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Subject: Re: Mathematical question regarding chess

Author: Gordon Rattray

Date: 11:14:56 08/01/01

Go up one level in this thread


On August 01, 2001 at 14:05:18, Uri Blass wrote:

>On August 01, 2001 at 11:53:55, José de Jesús García Ruvalcaba wrote:
>
>>On August 01, 2001 at 09:08:08, Gordon Rattray wrote:
>>
>>>On July 31, 2001 at 22:35:26, Christophe Theron wrote:
>>>
>>>>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.
>>>
>>>Do you assume that a move leading immediately to checkmate, stalemate, etc.
>>>returns a meaningful (non-random) value?  If not, I don't understand why your
>>>claim holds true?  I assume a "random evaluation function" to be random for
>>>*all* positions.
>>>
>>>Gordon
>>>
>>
>>Even with a pure random non-constant evaluation, deeper search helps (but I
>>would assume that checkmates and other ways to end the game are recognised and
>>properly evaluated). The reason is that even a random evaluation will favour
>>moves which increase the own mobility (as long as the search depth is bigger
>>than two)
>
>Why?
>If the evaluation is a random number I see no reason for prefering moves that
>increase the mobility.


If you consider the basic mini-max algorithm, then for the side trying to
maximise the value, this will be easier if more random values are available
(better chance of a high value).  Likewise, we'd want to restrict the choices
available to the minimising side.  Hence, the number of moves available
(mobility) does have an affect.

I failed to consider this initially.

Gordon


>
>If you assume that the program evaluates checkmates correctly then it s clear
>that it plays better than rabdom moves because it is going to never miss a
>simple forced mate so you do not need to use mobility.
>
>Uri



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