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Subject: Re: Some facts about Deep Thought / Deep Blue

Author: Mark Rawlings

Date: 08:51:40 08/30/01

Go up one level in this thread


On August 30, 2001 at 10:23:28, Robert Hyatt wrote:

>On August 30, 2001 at 02:04:03, Derrick Daniels wrote:
>
>>On August 29, 2001 at 22:07:47, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>
>>>On August 29, 2001 at 19:07:33, Derek Mauro wrote:
>>>
>>>>On August 29, 2001 at 15:43:32, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On August 29, 2001 at 15:36:54, Uri Blass wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>On August 29, 2001 at 15:21:09, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>On August 29, 2001 at 14:41:48, Mark Young wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>On August 29, 2001 at 14:03:49, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>On August 29, 2001 at 13:52:33, Uri Blass wrote:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>On August 29, 2001 at 12:52:15, Roy Eassa wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>This sentence DOES say a lot, doesn't it:
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>"By the summer of 1990--by which time three of the original Deep Thought team
>>>>>>>>>>>had joined IBM--Deep Thought had achieved a 50 percent score in 10 games played
>>>>>>>>>>>under tournament conditions against grandmasters and an 86 percent score in 14
>>>>>>>>>>>games against international masters."
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>That was 7 years before, and many-fold slower hardware (and much weaker
>>>>>>>>>>>software, no doubt), than what played Kasparov in 1997.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>No
>>>>>>>>>>This sentence tells me nothing new.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>I know that humans at that time did not know how to play against computers like
>>>>>>>>>>they know today.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>Today programs got clearly better results than deep thought
>>>>>>>>>>and there is more than one case when they got >2700 performance inspite of
>>>>>>>>>>the fact that the opponents could buy the program they played against them
>>>>>>>>>>something that Deep thought's opponents could not do.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>Deep thought produced a rating of 2655 over 25 consecutive games against a
>>>>>>>>>variety of opponents.  None of them were "inexperienced" in playing against
>>>>>>>>>computers.  Byrne.  Larson.  Browne.  You-name-it.  That argument doesn't hold
>>>>>>>>>up under close scrutiny.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>In some ways, it appears that the GMs of today are
>>>>>>>>>prepared far worse than the GMs of 1992 were prepared to play computers.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>I don?t see how GM?s of today are less prepared to play computers. Anyone of
>>>>>>>>them can and has played computer programs at home stronger then the programs of
>>>>>>>>the early 1990?s.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>I am basing that on the games I have seen, plus the important detail that in
>>>>>>>1992, strong GM players at the US Open, the World Open, and other events
>>>>>>>(particularly those in the northeast US) knew they would be facing Hitech,
>>>>>>>Deep Thought, and at times, Belle and others.  Since 1995 this has not been
>>>>>>>the case as it is nearly impossible to find a tournament in the US that will
>>>>>>>allow a computer to compete.  If they aren't going to face the machines, they
>>>>>>>aren't going to study them.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>I don?t think preparation is the problem. It is the strength of the programs of
>>>>>>>>today. It seems if you are not in the top 100 of the Fide list your chances of
>>>>>>>>besting the better programs is not very good.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>It seems clear that the programs of today are stronger then Deep Thought of 1992
>>>>>>>>that produced a rating of 2655 playing against "Byrne.  Larson.  Browne.
>>>>>>>>You-name-it". Do you agree with this?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>No I don't.  I would agree that probably they programs of today are in the
>>>>>>>same league with Deep Thought of 1992, maybe.  At least on the 8-way boxes.
>>>>>>>Their NPS speed would be similar.  Deep Thought wasn't known to be an incredibly
>>>>>>>"smart" program, neither are today's programs.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>I consider the top programs of today as clearly smarter than Deep thought.
>>>>>
>>>>>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.
>>>>
>>>>If DB was "smarter" than today's programs (and I believe you that it was), and
>>>>you consider today's programs not to be super-intelligent, why is it that we
>>>>haven't been able to make smarter programs?  It makes perfect sense that in 4
>>>>years we should have made more progress.  Did the DB guys just know a hell of a
>>>>lot more than we have figured out, or is it that because of some hardware issue
>>>>we just can't implement everything, or something else?
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>Building a chess program is very much like balancing a high-performance boat
>>>on the pad at 80 MPH.  It takes a very good sense of balance, touch, and skill.
>>>In a chess engine, you have to balance speed vs smarts.  Sometimes you have to
>>>sacrifice one for the other to fix a specific problem.  Too often, the smarts
>>>has to take a back seat to speed or the smart program is too slow and gets
>>>ripped apart tactically.  DB didn't have to make such compromises.  In hardware,
>>
>>Hi Bob
>>
>>
>> Just an uninformed thought...What if the Deep blue team implemented some of the
>>compromises the Micro programmers make, or adopted pruning, and null move
>>techniques, wouldn't Deep blue have been even Stronger and have a greater Depth
>>of Search??  I don't have enough computer chess understanding to know if this
>>question makes sense, but it was just a thought.
>
>
>Let's stick to my boat analogy for the moment.  I'm currently running a 28"
>pitch prob, to reach a top speed of around 85 miles per hour.  I want to be
>able to outrun my friends on top-end, and I _also_ want to be able to beat them
>in a zero-to-sixty miles per hour race.  To do that I would probably run a
>24" pitch prop for better acceleration.  But I have to compromise.  best top
>speed might be 30" pitch, best acceleration might be at 24" pitch.  I pick
>something in the middle to give me the best of both words.
>
>Now for deep blue.  They had more money to spend than I do.  So they go off and
>build a variable-pitch prop that starts off at 22" pitch, and progresses to 30"
>at high rpms.  Their special hardware solution blows me away in the drag
>race, it blows me away in the top-end race.  And it blows me away at anything
>in between.  Because they didn't have to make a compromise since they were
>designing hardware to do _exactly_ whatever the task at hand was.
>
>In DB, they don't _need_ to make compromises as we do in software programs.
>Doing so would make no sense at all...  They simply do whatever they want,
>and they make it fast due to the hardware...
>
>

I think the point was: wouldn't they be even _better_ with, for example,
null-move?  I would think the extra 2 or 3(?) ply would have been very helpful,
just as it is with todays micros (even though it is a compromise...)

Mark


>
>
>>
>>
>>>you can do as much as possible in parallel, and adding another parallel slice
>>>of computation doesn't slow it down at all unless you overflow the adder tree
>>>and are forced to add another level.
>>>
>>>IE there are lots of things I would _like_ to do in Crafty, but most of them
>>>hurt overall speed.  And too much of that kills the overall skill of the
>>>program.  If I could design the engine, knowing that anything I do is not going
>>>to crush search speed, I would have a _far_ different search engine than I do
>>>today.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Deep thought had also a problem in the repetition detection and I believe that
>>>>>>the search algorithm of the top programs of today is superior because Deep
>>>>>>thought did not use null move or other pruning methods.
>>>>>
>>>>>There is nothing that says you must use forward-pruning methods to write a
>>>>>strong program.  Nothing at all.  DT had repetition problems in the chess
>>>>>hardware, yes.  But in _spite_ of that it played like a super-GM.  DB and DB2
>>>>>had no such problems.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Uri



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