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Subject: Re: At 2 hours per move, which is strongest program?

Author: Dann Corbit

Date: 01:09:07 01/11/01

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On January 11, 2001 at 02:33:18, Ricardo Gibert wrote:

>On January 10, 2001 at 17:50:40, Dann Corbit wrote:
>
>>On January 10, 2001 at 07:26:35, stuart taylor wrote:
>>
>>>The question is all in the heading. I mean with hardware of about 450 mhz.
>>>upwards (till 1.2 ghz?).
>>>  This question is an ofshoot of Uri's comment that Rebel does better with more
>>>time.
>>> If you want to analyse a move for 2 hours, which program would have seen most
>>>(of what is important and relevant, and consequently play the strongest move) in
>>>those 2 hours. Or longer?
>>
>>Not only do we not know the answer to that question, we'll never even come close
>>to knowing.
>
>Never? That's a long time. You're forgetting about Moore's Law, which can
>effectively convert hours into minutes. Also, someone with access to a large LAN
>could do the test. Besides, if the programs compared are competitive at normal
>time controls, probably the one with the lowest average EBF is strongest at the
>much slower time controls. Naturally, a test is the only way to know for sure,
>since a lower EBF can have it's drawbacks.

Yes, really, never.

I have a large LAN I can use for such things.  Even so, the project is
ridiculously out of scope.  I am just finishing a contest that ran 1000 2 hour
games and it took me 6 months to finish it.  With absurdly dedicated effort,
working around the clock, I could have completed it in one month.  That would be
just about what would be needed to get an accurate figure for a single
engine/engine pair.  AT G/60!!!  Now, stretch it out to 2 hours per move.

Now, supposing we got 1000 computers properly configured (it would take months
of testing to be sure that we had done so).  Now, perhaps in a few years we can
complete that contest.  However, by that time the winner would be hopelessly
outclassed by the new programs that had appeared in the intervening time.
Hence, the answer would still be completely unanswered.

Faster computers won't help to answer it either.  The question is still "At 2
hours per move, which is strongest program?"  So having a Petahertz computer
won't help a lick.



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