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Subject: Re: What is good comes fast

Author: Uri Blass

Date: 00:51:42 01/21/02

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On January 21, 2002 at 02:32:18, Tony Werten wrote:

>On January 20, 2002 at 14:40:08, Uri Blass wrote:
>
>>On January 20, 2002 at 12:25:29, Russell Reagan wrote:
>>
>>>On January 20, 2002 at 09:56:43, Gian-Carlo Pascutto wrote:
>>>
>>>>On January 20, 2002 at 09:28:51, Bas Hamstra wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>A dutch saying. I "converted" a colleague that has become a friend at work, I'm
>>>>>not entirely sure that this is a noble thing. He is pretty smart and has a broad
>>>>>interest. So we talked a few times about the insides of a chess program. He
>>>>>became interested and I explained alphabeta. The next day he had alphabeta
>>>>>completely figured out in a spreadsheet, and understood it. Two weeks later, he
>>>>>has a working winboard engine... Boy HE goes fast. In May (if there is a Leiden
>>>>>tournament again) he will show up with "Shark". His main target is to crush Tao
>>>>>:-) At first I smiled, and said that is was quite possible in a couple of years.
>>>>>But lately I am beginning to get the feeling that it might be sooner :-) Have
>>>>>you ever seen someone pick it up SO quickly...?
>>>>
>>>>IIRC Bruce started on Ferret in 1994 and had (from his own comments) an engine
>>>>that could have been commerical by the end of 1995. I think that's certainly
>>>>a remarkable archievement, especially considering that seven years ago there
>>>>was much less information and examples available.
>>>
>>>Bruce works for Microsoft. He doesn't count.
>>
>>
>>I do not understand what is the importance of the question where someone works
>>for the discussion.
>
>Certain workenvironments give acces to a lot of experienced programmers.
>Although it's not a sure it helps, it doesn't hurt either.
>
>Tony

I believe that there are 2 important things to be good in chess programming.

1)having talent for programming that means the ability to do fast a well defined
algorithm with no stupid bugs that you need to work hours to discover.

2)having talent for math that can help you to be better in finding
a better algorithm and to be better in guessing if an idea is wrong or right
based on previous experience.

The number of people who have special talent for both 1 and 2 is small but I
believe that someone with special talent for 1 and 2 can do a top program in
every game in a few weeks.

I believe that there are only few people in the world who have the special
talent in both things but they use their talent for other things and not for
chess programming.

Uri



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