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Subject: Re: The operator of Fritz accepted the offered draw, but Fritz...

Author: Ulrich Tuerke

Date: 02:19:10 07/20/01

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On July 20, 2001 at 04:35:53, José Carlos wrote:

>On July 19, 2001 at 17:33:54, Uri Blass wrote:
>
>>On July 19, 2001 at 16:49:11, Otello Gnaramori wrote:
>>
>>>Excerpt from the Chessbase page of the latest report from Dortmund :
>>>
>>>http://www.chessbase.com/events/dortm01/dortm03.htm
>>>
>>><snip>
>>>"In the Man vs Machine match Dr Robert Hübner, playing with the white pieces,
>>>offered his opponent Deep Fritz a draw after 21 moves. The operator accepted,
>>>even though Fritz thought it was slightly ahead in the game. The score between
>>>the two is now 2:2. The last two games will be played on Saturday and Sunday."
>>><snip>
>>>
>>>
>>>Probably when the operator pressed the button "Offer Draw" Fritz answered "I
>>>think that the game is still quite interesting , let's play on", but the human
>>>operator didn't want to disappoint Dr. Hubner.
>>>
>>>Regards.
>>
>>I think that operators of chess programs should not have the right to decide if
>>to agree to a draw.
>>It is something that only the machines should have the right to decide about.
>
>  It's not so easy. There're several cases that should be handled by the
>operator. For example: a dead draw ending where the program thinks he's slightly
>better because of a bishop vs knight. After 20 moves Bf1,Be2,Bd3,Bc2... the draw
>should be accepted by the operator.
>  Besides, since most human players don't like to play computers, you have to be
>careful not to make angry the few that play with them. I don't mean accepting
>the draw everytime, of course, but sometimes it's clear for the human, although
>the program has no clue.
>  Finally, if the operator us the programmer, I think he should always have the
>right to accept a draw.

Fully agreed. You can't insult a GM by insisting on the truth of some program's
score. Otherwise the general acceptance of computer opponents in human
tourneys/matches will decrease further. The operator in a game against a master
player should have sufficient chess competence to make such decision. I'm sure,
that the Fritz operator against Hübner has.

In particular Hübner had refused to play programs for years. I was very
surprised to hear that he's playing a match aginst Fritz.

Uli

>
>  José C.
>
>>I think that the operator was simply lazy and this is one of the main reasons
>>for the fact that Deep Fritz did not win the 4th game.
>>
>>I think that it is better to say usually no to draw offers unless the position
>>is a simple draw or the opponent has a simple way to force at least a draw.
>>
>>Uri



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