Author: Ed Schröder
Date: 22:53:20 09/02/98
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>>>(1) Ed Schröder's idea above sounds like it may be the key: Select the best >>>"anti-human" playing style. >>>(2) Now, what remains to be said is what, specifically, we mean by a >>>"playing >>>style," and to identify, define, and itemize the specific elements of the >>>best >>>"anti-human playing styles." To be complete, it also should be said: how >>>and >>>why those specific elements contribute to the strength of the engine against >>>humans. >>Impossible to give a definition. What's in Rebel is mainly balanced and well >>tuned stuff through the years. Rebel doesn't take huge risks except for some >>specific king attack patterns (when the king is forced to enter the 3th >>row or >>above). If you enter the well known 1.e4 Nf6 2.Bc4 Nxe4 3.Bxf7+ Kxf7 4.Qh5+ >>Rebel will immediately pick 4..Kg8 as best move. I think this kind of >>knowledge is crucial playing strong human players. >>I also believe that the playing style of a chess program is strongly related >>to the goals of the programmer. Possibilities: >>a) Make the best program against computers; >>b) Make the best program against humans; >>c) Make the program the best finder in tactics; >>d) More? >>In case of (a) auto232 results are decisive. In case of (b) the "good >>feeling" of a chess programmer about a version is decisive. Case >>(c) is self-understood. >>Of course all programmers have their own priorities. >>For Rebel this since day one has been: >>(a) 20% >>(b) 60% >>(c) 20% >>- Ed - >But this is all just restating what you believe in. You do nothing to convince >someone who is undecided on this point. How do you propose to prove this ? >There are several programs who are about equal to Rebel in comp-comp >competition. Is Rebel significantly stronger than them against humans ? It >should be possible to demonstrate this. You can't be serious. I impossibly can contribute statistics that should prove that program X is +100 elo when playing humans and Program Y is -100 elo when playing humans based on their comp-comp (elo) results. I am not in the right position for that. All I can do is talk about my own program. In this respect I quote a recent example. "I can report a similar case on the last Aegon 1997. A pre-version of Rebel9 had a horrible deep bug (detected after the tournament when I suddenly got worse comp-comp results). Still this version gained a rating of 2619, scored 4.5 out of 6 playing against 4 x IM and 2 x GM." Here is another remarkable example. Have a look at: http://www.rebel.nl/jeroen2.htm (and) http://www.rebel.nl/jeroen3.htm Here the "Mephisto Chess Challenger" played two 30:00 games against Anatoly Karpov and 2 draws was the result. I would say this is a very good result more if you know that in one of the games Karpov was offered a draw while his flag was almost fallen. Very sportsmanship of the producers (Hegener & Glaser) who organized the event. The "Mephisto Chess Challenger" was a product for the german mass market basically Rebel8 outlook with the "Rebel Gold" chess engine. This Rebel Gold chess engine is estimated 50 elo points stronger than the old free Rebel Decade 1.2 and 150 elo points weaker than its big brother Rebel8. Coming to my point. The Rebel Gold engine will be crushed by all current top Pc chess programs but it drew 2 times against a super GM like Karpov! Like Rebel Decade the Rebel Gold engine is a lowered playing strength version of the real Rebel with about 150-200 elo points based on comp- comp auto232 results by removing tactical stuff from the real Rebel. So Rebel's playing style remains 100% intact! For me this was another strong indicator that "comp-comp" is a complete different story than "Man vs Machine" and it's the program's playing style that does the trick. Next I could add Rebel's best overall performance at Aegon in the period of 1991-1997. Then Rebel-Yusupov and Rebel-Anand. Now it is not so difficult to produce similar statistics for other programs. As said I am not in the right position to do this. But if some people do you will see remarkable fluctuations in respect to comp-comp rating lists. - Ed - >Amir
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