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Subject: Re: Questions for Mr. Hyatt about Deep Blue

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 07:05:17 02/18/02

Go up one level in this thread


On February 18, 2002 at 01:08:49, Uri Blass wrote:

>On February 17, 2002 at 23:07:02, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>
>>On February 17, 2002 at 19:11:05, K. Burcham wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>>We have read lots of comments on Deep Blue, from lots of different people.
>>>I think I know some of how you feel about Deep Blue and Deep Blue vs GM.
>>>I Have tremendous respect for Deep Blue, and the people responsible for its
>>>creation and performance. I would like to hear your comments, and answers to the
>>>following questions, if you will.
>>>
>>>1.If Crafty would  show all Deep Blue moves, in analysis mode, for all six games
>>>vs Kasparov---Would you agree Crafty was at least equal with Deep Blue?
>>
>>
>>No. Because I know what Crafty is capable of... and I know what DB was
>>capable of.  It is certainly _possible_ that some program might be able to
>>reproduce _all_ of those moves.  But that wouldn't mean that program was
>>equal to deep blue, without something convincing in the way of speed and/or
>>depth to show some sort of "equality" with what was an incredibly fast
>>machine...
>>
>>
>>
>>>2.I dont think I have heard your opinion on this one. Do you say that Deep Blue
>>>is GM level, Super GM level, IM level, master level?
>>
>>That is hard to answer.  It _must_ be GM level because they proved that
>>deep thought was GM level beyond _any_ doubt.  Whether it is beyond that
>>(into the super-GM level) is another question that 12 games doesn't quite
>>answer...  So beyond the "GM" question I simply have to say "I don't know..."
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>>3.Do you say some of todays programs are getting the kns of Deep Blue on the
>>>dual and quad machines?
>>
>>Absolutely not.  DB averaged 200M nodes per second, peaking at one billion
>>nodes per second.  What program reaches 2M nodes per second, much less 200M?
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>>4.Do you say that the top twelve programs today, cannot play on the level of
>>>Deep Blue?
>>
>>I don't believe they can, no.  Deep Thought (at around 2M nodes per second)
>>produced a 2650 rating over 25 consecutive games vs GM players.  These were
>>all 40 moves in 2 hours type games.  Deep Blue was at least 100X faster,
>>not to mention a lot "better" in terms of evaluation re-design, etc..
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>>5.Do you say that the Opening Book and EGTB are not an issue when comparing Deep
>>>Blue to todays programs?
>>
>>DB used endgame tables.  It used them in 1988 and before.  Even HiTech
>>used them in 1985 so this wasn't unusual.  DB's opening book was obviously
>>very good, being created by a GM specifically for DB.
>>
>>
>>
>>>6.Is the reason you say no program today can play on Deep Blue level is because
>>>of the Deep Blue chess software (program, search, etc).?
>>
>>"software" is a misnomer.  DB was not "software"  It was a symbiotic relation-
>>ship between special-purpose hardware combined with software.  The "whole" was
>>very impressive..
>>
>>
>>
>>>7.If you say that 6 is true, then can't we say that todays programmers do not
>>>understand programming on the level that the Deep Blue programmers did?
>>
>>
>>Nope...  it just means that when you design special-purpose hardware, you can
>>do things that are not possible when using a general-purpose microprocessor
>>like the rest of us.  That doesn't mean the DB guys were _better_.  It just
>>means they worked "outside the box" the rest of us are locked inside.
>>
>>
>>
>>>8.If you agree with 7, then is it true to say there is a big difference in
>>>writing a chess program for very large hardware vs limited hardware? In other
>>>words from a programmers point of view, is hardware a limiting factor, knowing
>>>you must prune so as to reach a competitive depth so as to be equal to programs
>>>of the same time period? For example: with a dual 1500mhz and 1 gig ram, do
>>>programmers size their tree for certain results (depth)-----with a 10,000 mhz
>>>and 8 gigs ram, the same programmer knowing he has huge hardware would allow his
>>>tree to be also huge, very little pruning. The program could be doing a lot more
>>>with hardware? The search could be very large with larger hardware. Is this
>>>limiting todays programmers?
>>
>>
>>Of course that is true.  But not in terms of raw mhz.  the computer can't do
>>some things very well...  but special-purpose hardware can.  _that_ is the
>>advantage they had.
>>
>>
>>
>>>9.If you say it is the software, then when do you expect programmers to "catch
>>>up" with the Deep Blue programmers?
>>
>>This is going _way_ out into no-man's-land.  When chess engines can search
>>at 200M nps and beyond, they have a _chance_ to equal DB.  Until then, we
>>will all remain well behind them.
>
>I am not going to repeat my opinion about deep blue here
>
>only one comment:
>
>It seems that you assume in this answer  that software improvement to have
>better search rules than deeper blue are impossible.
>
>I disagree.
>
>I believe that a program can search less nodes and be better thanks to better
>search rules.



OK... all you have to do is to find _two_ programs A and B, such that A can
beat B on 200X faster hardware, with the limitation that the main difference
between A and B is search.  And B must have the traditional search extensions
used for the past 30+ years at least (recapture, out-of-check, passed pawn
advances, etc).

I too believe that a program _can_ search fewer nodes and be better.  But I
don't believe _any_ program today can close that 200X gap...




>
>x nodes of the programs of today are clearly better than x nodes of programs of
>1997 and x nodes of programs of 2010 are going to be better than x nodes of
>today.
>
>I believe that part of the improvement is better evaluation function but part of
>the improvement is also better search rules.
>
>Uri



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