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Subject: Re: Checkers: Las Vegas and Chinook

Author: Dave Gomboc

Date: 11:25:06 09/16/02

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On September 16, 2002 at 03:45:03, martin fierz wrote:

>On September 15, 2002 at 22:00:28, Dave Gomboc wrote:
>
>>On September 12, 2002 at 02:13:29, martin fierz wrote:
>>
>>>On September 11, 2002 at 23:08:19, Dave Gomboc wrote:
>>>
>>>>On September 11, 2002 at 16:28:37, martin fierz wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On September 11, 2002 at 07:23:38, Dave Gomboc wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>On September 10, 2002 at 17:03:26, martin fierz wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>if you want to compare, only if you do it properly - so only if i get the
>>>>>>>logfile afterwards :-)
>>>>>>>and i hope you realize that even with the logfile, comparing one position is
>>>>>>>rather meaningless.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>It's not my program, I can't make such a guarantee!  But he is having a party on
>>>>>>Saturday, so if I have a position I can bug him a bit to get him to log in and
>>>>>>run it...
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Yes, I know that comparing one position is meaningless.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Dave
>>>>>
>>>>>4-8 about 3 moves after 11-15 in the game is the real mistake. 4-8 wins the man
>>>>>but loses. any normal checkers program should want to play 4-8 for a while, and
>>>>>if it's good, it should switch away from 4-8 after some time. the position is
>>>>>rather complicated, so you should make sure that it doesn't switch back. i've
>>>>>changed a couple of things in cake after LV to make it find this faster, which
>>>>>it does, but it still needs a lot of time :-(
>>>>>just try glancing over schaeffer's shoulder to see when it switches to a better
>>>>>move :-)
>>>>>
>>>>>aloha
>>>>>  martin
>>>>
>>>>Okay, I will try. :-)
>>>>
>>>>So are you saying that once you take the checker you're toast?  Like a forced
>>>>loss?  Or are there drawing resources later, but it's just that taking the
>>>>checker is quite a bad move?  And what should it play instead of 4-8?
>>>>Presumably not any move will do?
>>>>
>>>>Dave
>>>
>>>yes, there is only one move X to draw in this position AFAIK. and it's not 4-8.
>>>i don't want to bias your answer so i'll just wait and see what you guys get :-)
>>>
>>>i have this book generator, i think there are also people in your group who do
>>>this kind of stuff. i let it expand this line after las vegas, and it says 4-8
>>>is a dead loss, and X is a database draw.
>>>
>>>in the improved version, cake first wants to go 4-8 with a positive score, then
>>>it starts getting a negative score for it, then it switches to X with a negative
>>>score, and finally the negative score gets smaller. that's the reason i'd like
>>>to see a search log, because from that you can see at what point it realizes
>>>that winning the man is no good, and when it switches to X, and when it realizes
>>>that X is probably a draw. the thing is that at first both moves look good, then
>>>both look bad, and finally 4-8 looks real bad, and X only a bit bad. at least to
>>>cake. so the point where a program has "solved" this position is when it
>>>realizes that X is probably going to draw. not when it displays X as best move,
>>>because for a long while, whether you want to play 4-8 or X is just a matter of
>>>"taste", i.e. some parameters in the eval which have nothing to do with
>>>understanding this position.
>>>
>>>aloha
>>>  martin
>>
>>Well, I couldn't run it... apparently the endgame database code is being
>>rewritten at the moment. :-)
>>
>>Dave
>
>oh - too bad! i'd have been interested - i'm sure chinook would have solved this
>faster than my engine, but i'd have liked to know how much faster. i've found a
>problem in my evaluation which hurts in this particular position - i'll have to
>try and fix it. thx for trying anyway!
>
>aloha
>  martin

I will ask again when it is done.  The code is being upgraded to allow the use
of the 10-piece tablebases.  (Not all of them are generated yet, but it can use
the partial set that has been computed.)

Dave



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