Author: Timmay
Date: 08:48:30 08/30/03
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I agree with Garry's assessment (this is coming from a National Master by the way email me for my information if you want to). First of all I think Junior 7.0 is stronger than Junior 8.0, its more realistic, more useful in analysis. When thinking on its own to come up with one move it can get quite stupid, no doubt. It's useful to analyze with those engines though and see a few different top lines and make an educated choice as a result, but not just run it forever and think that it will be amazing. It might in wild complications (like any program) but not in quieter positions! Fritz (5.32 better for general tactical analysis, Fritz 8.0 better for "thinking on its own for one move" and in quiet positions) is by far a better program than Junior, Chess Tiger 14.0 (I think 15.0 weakened quite a bit, the solid tiger 14.0 is a better all around program. I'm basing all this off of my experiences.) also is a truy very strong program with a great understanding of dynamics of a position and the big p-word programmers love to hear: PLANS!(great job Christophe!). This counters Fritz nicely. I think the best code anyone can put in their program once the initial program is set is "mobility"! The best programs believe in that a lot. ALL plans stem around getting all active pieces in one way or another (pawn structure is the other part that should be included, shredder and hiarcs to a good job of understanding pawn structure). The trickier part is "coordinating" active pieces with active pieces for a common goal. Why are weak squares nice for an opponent? Because it gives them an active knight. It's easy for a computer to see an active knight for one, and its easy for a computer to see how many black pieces it influences (being posted close to the opponent's position). Two active bishops, also an advantage. Rooks on open files, an advantage. And from my understanding Christophe used mobility extensively in the Tiger engine. That is the FIRST program I've ever seen who can make two-three-occasionally-four move plans. It's amazing how well it manuevers pieces, attacks weaknesses, etc. The only clear weakness in Chess Tiger 14.0 is not knowing what to do with the rooks. Fritz doesn't mind playing moves like Re1 or Rc1 preparing pawn breaks, but Tiger is not so good with his rooks sometimes. Not sure what the technical reason for that is I'm not a programmer. Maybe because Re1 moves don't "immediately" give a rook mobility, but after a standard pawn break like e4 it could get quite a lot. Could be something to work on. Also Christophe my advice would be to make some sort of "scale evalulation" like Fritz 8.0 has to change the emphasis from material to position. Do that on the Chess Tiger 14.0. 15.0 is weaker because there's more knowledge about king attacks etc. which i've noticed has made most programs "weaker" not stronger. It's important to know about king safety, but Junior cranks out h4's whenever it can! Umm, another great program is Nimzo 8.0. What do you know also quite a bit of emphasis on mobility! This is also a nice addition to Fritz and Tiger. The problem is this is much more material-oriented than Tiger. But it's better with the rooks, and good at pushing pawns to the control the center. Junior 7.0 is occasionally useful to look at in analysis, but occasional being the key word. In most positions it's not totally useful. The "knowledgey" programs such as Hiarcs 8.0 or Shredder 7.0 are good at decision making like when to exchange, or not weakening pawn structure, but when you're not making decisions like that they're much weaker than the other programs mentioned. Shredder's moves when he thinks on his own don't impress me much. Fritz's moves after thinking a long time are always good, (they may be slightly worse in the strategic situation because a computer can't plan as well as humans), Chess Tiger 14.0 is also a great program and it seems to me it only needs a minute or a minute and a half to shoot out some great moves! So a quick overview, in my opinion, the absolute strongest programs today are Fritz 8.0 (or 5.32 in analysis with multiple moves), Chess Tiger 14.0 (my favorite program), Nimzo 8.0, and if you want a knowledge program (pawn structures, understanding when to exchange) I'd pick Shredder 7.0. But I can decide move about pawn structure or when to exchange pieces on my own, so Shredder isn't one of my favorites. So if Christophe could get a "scale evaluation" like what fritz 8.0 has on the Chess Tiger 14.0 (not 15.0) evaluation and search, and could find the root of the problems Tiger has with rooks, I think that program would be the closest thing to Garry Kasparov ever invented. Best wishes.
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