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Subject: Re: Mathematical impossibilities regarding Deep Blue statements by Bob

Author: Dann Corbit

Date: 13:34:52 01/31/02

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On January 31, 2002 at 16:19:51, Uri Blass wrote:

>On January 31, 2002 at 14:36:04, Dann Corbit wrote:
>
>>On January 31, 2002 at 14:31:38, David Rasmussen wrote:
>>
>>>On January 31, 2002 at 13:13:57, Dann Corbit wrote:
>>>
>>>>On January 31, 2002 at 06:58:28, David Rasmussen wrote:
>>>>[snip]
>>>>>>Just like "ply" means 20 different things to 20 different programmers.  Even
>>>>>>"nodes" does not always mean the same thing.
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>Agree with you on nodes, but ply? Ply is pretty well defined, I think.
>>>>
>>>>For sure it is not.  In fact, even when we agree, we disagree.  Every single
>>>>chess program will have a tree of a different shape.  So even when we count
>>>>plies the same way, the actual search can be incredibly different (with the
>>>>number of nodes visited differing by several orders of magnitude).  Compare, for
>>>>instance, Mchess with Goliath.
>>>>
>>>>Junior [for instance] does not count plies the same way as other programs.
>>>>
>>>>Ply is ill defined.  In fact, I think it is actually impossible to define it
>>>>accuracy, except in the brute force sense.  And absolutely nobody exhausts a ply
>>>>when doing chess games with an engine.
>>>>[snip]
>>>
>>>That is bull. A ply is a half move and that is that. What you are talking about
>>>is: what does it mean when we say a program searches 8 ply? Of course if that is
>>>the question, the answers are as many as there are programs. But in this thread
>>>we are talking about a full width alpha-beta tree (at least, since DB had
>>>singular extensions, which requires extra searches), of some fixed depth search
>>>in a given program (that is, move ordering and evaluation forms the tree).
>>
>>I suggest that you lookup with the CCC search engine the dozens of posts that
>>shot *ME* down when I tried to insist that a ply is a ply is a ply.
>>
>>The thorough and convincing arguements against it showed that I was clearly
>>wrong.
>>
>>As you are clearly, unmistakeably, and totally wrong right now.
>
>He is not wrong if we talk about full width alpha beta.

Which is the same as saying "If we all wore giant balsa-wood shoes, we could
walk on water."
Nobody wears them, as far as I know.

There is no chess program on the planet that does that.  (Except -- of course --
for the rankest sort of amateur program).

Beowulf will often spend 80% of its nodes in quiescense.

What about programs that have a very sophisticated SEE at the end of a ply?

What about the way that Junior counts plies?

Some related threads:
http://www.it.ro/ccc_search/ccc.php?find_thread=118884
http://www.it.ro/ccc_search/ccc.php?find_thread=120838
http://www.it.ro/ccc_search/ccc.php?find_thread=13258
http://www.it.ro/ccc_search/ccc.php?find_thread=71072
http://www.it.ro/ccc_search/ccc.php?find_thread=78442
http://www.it.ro/ccc_search/ccc.php?find_thread=109958

I could not find the thread where I was demanding that a ply is at least a good
measure to compare one program with the next as far as searching [it's not -- I
was wrong].  If I recall correctly, you were amongst those who gave me
correction!
;-)



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