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Subject: Re: Hardware advantages

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 18:38:06 06/25/98

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On June 25, 1998 at 20:40:00, Vincent Diepeveen wrote:

>
>On June 25, 1998 at 13:31:30, Bruce Moreland wrote:
>
>>
>>On June 25, 1998 at 12:15:09, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>
>>>I pointed out to Vincent last week here that he was not doing well playing
>>>against Crafty.  He pointed out (factually, by the way) that Crafty has a
>>>hardware advantage with the 4 processor ALR.  But he's going to have to take
>>>a stand on one side of the fence or the other.  Either speed is important, and
>>>his note about me having faster hardware does explain why crafty wins most of
>>>the games played on ICC, or speed is not important and doesn't explain crafty's
>>>win/lose ratio vs the various DiepX programs on ICC.
>>
>>This is a fascinating point.
>
>>Some people might argue that speed doesn't matter, but I've yet to see one of
>>them show up at a WMCCC on a crusty old 486 because they don't think it's worth
>>the bother of copying their software to a faster machine.
>
>>I'll take faster hardware any time, on ICC it's like a shot of adrenaline.  I
>>get the idea that it matters less as the time controls slow down, but my
>>experience is based upon pretty small hardware advantages.
>
>>bruce
>
>Relax, hardware doesn't matter that much anymore when getting 11/12 ply.
>At icc however diep searches between 6 ply and 8 ply, then
>hardware simply kills. Especially for a program which hasn't been adjusted
>to blitz (meaning that at low depths its preferences are a little odd sometimes,
>as parameters aren't adjusted at all).
>
>6 ply simply means 3 moves. Then there is this selectivity thing of mine
>which takes care that at 6 ply it still misses some simple things in order
>to get that huge depth.
>


your analysis fails.  What about the many 60 0 and 30 30 games we have played?
those are *not* blitz speeds.  And it doesn't change a thing in the outcome,
although I can do a search and post the results if anyone wants the real numbers
for inspection.


>So if you give Diep's selective 12 ply search in opening/middlegame
>Bob, or bruce, then i give you 14 ply fullwidth for free. S.E. you get for
>free too.


give a frog a pocket, he carries a gun, and never worries about snakes again,
either.  But he doesn't have the pocket, and he lives in a swamp, and he ends
up "soup du jour" regularly...


>
>Most human plans are btw around 6 moves, so this also indicates that
>with 12 ply the search is not the problem anymore. Things like evaluation
>become way way more important at those depths.
>
>Of course there ARE things you miss with a 12 ply search which you DO
>find with 14 ply search. No doubt that 14 ply is more relaxed than 12,
>but it is so rare that a deeper search brings new tactics.
>
>If you just play blitz like is happening on the internet, then i can imagine
>why some people developed 'insights' that just searching deeper is the
>way to go, especially when combining this with a program that doesn't
>do tactics in q-search (like not doing checks nor evaluating pins).
>
>Even at 4 processors crafty gets at blitz 'just' 8/9 ply.
>
>That's just 5 moves. So matethreads are nearly always missed (as nullmove
>last x plies gives cutoff if you don't do check, so you actually only see
>6 plies of threads, and 6/7 ply for pins).


I don't see enough mate threats overlooked to worry about.  When I lose more
than one game out of 10 to a human, I start looking, but it generally is not
an overlooked mate threat, it is more likely a positional mistake.


>
>This probably leads to those insights which are so widely written down in
>CCC and RGCC by the author.
>
>Greetings,
>Vincent



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