Computer Chess Club Archives


Search

Terms

Messages

Subject: Re: DEEP BLUES AVERAGE PLY?

Author: Mike S.

Date: 17:10:26 08/21/02

Go up one level in this thread


On August 21, 2002 at 11:07:58, Robert Hyatt wrote:

>(...)
>1.  They reported depth as 11(6) for example.  According to the deep blue
>team, and regardless of what others will say about it, this supposedly means
>that they did 11 plies in software, plus another 6 in hardware.

When I looked at some of the logs, I had the impression that "11(6)" was
reported most often, IOW. we can probably say that it was the *typical* search
depth reported (except additional extension depths we do not know), in the
middlegame, 1997. Would you agree with that from your study of the logs?

Another thing I'm not sure of is: *When* could relatively safely be claimed,
that DB.'s depth is reached again:

a) when a current prog reaches at least 16 plies as a typical middlegame depth,
   because some search techniques used now (which DB. didn't use), make up for
   the missing ply (at least), or
b) when 17 plies are reached, not earlier, or
c) a program would have to reach more than 17 plies, because DB used much more
   knowledge which current software probably does not yet use to that extent.

I search for expert's opinions of *when* we can say something like "Yes, now
with this specific performance [## plies etc.] we can safely say - as it's our
*best guess*, since no direct head-to-head match is possible - that this new
chess computer is better than Deep Blue was."

But the claim should be illustrated by somewhat convincing figures (node rate is
not convincing enough IMO, although still impressive). Maybe the ply depth is; I
know it's also no perfect comparison though. But we don't have anything better
probably. A few positons/moves to compare are not enough.

Thanks,
Mike Scheidl



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.