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Subject: Re: SSDF rating list in 2004 on 3600 Mhz PC's

Author: martin fierz

Date: 13:23:21 03/30/02

Go up one level in this thread


On March 29, 2002 at 19:39:43, Christophe Theron wrote:

>On March 29, 2002 at 07:33:34, Ed Schröder wrote:
>
>>Dear CCC,
>>
>>This posting is dedicated to Thorsten in the first place being the absolute
>>opponent against statistics. He might change opinions after this conclusive
>>posting, Thorsten you will love this one!
>>
>>It's also dedicated to those who still believe that there is no performance
>>increase/decrease when playing on different time controls. (Hi Christophe!)
>
>
>
>That's not exactly what I believe.
>
>I believe that it is possible to write a chess program that will be the best at
>any time control.
>
>That's the direction I am try to follow, and that's why I take into account the
>performance of my program at all time controls, including blitz on very slow
>hardware (old 386 or Palms).
>
>I also consider that a program that is good only at a given time control has a
>serious problem.
>
>
>
>    Christophe

here's an example: let's say, you write a new chess program and implement some
move ordering. it runs at some speed, X kN/s. now, you improve your move
ordering, with a very elaborate scheme which makes it run at only X/2 kN/s.  but
your move ordering is better, which means the exponent a in the search tree size
(nodes(d) ~ k^(a*d)) is smaller than before. if your new a is only a bit smaller
than the old one, you will need a deep search to justify your new move ordering
scheme. if this example is correct, and assuming that you can choose your move
ordering to be either good and slow or fast and bad, and can vary it between
these extremes, then there IS an optimal setting for your program for a given
search time.

i think this also shows that ed schröder's original post is not necessarily
correct - the program with the best move ordering should gain most from
increasing hardware speed. now according to his post, rebel gains the most - but
this does not mean that it will be best on the 3600MHz computers, because the
other guys can increase their efforts in move ordering as computers get faster.

i agree that this argument is misused for weak programs. i'm not trying to
defend them :-)
i'm just trying to justify that my checkers move generator needs about 30% of my
program's execution time - only for move ordering. i usually run a test suite at
depth 13 and depth 19 to test changes in move ordering, and if you do something
better, you often see that it needs e.g. 5% less nodes on average to get to
depth 13 but 10% less on average to get to depth 19. now if it is 7% slower with
the additional ordering it's not a good idea if the typical search depth is 13,
but a good idea if it's 19. it's some time ago since i last revisited my move
ordering, but the numbers are realistic.

aloha
 martin



>
>
>
>>The below data is taken from the latest SSDF list and measures the differences
>>between the used hardware, that is Athlon 1200 Mhz versus the AMD 450, roughly
>>being a factor of 3.
>>
>>  2 Chess Tiger 14.0 CB 256MB Athlon 1200   2714   34   -33   460   63% 
>>2619		+82
>> 13 Chess Tiger 14.0 CB 128MB K6-2 450 MHz  2632   30   -29   585   65%  2526
>> 
>>  3 Deep Fritz 256MB Athlon 1200 MHz        2709   34   -33   447   63% 
>>2617		+55
>>  9 Deep Fritz  128MB K6-2 450 MHz          2654   24   -23   901   62%  2568
>>
>>  4 Gambit Tiger 2.0  256MB Athlon 1200     2708   37   -36   381   61% 
>>2626		+67
>> 11 Gambit Tiger 2.0  128MB K6-2 450 MHz    2641   30   -29   592   66%  2522
>>
>>  6 Junior 7.0  256MB  Athlon 1200 MHz      2684   34   -33   436   58% 
>>2630		+53
>> 14 Junior 7.0  128MB K6-2 450 MHz          2631   28   -26   717   67%  2505
>>
>>  7 Rebel Century 4.0 256MB Athlon 1200 MHz 2680   36   -35   407   63% 
>>2587		+104
>> 21 Rebel Century 4.0  128MB K6-2 450 MHz   2576   68   -70   105   46%  2606
>>
>>  8 Shredder 5.32  256MB Athlon 1200 MHz    2662   32   -31   498   56% 
>>2619		+56
>> 17 Shredder 5.32  128MB K6-2 450 MHz       2606   31   -30   545   62%  2521
>>
>> 10 Gandalf 4.32h  256MB Athlon 1200 MHz    2649   34   -33   430   54% 
>>2621		+130
>> 32 Gandalf 4.32h  128MB K6-2 450 MHz       2519   36   -36   378   53%  2499
>>
>>Based on the above comparison the 2004 SSDF list running on 3600 Mhz hardware
>>might looks as follows:
>> 
>> 1. Chess Tiger 14.0 CB 256MB Athlon 1200   2714 +  82 = 2796
>> 2. Rebel Century 4.0 256MB Athlon 1200 MHz 2680 + 104 = 2784
>> 3. Gandalf 4.32h  256MB Athlon 1200 MHz    2649 + 130 = 2779
>> 4. Gambit Tiger 2.0  256MB Athlon 1200     2708 +  67 = 2777
>> 5. Deep Fritz 256MB Athlon 1200 MHz        2709 +  55 = 2764
>> 6. Junior 7.0  256MB  Athlon 1200 MHz      2684 +  53 = 2737
>> 7. Shredder 5.32  256MB Athlon 1200 MHz    2662 +  56 = 2718
>>
>>I love this list :)
>>
>>Unknown entries because of no comparison material.
>>
>>   1 Fritz 7.0 256MB Athlon 1200 MHz         2748   38   -35   395   68%  2616
>>   5 Shredder 6.0  256MB Athlon 1200 MHz     2706   37   -36   379   61%  2626
>>  16 Crafty 18.12/CB 256MB  Athlon 1200 MHz  2613   33   -32   459   54%  2587
>>  23 Nimzo 8.0  128MB K6-2 450 MHz           2554   24   -24   824   53%  2531
>>  29 Hiarcs 7.32  128MB K6-2 450 MHz         2526   21   -22  1051   48%  2537
>>  34 Chessmaster 8000  128MB K6-2 450 MHz    2517   44   -45   251   45%  2550
>>
>>A couple of notes:
>>
>>1) Rebel Century 4 (AMD-450) has played to less games yet (105) to make it a
>>reliable comparison. However the result (+104) doesn't surprise me, Rebel is
>>tuned for longer time controls.
>>
>>2) It has to be seen if Fritz7 and Shredder6 have not improved playing on faster
>>hardware. Since there is no comparison material yet this remains unknown for the
>>moment.
>>
>>3) I don't think the above is a scientific conclusion, neither a 100% valid
>>prediction, but IMHO it isn't 100% nonsense also.
>>
>>4) You are invited to shoot the above into pieces.
>>
>>Ed



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