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Subject: Re: Computer Chess Went The Wrong Way...

Author: Drexel,Michael

Date: 04:56:28 01/07/03

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On January 07, 2003 at 04:04:39, Walter Faxon wrote:

>On January 06, 2003 at 12:49:56, Graham Laight wrote:
>
>>Human chess is all about pattern recognition. Computers achieved their strength
>>though sheer speed.
>>
>>I doubt if there's time to do computer chess the correct way now - by the time a
>>pattern recogniser would be able to get up to the required strength, all games
>>will be a draw (this will happen at about 3500 elo - see
>>http://math.bu.edu/people/mg/ratings/Draws.jpg . Moreover, Rudolf Huber has
>>proven that there's no forced win in the first 30 moves. IMO, it is proven
>>beyond reasonable doubt (though not actually 100% proven) that there's no forced
>>win in ANY number of moves - chess is a draw).
>>
>>Perhaps those of us who believe that the best AI methodology is a database of
>>patterns from which to retrieve the closest matches to the patterns in the
>>current position should move on to Go - where the choices of moves on each turn
>>are sufficiently large to be entirely safe from the number crunchers in the
>>foreseeable future.
>>
>>-g
>
>
>Hi, Graham.
>
>Your 3 topics, restated:
>
>(1) It's too late for advanced AI pattern recognition techniques to be used in
>computer chess because such programs will never catch up to those using fast
>search with simple pattern recognizers.  Or at least they won't catch up until
>all games are drawn anyway, as per topic (2).
>

Nonsense. computer chess will improve slower and slower.

>(2) Increased numbers of draws between humans as ratings increase strongly
>suggests that the game of chess is a draw, and computer chess will demonstrate
>this in a few years.

again you are wrong. computer chess will never demonstrate this.

>
>(3) So AI gamers should tackle Go, because its state space is too large to
>tackle with anything like brute-force search.
>
>My take on them:
>
>(1) If we want a venue to explore advanced AI in chess, let's change the rules
>for a new series of competitions:  "limited search" computer chess (LSCC).
>Humans search about 2 positions per second (Anand claims he searches 5).  Well,
>our computers today are pretty dumb so let's start with a maximum 100
>positions/second; this can be lowered later.  The computer horsepower now used
>for searching would be applied to complex pattern recognition and other AI
>techniques.  All program sources would be made public after each tournament,
>like the "RoboCup" robot soccer competitions today.  This would serve two
>purposes:  to prove nobody is searching faster than allowed, and to spread the
>wealth of knowledge.  This would revitalize academic computer chess:  everybody
>learns from everyone else and there is no point in competing unless you have a
>new idea or a much better implementation.  Many more papers would be written.
>And any ideas developed could also be adopted by the fast searchers, as
>possible.
>
>(2) The best over-the-board chessplayers make a _lot_ of mistakes, particularly
>allowing small advantages to dissipate.  The much lower rate of draws in
>top-level correspondence chess suggests that very minor advantages _can_ be
>exploited, given enough time, energy and imagination.  A super-grandmaster
>computer might well prove that the advantage of the first move is enough to win.

no computer will EVER be able to prove that. not in 10000 years. a prove would
require a 32-piece tablebase. hope you know what that means.

> Why anyone should otherwise care whether chess is ultimately a win or a draw is
>another matter.
>
>(3) The extreme regularity of Go leaves open the possibility that a much simpler
>method of tackling that game might prove successful.  But most people involved
>in this forum prefer to work on computer chess because we prefer chess.
>
>So:  chess good; but AI better!  We need brave visionaries to demonstrate this!
>
>-- Walter



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