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Subject: Re: Number of games and time control settings

Author: Uri Blass

Date: 10:10:07 02/14/01

Go up one level in this thread


On February 14, 2001 at 12:43:29, Leen Ammeraal wrote:

>On February 14, 2001 at 11:28:48, Miguel A. Ballicora wrote:
>
>>On February 14, 2001 at 06:18:48, Leen Ammeraal wrote:
>>
>>>When playing matches, it is obvious that
>>>the number of games should not be too low
>>>and the same applies for the time control
>>>settings. However, my total time to play
>>>and watch matches is limited so I am always
>>>wondering what is best, many quick games
>>>or few more serious games. For example,
>>>which of the following alternatives is
>>>best to estimate the relative strength
>>>of two chess programs?
>>>
>>>12 games with 10 s per move, or
>>>6 games with 20 s per move, or
>>>4 games with 30 s per move, or
>>>3 games with 40 s per move, or
>>>2 games with 60 s per move.
>>>
>>
>>Leen, you are in the same situation as I am.
>>I am not an expert on testing, so this is an opinion:
>>I try to do a combination, for instance, 1 game at 60 s/move and 6 games at
>>10s/move if I follow your example.
>>Then I try to look closely to the games. Since I have to rely on observation,
>>thousands of games are not very useful either!
>>I think that quick and slow games tell us different stories.
>>For instance, mistakes in slow games are not being easily overcome with
>>search.
>>
>>>A related question is this:
>>>If program A is stronger than program B
>>>in a serious game (with realistic time
>>>control settings), how likely is it that A
>>>will also be stronger than B in a quick game?
>>>
>>>Leen Ammeraal
>
>
>>
>>I do not think it is unlikely with programs in development
>>(politically correct term :-).
>>It happens with mine. At superquick games (1-2 min), it loses often to TSCP
>>at 30 min/game Gaviota beats TSCP most of the time.
>>Gaviota has hashtables and TSCP does'nt. That is one of the reasons, I think
>>but there could be many other ones in different programs, null move, better
>>ordering etc. If a program has a better branching factor should perform
>>relatively better at slower time controls. Shouldn't it?
>>
>>Miguel
>
>Miguel, thank you for your answer. I may use this
>opportunity to tell you that I use your program, gav012.exe,
>quite often to play matches with my program, the WinBoard
>version of which is named wbqueen.exe. Both programs are about the
>same strength, I think.
>About TSCP, the curious thing about this is that this program
>always responds immediately, so it does not surprise me that
>our programs can beat it so easily.

I guess that you know only old versions of TSCP.

The new versions of TSCP do not respond immediately and there are level of x
seconds per move.

Uri



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