Author: Peter Berger
Date: 09:21:00 02/26/01
Go up one level in this thread
On February 26, 2001 at 08:09:24, Frank Phillips wrote: <snip> >Knowledge presumably takes cpu cycles to process, so faster machines help? > >If we had 32 man EGTBs, there would be absolute knowledge, no search and no >chess rule of thumb knowledge of the type discussed. > >Presumably chess knowledge just encapsulates guiding principles for those >position, which if we had enough searching power (or EGTB) we could prove were >won, lost or drawn. > It seems to be a very common belief that with 32men EGTBs chess is solved ; I haven't been able to understand this point of view so far . Availlable data and also intuition suggest that chess is a draw . It might be the case that every white first move draws ( at least that's my belief ) . I even believe that every black answer to every move of White leads to a draw . Now let's take this "perfect" program ( " ... absolute knowledge, no search and no chess rule of thumb knowledge of the type discussed ..." )and create a little challenge : This program , let's call it "Perfect" has to play against a group of strong Super GM players ( like in a typical Linares tournament ) . It randomly chooses one of the "perfect" moves availlable . How will it perform ? It won't lose a single game : that's obvious . But how many games will it win ? I suspect it will draw quite a few ; the move winning a piece but by some miracle allowing the opponent to escape will have the same probability than the move blundering a piece and letting "Perfect" escape in the last moment . As control group for "Perfect" I choose Kasparov who has to play against the same gang of masters ; I think it is very likely that he will perfom better and gain more points than "Perfect" that suddenly won't look that perfect anymore . In fact this effect can be clearly observed today already IMHO ; take a critical drawn tablebase position and play it on the weaker side against a typical chessprogram that uses tablebases ; you will often have a much easier time getting a draw ( as for example in KRP-KR it will simply sack the pawn ( a "perfect" move )) compaired to playing against it with tablebases disabled . I have seen _many_ games where the tablebase program let the opponent escape in a much easier draw . So without something like a "swindle" mode I am not sure that it is beneficial to even use the TBs if you are on the stronger side in a drawn tablebase position . pete
This page took 0 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.