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Subject: Re: Mathematical question regarding chess

Author: Christophe Theron

Date: 19:35:26 07/31/01

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On July 31, 2001 at 19:18:36, Roy Eassa wrote:

>On July 31, 2001 at 15:26:08, Ed Panek wrote:
>
>>On July 31, 2001 at 15:24:48, Roy Eassa wrote:
>>
>>>On July 31, 2001 at 15:21:17, Ed Panek wrote:
>>>
>>>>Lets say I have a move generator that selects a random move every time it is its
>>>>turn. What are the odds against it drawing/winning a game? Is it less likely
>>>>than winning a game of Keno with all the correct numbers picked?
>>>>
>>>
>>>Is the opponent Kramnik or Deeper Blue?  Or a human rated 400?  Or another such
>>>"random" program?  I think this matters.
>>
>>Lets try a random opponent first...and then Kramnik
>>
>>Ed
>
>
>Obviously, the chance of beating another random-playing program is 50% (not
>counting draws).


It depends how is programmed the random opponent.

If the opponent just picks a move at random, odds are 50%.

If the opponent is a program that does some sort of of alpha beta on a tree
where the leaves receive random numbers, this opponent will win very often.

That means: a random evaluation function is much stronger than a program
choosing a move at random.

This does not answer your question but probably gives food for thoughts about
what randomness means, or is good for. :)


    Christophe






>The chance of beating Kramnik or another top-notch grandmaster is so small as to
>be essentially zero.  Perhaps one in (ten to the power of 40).
>
>What might be most interesting is estimating the chance of beating an extremely
>weak human player -- I don't know how low ratings go, but say USCF 400.  (I have
>a friend with a 4-year-old daughter who knows the rules of chess but not much
>more.)  Then the question becomes: how much better (or worse?!) than random are
>that player's moves?



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