Computer Chess Club Archives


Search

Terms

Messages

Subject: Boo-hoo! Your program beat me!

Author: Walter Faxon

Date: 16:19:25 02/03/03

Go up one level in this thread


On February 02, 2003 at 16:10:37, Graham Laight wrote:

>On February 02, 2003 at 11:14:35, Uri Blass wrote:
>
>>On February 02, 2003 at 10:10:04, Graham Laight wrote:
>>
>>>Since I made the pattern recognition algorithm "more aggressive" yesterday,
>>>nobody has posted any results!
>>>
>>>It looks like people will only paste their results here if they win - am I
>>>right?
>>>
>>>One minor modification today - the program will start playing you on the third
>>>turn now, not the seventh. The sooner proper play starts, the sooner it can
>>>understand your personality. Have another go...
>>>
>>>http://mysite.freeserve.com/grahamlaight/jscript/GuessWhichHand.htm
>>
>>I simply did not play.
>>
>>I take my games seriously and after winning only by result of 101-100 before the
>>modification I was afraid to try again.
>>
>>You said that it is easy to win the computer in short games so I thought about
>>the possibility to try a gambit in the first moves to confuse the computer.
>>
>>A simple idea that gives good chances may be to get an advantage in the
>>beginning of the game and to continue by random choice.
>
>You are, of course, most welcome to play the game in any way you wish!
>
>Your method proposed above would give you a better than even chance of winning -
>but it strikes me as being just a teeny-weeny bit unsporting - a little bit like
>saying to a human opponent, "We'll play chess over the board so long as, at a
>moment of my own choosing, we can switch to using computers to select the
>moves".
>
>>It may be interesting if somebody can find a simple formula to get a convincing
>>win against the computer.
>
>This is certainly possible. At the moment, ANY feedback would be welcome!  :)
>
>I know that I, personally, do not play my own game very well. Now that I've
>changed the pattern-matching algorithm, I personally can do much better in the
>early stages of the game, but I find that the computer becomes clever in
>guessing my choices sooner. I wanted to know if this finding applied to other
>people as well. It could be that the changes I've made actually make it easier
>for other people to win rather than more difficult - at this stage, I can only
>guess.
>
>Oh well.
>
>>I believe that it may be possible to define some pattern that the computer does
>>not consider.
>
>Maybe someone out there is, even as we speak, writing a program which will play
>the game better than mine does (which is undoubtedly possible), and we can have
>the world's first "Computer "Guess Which Hand" Competition"!  :)
>
>-g
>
>>Uri


Hi, Graham.

Your idea of a computer "Guess Which Hand" competition is interesting.  But just
as I suggested in a CCC thread that computer chessplayers not over-rely on
search, here it's important that every move be "motivated" -- completely random
moves should not be allowed.  (That goes for pseudo-random methods, too, of
course.)  I would sanction a small amount of randomness added to an essentially
deterministic procedure.

Seeing computers play should prove more fun than playing this game myself
(unlike chess).  I would be interested in seeing an "anti-computer" strategy,
employed by a computer -- another challenge for you.

Although "guess which hand" is one name this game is known by, a much more
extensive bibliography can be found under "matching pennies".  Do a web search
on that, and enjoy.

There is also organized international interest in "rock-paper-scissors", and
programs to play that game, no doubt.

-- Walter



This page took 0 seconds to execute

Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700

Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.