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Subject: Re: Junior-Crafty - VOID - Restart?

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 20:56:14 11/25/03

Go up one level in this thread


On November 25, 2003 at 21:33:23, Peter Berger wrote:

>On November 25, 2003 at 21:03:38, Steve Lim wrote:
>
>>Considering the bug and the fact that the match has only a 5 game history, would
>>you consider restarting the match with the workaround in place?
>>
>>I consider the results void IMO. I know its alot of work. Just my opinion in the
>>interest of the pursuit 'truth/science' whatever.
>>
>>my opinion,
>>
>>Regardless,
>>thanks for taking the time to run this.
>>
>>Steve.
>
>Steve, let's stay real.
>

Let me point out one thing, good or bad.  "playing a computer" is an important
detail in Crafty.  It adjusts a few engine parameters, including turning off
a dynamic draw score and setting it to 0.00.  This really needs to be done
for the draw score reason as well as other things (the playing a computer
sentinel from xboard).  IE I might lose all games in that mode, but that is
certainly the mode I use to play all games on ICC.  On ICC xboard works
correctly and always sends the "computer" command after "new" and all the
other stuff such as ratings, player name, etc...

The match is currently "even" so restarting really doesn't hurt or help
anything since your goal is to see one program get to +6.  The important
detail to make sure of is that "computer" is seen by Crafty in all future
games, to make sure it will play just as it does on ICC when playing
automatically.


>When I look at the first five games I see 4 ordinary about even book lines for
>both, that didn't have any major influence on the game result, and one forced
>book win for Crafty. To say that the results are void is grossly exagurrated.
>
>What if tomorrow's game shows some unknown bug in Junior? Will the same rules
>apply? Who knows why Junior played the horrible h5 move in the second to last
>game? Maybe some bug?


Note this bug is _not_ in Crafty.  The bug is using xboard to play what
appears to be a manually operated game?  IE normal xboard certainly tells
Crafty if it is playing a computer opponent.  That's built in to the xboard
protocol and it works fine, normally.  Why it is not working here I am not
sure since I don't know exactly how you are playing games...



>
>It's a match - in case there is some error from my side I'll consider to rerun
>of course - same if something were setup in a wrong way - but programs will
>commit errors that might be due to either short-comings or bugs - else all games
>would be perfect and probably drawn.

Again, this isn't a bug in _either_ program.  It's a bug caused by some
sort of set-up issue.  I looked at the code and I can't change Crafty.  "new"
_must_ turn off the "playing a computer" stuff or once it plays a computer it
will always think it is playing a computer.  "new" says "new game, reset to
normal starting configuration" which I do.  We just need to make xboard send
a "computer" command.

You might look at the -initstring option and add "computer" to it, that might
solve the entire problem so that after the "new" in initstring, it will always
send a "computer".

IE something like this:

-initString "computer"

as an option to xboard might do the trick...

Bob

>
>All the best,
>Peter



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