Author: Danniel Corbit
Date: 11:29:20 09/30/98
Go up one level in this thread
On September 30, 1998 at 14:12:22, Alessio Iacovoni wrote:
[snip]
>Maybe I haven't expressed myself correctly... of course a program developed in
>1998 is stronger than one dating back to 1990, or even closer in time. What I
>meant to say is that we will reach a point, if we havent already, in which chess
>programs, instilled with that chess knowlwedge that they were lacking in the
>past, will not require anything else for improvement than sheer processing
>speed. What programs in the bast were basically lacking was a better positional
>understanding.. now they have that (see HIARCS and basically all of the other
>ones.. including the so called "fast searchers" such as Crafty), plus they have
>an outstanding tactical capacity. So.. HOW ELSE can they be improved by
>software? What I meant was that we have probably come at a point in which
>"everything has already been done" and now the baton has to pass on to hardware
>improvements...
>I don't know if there have been any studies of this kind but could a progam like
>Hiarcs.. or any of the strong ones that everybody has at home.. beat kasparov at
>long times with a pentium XX "1000" or something of the sort and 100mb of mem
>for hash tables?
As far as beating the pants off of the average patzer, the computers passed that
mark long ago. Now they are making GM's and IM's sweat a bit. Quite frankly,
chess programs have long ago passed 99.999% of the worlds chess players. So
buying the latest and greatest program means that you will always get beat in 22
moves instead of 25. ;-)
So why buy a new program?
1. One upsmanship "My program can beat your program." {Ahem, 'I' can't beat
either}
2. Bells and whistles "Look at the slick new 3-D interface! It shows lucite
pieces spinning in 4-dimentional space-time. I have no idea what's going on,
but it sure looks snazzy.
3. Database [This one has a LONG way to go before it is state of the art]. I
expect to see enormous improvements in this area over the next five years.
4. Analysis and annotation features. This one is a real benefit, as programs
not only get better at spotting your mistakes, they also get better at
*explaining* them.
5. Tutorials -- I might buy CM6000 just because I heard Sierawan[!] has added
tutorial stuff. His books are among my very favorites.
Whatever else trips your trigger. None of this stuff is really needed. But it
is fun, and chess programs are *cheap*. It's not like it is going to break the
bank to get the next iteration of Chessmaster.
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