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Subject: Re: 3 interviews about engine protocols with T. Mann, R. Hyatt and M. Blume

Author: Russell Reagan

Date: 18:43:14 08/15/02

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On August 15, 2002 at 18:04:56, Will Singleton wrote:

>With regard to one of Hyatt's statements, "The commercial
>programs are using some form of forward pruning that they won't discuss", I have
>seen hints of such in dicussions here.

There have been vague hints, yes. But nothing meaningful. When I think of their
hints, it makes me think of a rocket scientist who discovered a way to travel to
Mars and back in a matter of minutes. When asked about how he did it, he
replied, "I made a space ship that travels at the speed of light." Gee, thanks.
That's not really helpful now is it? The commercial author's will give "hints"
like, "I use forward pruning". Neither the rocket scientist or the commercial
engine author's tell you how they accomplished what they did, only that they did
it, which isn't very helpful. Certainly not anywhere close to as helpful as
anything Bob has done. Then again, the fact that they are "commercial" means
they are in it for the money, not for educational purposes. It would be nice to
see them give something back though, since they surely learned something along
the way from a program like Crafty, or the other amateur engines out there.

>But is it logical to assume that only
>the commercials are using secret techniques?

Not *only* the commercials, but _only_ the commercials are using "big" secrets.
See below...

>There are several strong amateur
>programs whose authors also do not discuss their techniques.

While this is true that there are amateur engines that keep secrets, I seriously
doubt that any of those secrets are "big" secrets. I think it is 100% safe to
conclude that the commercial engines are keeping some "big" secrets. Probably
what Bob said, forward pruning methods. Here is my reasoning.

1. Crafty makes use of techniques and methods that are well known, and in
addition to that, Bob has always been willing to explain how any part of Crafty
works.

2. No amateur engine has drastically surpassed Crafty. Yes, some may be slightly
better, but they are still much closer to Crafty's playing level than they are
to the level of Fritz and friends.

This leads me to believe that no amateur is using any "big" secret, or else they
wouldn't be on par with Crafty, which has no secrets. I think there might be
small secrets within some of the strong amateur engines, which would account for
the slight increase in playing ability compared to Crafty, at times.

I think the fact that there are only one or two amateur engines that can even
score greater than 40% against the commercial engines some of the time says
something. I think it's a little niave to believe that the commercial engines
aren't keeping any secrets.

>The commercials don't have a corner on secrecy, nor should they.

They have a corner on the cutting edge secrets. IE the "big" secrets.

Russell



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