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Subject: Re: Fair conditions for human vs. computer play

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 10:10:20 07/29/98

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On July 29, 1998 at 07:54:07, Guido Schimmels wrote:

>As FIDE rules were not designed with computers as possible opponents in mind,
> they don't apply to computers. In fact computers break the FIDE rules in many
> ways, if you think of it:
>1) They don't note the moves on the form
>2) They don't move the pieces nor handle the clock
>3) They access external information during the game (opening book, tablebases)
>

(3) is an old argument not really worth discussion.  What do you do with a
*human* that has perfect memory?  IE I have personally watched several different
GM players go over a game they played 10 years ago, move by move, sub-variation
by sub-variation, without getting lost in the process.  Browne is quite good.

So is what me memorizes unusable?  If so, I memorized hundreds of opening lines
years ago.  Are they unusable?  If so, then why can't a computer do the same?
It just has "better" memory...

This is an argument that won't ever be ended...


>Ok, 1) and 2) could be easily addressed, but what about 3) ?
>
>If I played and Open tournament and had to play a computer,
>if I would use my opening and endgame library during the game and analyse on
>a little extra chess-board how could the arbiter say I'm cheating if I only do
>what
>the computer does itself ?


Actually, the computer is only doing what you yourself do.  IE do you know
what to play after I play 1. e4?  Do you have an instant move from memory or
do you have to think a few mins to work out the variations?



>
>I really think it is very important for the computer chess community  to agree
>on special rules for computer-human play - or what sense does it make to
>discuss if computers are already GM level or not if we don't define the
>underlying game conditions ? And the game conditions have a *huge*
>influence on the rating we observe.
>When Bob negates micro's to be on GM level, his typical argument is:
>Look at ICC, computer's have still big weaknesses which players on ICC
>will find out quickly and then humiliate them.
>But are the conditions computer play on ICC fair or not ? I don't know, at least
>they are very much different from for example the Kasparov vs. Deeper Blue
>mach. Deeper Blue surely benefited highly from the human interference between
>the games and from the special opening preparation against Kasparov (ok,
>Kasparov
>deviated from his usual opening play, but so the threat was stronger than the
>execution !)


There wasn't a lot of intervention between games.  But I do that all the time
on the servers.  When I see something bad happening, I may well fix it before
the game is over.  I have been to tournaments where someone would say "would
you help me look at this opening a minute?  I know my opponent will open with
1. c4 and I'm not very familiar with that."  Is *that* person cheating by
being "modified" between rounds?



>
>I hope I could make my point clear.
>So when we talk about computer strength, which conditions do we talk about ?
>
>- Guido -


same as we talk about for humans, in fact.  A computer and a human are basically
different.  But they have similarities as well, as in memory...



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