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Subject: Re: Players vs. Solvers?

Author: Bernhard Bauer

Date: 00:54:29 08/11/98

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On August 11, 1998 at 01:28:50, Shaun Graham wrote:

>  It is not too uncommon here to hear programs being described as a player or a
>solver.  Generally it seems to me at least to mean that some programs solve test
>positions better than they play chess, and that other programs play chess better
>than they solve test problems.  Since at least to my knowledge programs don't so
>much plan or have strategys, then in essence they are solving each position anew
>on every move.  Thus i can't figure out how or perhaps why programs are reffered
>to as being solvers or players.  Yet there is evidence of just this for instance
>chess tiger seems to solve almost everything, but at least to my knowledge it
>isn't the absolute strongest program.  My only conclusion as of yet, is that
>some programs are more skilled than others at leading a game to positions that
>they can have a better understanding of???  Does anyone have a reason on how
>program x, can be a better solver than y but not be as good of a player?

Playing well a game may not be the same as solving for positions.
Assume a program which does very well on positions, but uses 99% of its time
on move one. It's easy to understand that this program performs badly in a
tournament.
So the implications may be as follows
strong playing program        --> good in solving positions
not good in solving positions --> weak playing program
Playing a game is not the same as solving a position. By playing a game
you have a history - moves in hash table.
There may be a lot of other aspects as well.

Kind regards
Bernhard



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