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Subject: Re: Back in time

Author: Mark Young

Date: 07:20:12 08/30/01

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On August 30, 2001 at 09:51:42, Robert Hyatt wrote:

>On August 30, 2001 at 08:50:52, Mark Young wrote:
>
>>It has been suggested here that programs have made little progress in the last
>>10 years other then hardware speed. Here is the list of top programs 6 years
>>ago. Does anyone really think a program of 4, 6 or 10 years ago running on
>>modern but equal hardware would have a chance of beating a Junior 7, Deep Fritz,
>>Chess Tiger in a match. I think someone is pulling our legs.
>
>
>I think someone can't read.  "slow and steady" is not equal to "little"
>I _clearly_ said that "there has been no revolutionary ideas in computer chess
>in a long time.  progress has been slow and steady."
>
>How you make the giant leap to "little progress" is a mystery only you can
>answer.

You will answer it for my Bob! Here is your Quote and the full text.

Bob's Statement:
"Part of the progress has been due
to incremental changes to chess engines/evaluations/etc, part has been due to
the hardware speed advances.  Probably more of the latter than the former, if
the truth is known..."



"Based on what?  Top programs of today _still_ seem to be unable to understand
simple chess concepts like the pawn majority we have been discussing in another
thread.  I discovered, by bits and pieces, some of the knowledge in deep
thought, and it was not "small" at all.  Everyone assumes that the micros are
much smarter... and that us old supercomputer guys simply depended on raw speed
to win games.  If you look at the game Cray Blitz vs Joe Sentef, from 1981,
you will find a position that many programs today will blow, and that programs
of 5 years ago would totally blow (bishop + wrong rook pawn ending knowledge).
We weren't "fast and dumb" at all.  Neither was DT, DB or DB2.  Fast, yes.  But
definitely not "dumb".  The "intelligence" of todays programs is mostly myth
brought on by fast hardware that searches deep enough to cover for some of the
positional weakness the programs have."

"I've said this _many_ times in the past...  I don't believe there have been
more than a small number of "revolutionary" ideas in computer chess in the last
35 years.  Hashing was certainly one.  Perhaps null-move another although it
is not clear that you must use null-move to be competitive as Rebel shows (and
the DT/DB/DB2 machines as well).  Iterative deepening with full-width search
is another.  Extensions are collectively another one, some more-so than others.
Perhaps EGTBs is the most recent one.  Everything else has been slow, methodical
progress, something many won't like to hear.  Part of the progress has been due
to incremental changes to chess engines/evaluations/etc, part has been due to
the hardware speed advances.  Probably more of the latter than the former, if
the truth is known..."





>
>
>>
>>If the suggestion that programs have not progressed much is correct, then we
>>have been suckered by all programmers who offer us so called better and stronger
>>version of their programs.
>>
>>
>>
>>THE SSDF RATING LIST 1995-11-26
>>46104 games played by  146 computers
>>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>                                           Rating   +     -  Games   Won
>>                                           Oppo
>>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>                                           ------  ---   --- -----   ---
>>                                           ----
>>   1 MChess Pro 5.0 Pentium 90 MHz           2458   45   -42   284   67%
>>   2332
>>   2 Genius 3.0 Pentium 90 MHz               2436   33   -31   498   66%
>>   2318
>>   3 Rebel 7.0 Pentium 90 MHz                2416   36   -34   416   63%
>>   2325
>>   4 Rebel 6.0 Pentium 90 MHz                2413   39   -38   340   61%
>>   2334
>>   5 Hiarcs 3.0 Pentium 90 MHz               2409   38   -37   357   62%
>>   2325
>>   6 MChess Pro 4.0 Pentium 90 MHz           2381   36   -36   376   56%
>>   2338
>>   7 Rebel 7.0 486/50-66 MHz                 2371   43   -41   288   62%
>>   2282
>>   8 Fritz 3.0 Pentium 90 MHz                2370   35   -34   419   58%
>>   2311
>>   9 Genius 3.0 486/50-66 MHz                2366   27   -26   750   65%
>>   2255
>>  10 R30 v. 2.5                              2357   79   -64   131   80%
>>  2122
>>  11 Mephisto Genius 2.0  486/50-66 MHz      2343   26   -25   757   60%
>>  2272
>>  12 WChess 1.06 Pentium 90 MHz              2327   36   -36   380   47%
>>  2350
>>  13 MChess Pro 4.0 486/50-66 MHz            2324   27   -27   666   57%
>>  2278
>>  14 Hiarcs 3.0 486/50-66 MHz                2311   28   -28   626   55%
>>  2273
>>  15 Rebel 6.0 486/50-66 MHz                 2310   26   -26   724   58%
>>  2254
>>  16 Chess Machine 30-32 MHz Schroder 3.1    2306   32   -30   546   68%
>>  2175
>>  17 Meph Genius 68 030 33 MHz               2302   53   -52   179   56%
>>  2257
>>  17 WChess 1.03 486/50-66 MHz               2302   30   -30   538   49%
>>  2312
>>  19 Ch.Machine 30 MHz King 2.0 aggr/R30 off 2301   22   -22  1070   67%
>>  2173
>>  20 Chessmaster 4000 486/50-66 MHz          2295   34   -33   462   66%
>>  2175
>>  21 Chess Genius 1.0  486/50-66 MHz         2291   26   -26   736   57%
>>  2241
>>  22 MChess Pro 3.5  486/50-66 MHz           2280   26   -26   731   56%
>>  2236
>>  23 Mephisto Gideon Pro  486/50-66 MHz      2275   35   -34   421   62%
>>  2187
>>  24 MChess Pro 3.12  486/50-66 MHz          2268   36   -34   438   69%
>>  2125
>>  25 Fritz 3.0 486/50-66 MHz                 2265   26   -25   747   56%
>>  2225
>>  26 Chess Genius 1.0  486/33 MHz            2252   33   -33   443   51%
>>  2244
>>  27 Mephisto Vancouver  68030 36 MHz        2234   37   -34   451   73%
>>  2059
>>  28 MChess Pro 3.12  486/33 MHz             2231   50   -48   208   60%
>>  2157
>>  29 Kallisto 1.82-1.83 486/50-66 MHz        2227   26   -26   742   48%
>>  2244
>>  30 Berlin Pro 68 020 24 MHz                2218   28   -27   676   63%
>>  2123
>>  31 Kasparov SPARC  20 MHz                  2213   28   -27   639   55%
>>  2174
>>  32 Mephisto RISC 1 MB ARM 2  14 MHz        2206   23   -22   978   60%
>>  2133
>>  33 Hiarcs Master 2.0  486/33 MHz           2205   46   -46   229   51%
>>  2196
>>  34 Saitek RISC 2500 ARM2 14 MHz 128K       2196   23   -23   935   59%
>>  2132
>>  34 Chess Machine Schroder 512K ARM2 16MHz  2196   27   -26   703   62%
>>  2112
>>  36 Chess Machine The King 512K ARM2 16MHz  2179   32   -32   472   56%
>>  2139
>>  37 Mephisto Montreux ARM  14 MHz 512K      2174   51   -46   238   72%
>>  2007
>>  38 Mephisto Vancouver  68020 12 MHz        2163   24   -23   935   68%
>>  2027
>>  39 Socrates 3.0  486/33 MHz                2145   49   -50   203   47%
>>  2166
>>  40 Fritz 2.0  486/33 MHz                   2138   30   -31   527   45%
>>  2172
>>  41 Fidelity Elite  68030 32 MHz (vers.9)   2121   40   -37   372   73%
>>  1952
>>  41 Mephisto Berlin  68 000 12 MHz          2121   25   -25   805   59%
>>  2059
>>  43 Mephisto Vancouver  68000 12 MHz        2104   23   -22   971   57%
>>  2056
>>  44 Novag Sapphire H8 10 MHz                2088   25   -25   787   52%
>>  2071
>>  45 Hiarcs Master 1.0  486/33 MHz           2073   48   -48   214   48%
>>  2089
>>  46 Fritz 1.0  486/33 MHz                   2042   48   -47   215   55%
>>  2009
>>  47 Nimzo 2.2.1 486/33 MHz                  2036   46   -47   229   42%
>>  2091
>>  48 Zarkov 3.0 486/25-33 MHz                2032   46   -48   232   39%
>>  2111
>>  49 Rex Chess 2.3  386/25-33 MHz            2029   65   -62   126   59%
>>  1964
>>  50 Kasparov Brute Force  H8 10 MHz         2019   24   -24   860   47%
>>  2044
>>  51 Novag Diablo  68000 16 MHz              2008   21   -22  1080   41%
>>  2072
>>  52 Fidelity Mach III  68000 16 MHz         1994   14   -14  2404   52%
>>  1980
>>  53 Complete Chess System  486/33 MHz       1986   47   -47   221   47%
>>  2008
>>  54 Mephisto MM 5  6502 5 MHz               1981   20   -20  1264   49%
>>  1985
>>  55 Kasparov President/GK-2100 H8 10 MHz    1975   29   -30   558   47%
>>  1997
>>  56 Mephisto Polgar  6502 5 MHz             1971   17   -17  1693   42%
>>  2031
>>  57 Mephisto Milano  6502  5 MHz            1966   24   -25   820   42%
>>  2026
>>  58 Mephisto Amsterdam  68000 12 MHz        1926   22   -22  1020   58%
>>  1872
>>  59 Kasparov GK-2000   H8 10 MHz            1897   29   -29   593   42%
>>  1953
>>  60 Mephisto Modena  6502 4 MHz             1896   28   -29   615   41%
>>  1959
>>  61 Psion Atari  68000 8 MHz                1882   18   -18  1487   44%
>>  1928
>>  62 Novag Ruby H8  10 MHz                   1878   30   -30   545   42%
>>  1934
>>  63 Saitek Turboking II  6502 5 MHz         1868   23   -23   963   37%
>>  1964
>>  63 Conchess Plymate Victoria 6502 5.5 MHz  1868   26   -27   701   40%
>>  1941



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