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Subject: Re: SSDF Rating list

Author: Bertil Eklund

Date: 15:32:45 06/13/01

Go up one level in this thread


On June 13, 2001 at 17:56:08, James T. Walker wrote:

>On June 13, 2001 at 16:14:33, Christophe Theron wrote:
>
>>On June 13, 2001 at 11:20:20, James T. Walker wrote:
>>
>>>On June 13, 2001 at 00:01:19, Christophe Theron wrote:
>>>
>>>>On June 12, 2001 at 22:50:01, James T. Walker wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On June 12, 2001 at 20:54:16, stuart taylor wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>On June 12, 2001 at 18:41:58, Christophe Theron wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>On June 12, 2001 at 14:48:10, Thoralf Karlsson wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>  THE SSDF RATING LIST 2001-06-11   79042 games played by  219 computers
>>>>>>>>                                           Rating   +     -  Games   Won  Oppo
>>>>>>>>                                           ------  ---   --- -----   ---  ----
>>>>>>>>   1 Deep Fritz  128MB K6-2 450 MHz          2653   29   -28   647   64%  2551
>>>>>>>>   2 Gambit Tiger 2.0  128MB K6-2 450 MHz    2650   43   -40   302   67%  2528
>>>>>>>>   3 Chess Tiger 14.0 CB 128MB K6-2 450 MHz  2632   43   -40   308   67%  2508
>>>>>>>>   4 Fritz 6.0  128MB K6-2 450 MHz           2623   23   -23   968   64%  2520
>>>>>>>>   5 Junior 6.0  128MB K6-2 450 MHz          2596   20   -20  1230   62%  2509
>>>>>>>>   6 Chess Tiger 12.0 DOS 128MB K6-2 450 MHz 2576   26   -26   733   61%  2499
>>>>>>>>   7 Fritz 5.32  128MB K6-2 450 MHz          2551   25   -25   804   58%  2496
>>>>>>>>   8 Nimzo 7.32  128MB K6-2 450 MHz          2550   24   -23   897   58%  2491
>>>>>>>>   9 Nimzo 8.0  128MB K6-2 450 MHz           2542   28   -28   612   54%  2511
>>>>>>>>  10 Junior 5.0  128MB K6-2 450 MHz          2534   25   -25   790   58%  2478
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Congratulations to Frans Morsch and Mathias Feist (and the ChessBase team).
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Deep Fritz is definitely a very tough client. You cannot lead the SSDF list by
>>>>>>>accident, and leading it for so many years in a row is probably the best
>>>>>>>achievement of a chess program of all times.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>If you want to sum up the history of chess programs for microcomputers, I think
>>>>>>>you just need to remember 3 names:
>>>>>>>* Richard Lang
>>>>>>>* Frans Morsch and Mathias Feist
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>    Christophe
>>>>>>
>>>>>>The roarng absence of the name Christophe, appears of course, in the signature
>>>>>>of the post.
>>>>>>But I have a little question. Does Deep Fritz have any advantage in the testing
>>>>>>e.g. the fact that it already stood at the top, long before the recent GT even
>>>>>>arrived on the scene, and so may have had an advantageous starting point?
>>>>>>S.Taylor
>>>>>
>>>>>Hello Stuart,
>>>>>I believe that is a valid question.  I would like to know the answer.  I would
>>>>>like to know if the SSDF "Zeros out" the book learning of say Deep Fritz before
>>>>>starting a match with Gambit Tiger when Gambit Tiger is brand new?  I still
>>>>>think the SSDF list is quesionable because of the differences in opponents each
>>>>>program has to face.  I'm sure it's better than nothing but I sure wouldn't like
>>>>>to hang my hat on a 3 point difference in SSDF ratings (or even 20 points for
>>>>>that matter).
>>>>>Jim
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>I don't question the reliability of the list.
>>>>
>>>>It is the most reliable tool that we have to evaluate the chess programs. The
>>>>difference in the opponents each program has to face does not matter from a
>>>>mathematical point of view.
>>>>
>>>>Year after year we can see that the list is reliable. Almost all objections get
>>>>refuted, little by little. Of course it is not absolutely perfect, but I think
>>>>it's damn good.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>    Christophe
>>>
>>>Hello Christophe,
>>>I think the thread got sidetracked but I disagree with your assessment of the
>>>SSDF list.  I agree it's not perfect and it's pretty good but....   I think its
>>>too easy to make one program come out on top by selecting the number of games
>>>played vs certain opponents.  If you could play only one opponent and get a true
>>>rating then there would be no problem.  We all know this is not the case.  Some
>>>programs do better against certain opponents and worse vs others.  So if you
>>>play more games vs the opponent you do best against it will inflate your rating.
>>> Of course the opposite is true.  So if Program "A" plays its favorite opponent
>>>while program "B" plays it "nemesis" more games then naturally program "A" will
>>>look better even though they may be equal or even the opposite is true.  This
>>>becomes very critical when the difference in rating is only a few points in
>>>reality.  I'm not saying the SSDF does this on purpose but I'm sure they are
>>>doing nothing to compensate for this possibility.  In my opinion the best way to
>>>do the SSDF list would be to make all top programs play an equal number of games
>>>against the same opponents.  That way the top programs would all play the same
>>>number of games against the same opponents and the list would look like this:
>>>
>>>Name         Rating      Number of games
>>>Program A    2600        400
>>>Program B    2590        400
>>>Program C    2580        400
>>
>>
>>
>>I cannot think of any real evidence that such a phenomenon exist. Can you
>>mention amongst the top programs which program gets killed by what other
>>program?
>>
>>Has someone statistical evidence of this?
>>
>>But anyway, even if all program meet each other, I know some people will say
>>that there is another way to bias the results: by letting a given program to
>>enter or not to enter the list you have an influence on the programs it is
>>supposed to kill.
>>
>>It's a neverending story.
>>
>>
>>
>>    Christophe
>
>
>Hello Christophe,
>You don't have to get killed or be a killer to change the rating by a few
>points.  The first program that comes to mind is ChessMaster.  I believe that
>playing a "Learning" program vs a non-learning program will add rating points to
>the learning program with more and more games played between them.  If this is
>not the case then you could just play 500 games vs any opponent you chose and
>your rating would be just as accurate. In any case this "bias" could be avoided
>with a little planning.
>Jim

Ok, and what is wrong now, that favours program x or y?

Bertil



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