rule of testing
>operations.
>Regards
>fernando

As I said.  Tablebases will fix many of these problems.  I am a very strong
advocate of tablebases even if their contribution to rating points is minimal.
But I repeat, the final decision as to what a program will or will not do lies
with the programmer-_N_O_T_ the beta testers.  Do you believe Christophe does
not know that Chess Tiger will not mate with a Knight & Bishop?
Jim



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.