Author: Robert Hyatt
Date: 07:25:46 06/25/98
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On June 25, 1998 at 00:42:26, Bobby Ang wrote:
>I am merely a chess software user, so perhaps many of you here in the
>computer-chess club should excuse this ignorant question.
>
>The other day I was talking with the other admins in the ICC, and we were
>discussing the difference in the chess software being used there. One rather
>undiplomatic query I put to Tim McGrew (the computer-buster) was how he can
>differentiate between Fritz5 and Crafty. His answer was very intriguing:
>"Crafty is more prone to make meaningless pawn moves in the opening, but its
>search extensions seem to be better". When I pursued the matter further
>("search extensions? what's that!?) he replied : "I have seen Crafty announce a
>mate-in-28 in a blitz game".
>
>Wow! Impressive -- but this now leads me to another point: Don't search
>extensions require large hash tables? Which brings us to another question: but
>Fritz5 is a lot more hash-table size hungry than Crafty? shouldn't this be the
>other way around? And finally, if I am wrong, what are hash tables really used
>for?
>
>BOBBY ANG
Tim's a good chess player, but he is *not* a chess programmer. The mate in
28 was most certainly an endgame database hit, rather than a pure search mate.
I have seen a mate in 15 in blitz, on a pure search-found mate, but they are
rare. So it isn't exactly correct that "crafty's search extensions are better
than those in Fritz." It's only an impression, and an incorrect one once you
know the underlying reason. :)
As far as "meaningless" pawn moves, I will reserve judgement, because as a
computer buster, Tim is well-known on ICC, but against Crafty, he doesn't have
enough wins to even count on one hand, his most recent loss being a game/60
long game. The pawn moves are part of the built-in aggressiveness in Crafty,
and can be wrong at times. But they can also be right. And they are often
provocative... which is their point.
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