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Subject: Re: What do you consider the best positional program (besides Century 3)?

Author: Paul

Date: 16:39:12 05/03/01

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On May 03, 2001 at 19:12:20, Dann Corbit wrote:

>I believe (but perhaps I am a know-nothing on the subject) that almost *all* of
>the intelligence and knowledge is in the search, and very little in the eval.

Yes, that's probably right, a lot of it anyway, it's kinda blurry ... but I
think endgame knowledge must be in the eval ... we should consult a real expert
for this, as I'm not! :)

>In looking at all of the programs that play very strongly, I notice that all of
>them have sophisticated searches.  Generally a clever negascout or something
>positively darling like Phalanx.  In fact, if you have a terrific search, it can
>overcome an enormous number of other foibles.

I've tried to read the search part of Phalanx once, looked like some sort of
singular extension search to me, but stopped before I had it totally figured out
... unlike you, I really don't like to read other programmers' sources,
beautiful as they may be (and definitely are sometimes). I'm more of an
algorithm man myself.

Though I'd very much like to see what Dieter does in Yace :) ... must be
impressive too ... don't even know if he is "open source".

But you're right ... a great search does a lot of good during midgame, but
you'll have to win immediately, coz the endgame is lost without a good eval, I
know!

>>>How does it do on LCT II?
>>
>>Dunno ... never tested that one, looks too difficult for now! :)
>
>Here:
>ftp://cap.connx.com/pub/EPD/LCT2.EPD
>
>Why not humor me by giving it a go?

Oh, I have it somewhere on my hd's ... but I'm a little high from the (in my
eyes) good results I've had lately, including the Leonid mates .. and would like
to keep it that way for another couple of days if you don't mind! :)

I don't think I'm going to do at all well on those very hard positions (if I
remember correctly), that's something for the Ferrets and Deep Blues of this
earth!

Paul



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