Author: Gian-Carlo Pascutto
Date: 07:46:26 04/19/02
Go up one level in this thread
On April 18, 2002 at 21:29:34, Jeremiah Penery wrote: >Playing Nxh6 in the posted position (Nolot 1) isn't going to get you anywhere >without playing the followup combination (Nf5, Qg4, etc.). So in this case, >Junior is not finding the solution at all, and it's unlucky, IMO, that this is >the case. The line given by Junior was very unconvincing, and at best probably >leads to a draw. There are other moves in the position that can get merely a >draw, but playing Nxh6 for the right reason is the only sure way to _win_ this >position. I tried Juniors last line against my program and it agreed with the PV, until it got a big fail low a few moves into it. If I let Junior play the white side and put my program with black, Junior would play Nxh6, not see the 'followup combination that is the only sure win', but still completely crush my program anyway. To say that Junior is 'lucky' to find this move is a serious misrepresentation of the truth. Junior is extremely good in assessing positions like this, much better than any other program I know of. It's no coincidence it finds the right move, even if appearently for the wrong reasons. What you fail to understand it that it does not matter at all whether a program plays a move for the right reasons or not. The only thing that counts in the end is the moves that it dashes out on the board, and whether it wins games or not. Junior picks this move because it considers it to give white the best practical winning chances compared to the other moves. That analysis is correct. Even if it does not play the variation that is a forced win, it'll still play a variation that gives it excellent winning chances, and beat the crap out of it's opponents. You have to seperate yourself from the idea that a chessprogram must play the objectively best move each and every time. This would be true if the opponent would play perfectly, but they don't. You might want to play the moves that give you a chance to beat your opponent. You can gamble, take risks, and make sure that you gamble better than your opponent. Chris Wittington realized this first, and Christophe Theron was next. Junior 7 also follows this strategy. If you take a closer look, you'll see that all top SSDF programs have elements of this playing style. It's a design decision to make Junior play moves like Nxh6 without fully understanding or calculating where it's going to end up. Sometimes it will backfire. If you look at Juniors performances in tournaments, you'll realize it works much more often than it backfires. Junior gambles because it knows the odds are in it's favor. If you win a bet where you had, say, >95% winning chance, were you really 'lucky'? -- GCP
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