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

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 20:57:10 11/25/03

Go up one level in this thread


On November 25, 2003 at 23:56:14, Robert Hyatt wrote:

>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
>

Btw if you do the above you definitely need -xreuse as an option to
restart crafty after each game ends...


>>
>>All the best,
>>Peter



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