Author: Russell Reagan
Date: 18:43:14 08/15/02
Go up one level in this thread
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
This page took 0.01 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.