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Subject: Re: Some Philosophical questions on the limits of Computer chess

Author: Uri Blass

Date: 06:50:17 01/26/02

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On January 26, 2002 at 09:32:43, Albert Silver wrote:

>On January 26, 2002 at 09:27:03, Sune Fischer wrote:
>
>>On January 26, 2002 at 09:07:51, Albert Silver wrote:
>>
>>>>>>Realisticly a 2800 player probably has a branchfactor of no more than 2, ie. he
>>>>>>is able to always choose the best or second best move (on average).
>>>>>>If the average game lasts 100 moves, then that is still 10^30 plausible games of
>>>>>>which only a handfull will be good enough against *perfect* play.
>>>>>>Poor odds I agree with you :)
>>>>>
>>>>>You're presuming that anything other than one move, the best move, will lose
>>>>>forcibly to best play. I believe that more than one move is available to a
>>>>>non-loss thus perfect play would be often a flip of the coin between a few
>>>>>(perhaps three as I hypothesized in another post in the thread) moves. I have
>>>>>seen no evidence to suggest there is only one path to a non-loss and that a
>>>>>single path of perfect play is needed to avoid it. Everything we know whether
>>>>>from personal research or from the current tablebases suggests there are several
>>>>>paths. If this were accepted to be true, the question would be whether the 2800
>>>>>player is incapable of hitting on _one_ of these non-losing moves (according to
>>>>>perfect play).
>>>>>
>>>>>                                      Albert
>>>>
>>>>You could interpet in an similar way; there is a 50% chance of the 2800 chooses
>>>>a move that is *good enough*.
>>>>It was just an estimate, probably way off :)
>>>>
>>>>Suppose that a *correct* move is done with 95% certainty (on average) and that
>>>>the average game length is only 60 moves, then he has a 0.95^60 = 4.6% chance of
>>>>a draw!
>>>>
>>>>This is perhaps more realistic?
>>>>
>>>>-S.
>>>
>>>Well, a few things come to mind. One is that there would be more than one
>>>correct move to hit on.
>>
>>Yes, and that why I rephrased it to be a *correct* move rather than *the best*
>>move, by *correct* I mean a move that isn't losing.
>>
>>
>>>Second that I wasn't aware that his chances changed with
>>>each move, so I don't think that the longer the game the worse his chances. Give
>>>a 2800 player a dead equal dry game and I don't think he will suddenly be in
>>>danger of losing just because it can take 40 moves to trade off the pieces and
>>>pawns and play the endgame to the end. There is more to chess than probability.
>>>
>>>                                     Albert
>>
>>What I meant was, that at every move he has a 5% chance of _not choosing the
>>correct move_, ie. he "blunders" by playing inaccurate.
>>That is an average percentile taken out of the blue of cause, but the tablebase
>>test could give us a hint whether we are talking 95% or 50%, it would allow us
>>to calculate the rating of a perfect player, which was the goal I believe.
>>
>>-S.
>
>I was addressing two things: Dann's statement that against perfect play,
>Kasparov (or any other 2800 player) would lose 1000 games in 1000. And your
>statement that against perfect play in a game of say 60 moves he only had a 4.6%
>chance of surviving. I think both statements are completely unreal and show
>little understanding of certain realities of both chess and their ability. You
>could also take a dead equal rook endgame where there is no chance for the
>mighty player to calculate a line to the very end and I would still adamantly
>state that his chances of losing are _zero_ and not some percentage that grows
>exponentially with each move played.
>
>                                          Albert

I agree

The probabilities are not independent numbers.

The probability can go down from 5% to 0% and can go up from 5% to 20%.

The probability may be 95% to be right for every move but more than 0.95^n to be
right in n moves when the events are not independent.

Uri

Uri



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