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Subject: Re: Book vs. Engine

Author: Dann Corbit

Date: 11:18:44 08/27/02

Go up one level in this thread


On August 27, 2002 at 07:43:52, Steve Coladonato wrote:

>On August 26, 2002 at 16:06:55, Russell Reagan wrote:
>
>>On August 26, 2002 at 14:01:00, Steve Coladonato wrote:
>>
>>>On August 26, 2002 at 09:56:24, José Carlos wrote:
>>>
>>><snip>
>>>
>>>>  Same thing happens in human chess. You prepare an opening. The opponent is
>>>>well prepared too. You go into your analysis and your opponent comes up with a
>>>>move you missed. You lost out of book.
>>>>
>>>>>Matthias.
>>>>
>>>>  José C.
>>>
>>>That's exactly correct.  And at that point it is the skill of the player that
>>>determines the outcome.  Why not allow the skill of the engine to determine the
>>>outcome by limiting the book depth?
>>
>>What if the "skill of the engine" is in learning in the opening? What if it has
>>tons of lines 40 moves deep, and game after game it learns and prunes away lines
>>and adds new lines. You, like many others, make the assumption that all chess
>>programs work exactly the same way. If you make rules about limiting book depth,
>>eventually you will have people making other rules about "now you do your
>>searching here, but only to this depth" and what if my program doesn't do any
>>search at all, but does deeper analysis of the position? Sure, it might not play
>>as strong as a searcher, but that's not the point. The point is, not all chess
>>engines work exactly the same, and so it's not right to make rules like this.
>>
>>To me saying "limit the book" is like saying, "Fritz has too good of a book and
>>it affects it's performance and makes it unfair, so let's limit it's book." Why
>>not use that same logic and make rules like, "Fritz searches too deep and it
>>makes it unfair. Let's limit the depth that Fritz can search so that now it's
>>FAIR for everyone." In addition to that, let's make a rule that Frans Morsch can
>>only work on Fritz for 1 hour a day, because that's just not "fair" if he gets
>>to work on his engine all day long everyday and we only get to work for an hour
>>a day.
>>
>>That's 100% crap. It's not "fair" that the commercial engines have better and
>>deeper books. It's not "fair" that they search deeper than our amateur engines.
>>It's not "fair" that some people are born rich. It's not "fair" that some people
>>are born with only 1 leg. Life isn't fair. Get over it.
>>
>>Russell
>
>
>The book is a product of humans.

Some books are a product of humans.  There is also book making that uses only
computer analysis.  It's a new idea, and probably not as good as the human sort.

Don't forget that the computer programs are also a product of humans!

>So apparently, the strength of chess engines
>is not in the program but rather in the book. ;-)

It's in both.  A great book and a crappy engine loses.  A great engine and a
crappy book loses.

>As for the commercial
>products, I don't use them.  I did in the past.  But to me, what's the
>difference between an engine that plays at 2200 vs an engine that plays at 2800?
> None.  And if that difference is mainly in the book, then how far has chess
>programming really come?

Give Pyotr the Fritz book and it will still lose to Quark 0-10, unless it can
find a book draw.



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