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Subject: Re: A Good Test Position

Author: Robert Henry Durrett

Date: 19:02:57 08/22/98

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On August 21, 1998 at 08:55:50, Dan Homan wrote:

<snip>
>I think that playing a good opening is a very hard problem with a
>very easy solution... just build a quality opening book.  I this is
>why some programs haven't been "tweaked" to play good openings without
>a book...  (I think that my program will default to something like
>the '4-knights defense' without it's opening book - solid development,
>but not exactly exciting chess :)
<snip>

If there is one position which all chess engines do poorly at, does this not
speak poorly for all of them?  After all, the "initial position" is just another
chess position.  True, it occurs more often than any other, and is a good
candidate for using a "book."  However, if all chess engines do poorly with that
particular position, should there not be a lot of concern?  Suppose there was a
position several moves into the game where all chess engines did poorly. Would
the chess engine designers not be concerned about that and try to make their
programs do a better job with that position?  True, one could have a "book" for
every position which gave a particular chess engine a problem, but this seems to
me to be just "running away from the problem"!

Even if a "book" is to be used for each position that gives the chess engine a
problem, it would seem to me that the engine designer would STILL wish to remove
the need for a book [for that position].

True, the "initial position" is the most-recurring position in chess, so it
diserves more attention than the rest, in terms of making a "book" to MASK the
inherent deficiencies of the chess engine.

Am I missing something here?




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