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Subject: Re: The King's News Clothes (Re: DB vs)

Author: Amir Ban

Date: 14:42:39 11/23/98

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On November 23, 1998 at 12:59:36, Bruce Moreland wrote:

>
>On November 23, 1998 at 11:50:01, Amir Ban wrote:
>
>>On November 23, 1998 at 09:37:25, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>
>
>>To say that today's top program are not only unable to discover the c5 line, but
>>even to find that any move within this line is singular is beyond their
>>capabilities, is one of the greatest exaggerations yet seen on this newsgroup.
>
>Maybe Bob isn't remembering this right, but he seems pretty sure so I'm
>listening.  He says they had +2 there.  +2 is a lot to have there, and I think
>it's pretty unlikely that Bob is mis-remembering.  So I think it's at least
>likely that DT found something there.  I can't find anything there, can you?  So
>maybe this is a case where their search worked.
>

I didn't doubt Bob's recollections at all, and I still don't. Before this thread
started, I also didn't doubt his conclusion that this is a very deep
material-winning combination that DT saw ages before CB on the strength of its
SE ability, but now I do. Uri tried to find the singular moves in the line, that
should be there in order for SE to be successful, and reported that he couldn't.
I looked at it, and I doubt that there is any combination, because I see that 9
plies after the key move, the supposed victim has still not lost anything, and
can make simple moves that keep it this way.

I'm not claiming perfect knowledge here, and I don't mind being shown where I'm
wrong. I don't know why DT said +2. You tell me.

Maybe I didn't make the title clear enough. I think the following sort of
conversation took place between a mythological B and a legendary U:

B: Look at the magnificent new clothes the king is wearing.
U: Huh ? Where ?
B: The world has never seen anything like it !
U: Sorry, I don't see anything.
B: What, have you any idea how much the king paid for this wonderful suit ?
U: No.
B: I was there during the fitting ! So you are an expert in clothing are you ?
U: It's just that the king has nothing on.
B: (Sarcastically) Shall I send to your mailbox all the plans and paperwork that
went into this ? Bring a truck to your mailbox. Better yet, a train.
U: Just look there, on the left buttock there's ...
B: Now see here, are you calling me a liar ?

Of course we know the truth: that the king's new clothes are there, but can be
seen only by wise people (and by those that don't hate Big Iron).


>>> We've already
>>>seen that in the Deep Blue vs Kasparov game two, Dark Thought and Ferret have
>>>searched axb5/Qb6 to depth 20 or 21 without seeing anything to cause it to fail
>>>low, yet we know deep blue did.  At 1/2 that depth.  So it might take a program
>>>like junior *fifty* plies to find what is going on there for all I know at
>>>present.  And if I could somehow give you a PV to get you down to the point
>>>where Junior sees this, it would be so deep, probably, that it would be easy
>>>to say "but this isn't the best move, white or black should try this instead.
>>>And we end right back up at square zero.
>>>
>>
>>Quite an exaggeration, don't you think ? So we can calculate for many centuries
>>and not find it ? Why didn't you say so before we already wasted about a week on
>>this ?
>>
>>But besides, this is a switch you are pulling here: We put all the computers on
>>this position to vindicate DB's axb5. Now it's become a tautology that it's best
>>?
>
>It may not be any better than Qb6.  In order to DB to find it, it had to think
>that it was better, for just one ply.
>
>If someone finds axb5, that is a pretty convincing argument that it is possible
>to find it.
>
>If someone gets a big score drop on Qb6, well, this at least shows that a
>program can understand Qb6 to some degree.
>

I agree with all this, but what conclusion do you propose if no program does
that ?


>Seirawan says in the ICCAJ that "It is intriguing to understand how DEEP BLUE
>could reject a line that wins two Pawns by force."  I think that we're all
>capable of seeing that it only wins one pawn, but I'm hoping that we can find
>that it wins zero pawns.
>

I'm with Seirawan.

Amir




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