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Subject: Re: Shredder 7 === Review by Stephen Ham [ChessCafe.com]

Author: Dann Corbit

Date: 12:12:56 02/26/03

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On February 26, 2003 at 10:57:50, Stephen Ham wrote:

>Dear Jose,
>
>Thanks for noticing. I'm not the computer chess expert that you folks are, so I
>wrote it through the eyes of an average person.
>
>There were a couple small errors that I wish I had caught. My review was
>completed in mid-January, well in advance of the February rating list. So I made
>a couple of quick revisions to my review when the latest list came out, but now
>see that I missed a spot. I also found a typo where I wrote "speach" rather than
>"speed." I hope that didn't ruin the review for you.
>
>As a non-expert regarding chess computers, please allow me to ask a question
>that's probably very stupid. It's clear that I found Shredder 7 to be a very
>strong chess engine, in fact, one of the strongest to date. Yet I also found
>that its ability to evaluate positions was not equally good. In fact, I think
>Fritz 6a and Fritz 7 have more accurate evaluation functions. Is there not a
>direct coorelation between a chess engine's ability to pick the right move and
>its ability to corectly evaluate the position?

Evaluation is one form of knowledge.  Another is search.  If you can see a bit
farther than the opponent, this also makes your move choices stronger.  The
evaluation information can be positional or tactical.  I can choose to
strengthen my pawn formation and increase my space, or I can choose to hunt for
some pawn I can snack on 9 fullmoves down the road.

Each of these importance weights will make the chess program evaluate a board
position and play differently.  Which way actually makes the program stronger
can only be determined by a long and careful experiment.



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