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Subject: Re: The King at Leiden

Author: John Merlino

Date: 18:32:01 05/20/03

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On May 20, 2003 at 17:33:14, Albert Silver wrote:

>>Johan does know the SKR settings, as he and I discussed them (and several other
>>settings that had some success in user tournaments). I think it is most accurate
>>to say that he was not CONVINCED that these settings were better than the
>>default.
>
>Unless this is being extremely diplomatic, it says that he isn't convinced that
>they aren't better either. I'm sure he has his own testing methods, so why not
>subject this personality to them? Did he test it at all?

I do not know for certain if he tested these personalities.

>>Johan spends a great deal of time testing his engine, and his testing results in
>>the settings that are used in the program. Johan then usually will test out his
>>theories/suspicions in tournaments such as Leiden. Ultimately, it would be silly
>>to say that somebody else knows The King better than (or even as well as) Johan.
>
>Maybe, maybe not. Ed Schroeder has often sent out contests for users to try to
>improve on his settings, or find settings with an edge in specific areas, and he
>certainly tested his program enough. This would seem to show that perhaps he
>doesn't believe it's impossible for a dedicated user to find an improvement.
>
>                                    Albert
>
>>jm

Kurt's tests, while very thorough, were for a particular time control on
specific hardware (although I honestly can't remember if more than one CPU type
was used). Kurt's tests showed very well that, under these specific conditions,
his settings were as good as or better than any other engine available.

However, I would venture to say that Johan is probably concerned more about "the
typical Chessmaster user", meaning that he would be very reluctant to grant
improvement to one type of setting at the expense of another type of setting
that someone else prefers to use.

Personally, I think it's surprising that Johan's testing methodologies are
coming into question immediately after he wins a big tournament, simply because
he decided to use his own settings rather than others that have been shown to be
successful under certain circumstances. Clearly, he seems to know what he is
doing, no?

jm



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