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Subject: Re: Chess problem – was it solved?

Author: Pham Minh Tri

Date: 20:45:26 05/04/01

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On May 04, 2001 at 05:04:23, Uri Blass wrote:

>On May 04, 2001 at 01:46:06, Pham Minh Tri wrote:
>
>>Hi friends,
>>
>>Some recent posts raise some interesting questions to me: What is chess the
>>problem and has it been solved or not? Many people believe that we can not solve
>>the chess problem because of exponential cost and can only approximate the
>>solutions, which is good enough. However, we have not been given clear and
>>unique definitions of the chess problem and of what is a solution. If you give
>>me one, the answer would probably be different. I think, with almost all
>>definitions, we can be happy to say, the chess problem was solved (or been
>>solved in this year). For example:
>>
>>Some old books (actually, I did not read about their definitions but could infer
>>from them) define a chess problem in that with any given positions of chess, we
>>would know the results and how to defeat (or draw) the opponent. I am sure those
>>problems were solved with some evidence:
>>
>>1) Opening positions: To me, any good chess programs of people in this club
>>could beat me easily all games, even if I play the white or black side.
>
>It proves only that chess proghrams are better than you.
>It does not prove that chess is solved.
>
>Suppose all the humans in the world have rating of at most 1400.
>somebody with rating of 2000 comes from the moon to visit them and win against
>all of them.
>
>Did (s)he solve chess?
>
>It is clear that (s)he did not solve chess but the humans may think that he
>solved chess if they use your logic.
>
>
>If you claim that chess is solved you need to prove that there is something that
>cannot be beated.
>If the best computer can be beated by better hardware that can be used in 2010
>then it is a proof that chess was not solved.
>

I think you are not clear here. If a problem is solved by a computer, it meas
the solution was found, even it may be not the best one. The better computer in
2010 will find the __better__ solution of a solved problem (look like they
compute faster any fomulars).

>
>
> The
>>situation is the same with almost all people in the world (as they may be beaten
>>by the best chess programs). With some top players like Garry, the DB has beaten
>>him since 1997 in an __old__ computer.
>
>3.5-2.5 is not a significant result to know if DB was better and DB had the
>advantage that kasparov could not see previous games of DB against other
>players.
>
> I think with the best computer nowadays
>>(note that I mention any kinds of computer, not only PC), which may be 1000
>>times as fast as DB, and a huge additional knowledge of 4 years, they could beat
>>any GMs.
>
>I think that you are wrong because the DB team probably did not work on chess
>since 1997 and DB was hardware that was designed for chess and the new hardware
>is not designed for chess.
>

You are true. But in general, no difference because I means the chess problem is
solveable now, not in far future.

>Uri



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