Author: Jeroen van Dorp
Date: 09:39:21 04/09/02
Go up one level in this thread
It's always good to display unconditional love for your loved ones; the same goes for a chess program I can imagine :) However there is a context. Jorge is very enthousiastic about CT 14.9 Palm, which I can understand. I own an iPAQ and I'm amazed that -as with the Palm- I really do have a portable computer in my hand that can be compared to a desktop in many aspects. So the enthousiasm about a program that (occasionaly or not) wins from such a destop-run chess program on a platform with so much more processing power is understandable. It's also a compliment for efficient programming for a handheld. However we do have these discussions daily. What can you really (and accurately) say about the strenght of a program? Jorge posts a game - it could be one out of ten, or one out of two, or one out of 100, people here do that every day - and it is very valuable to know that figure. Will's question was right, and not silly. If you estimate a program at 2200 and another on 2400 we know that playing 100 games could maybe lead to about 15-25 wins of the 2200 program. That's no miracle, that's the balance of power between the two programs. It also means about 75-85 losses, which is as logical as can be. The header "Another Miracle" could suggest that CT 14.9 Palm is on a winning streak impossible given the estimated strenght; Jorge even implies without saying it directly that CT Palm could well be a program that could be estimated 2400+ or 2500+. Or at least: you could conclude that from his message. If CT Palm wins 60 out of 100 games from a 2400 program, that sure is the case for me due to the *definition* of rating, if CT Palm wins 2 out of 100 from an 2800 program, that's still not amazing. It could be expected. You don't need to *own* a copy of a program to make that calculation. Jorge's post was full of justified enthousiasm, but given the population of this message board he'd knew these questions would arise. Now you go and make me an iPAQ-version of CT :)) Best regards, J.
This page took 0 seconds to execute
Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700
Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.