Author: David Dory
Date: 06:44:43 12/22/03
Go up one level in this thread
On December 22, 2003 at 07:08:09, Duncan Roberts wrote: >Different software engines have different strengths and weaknesses in different >types of positions and I once saw mentioned the idea that one could raise the >elo level of chess software by 150 points by having some software which would >interface with the top 5 programs and would have all of the strengths and none >of the weaknesses of each individual program. This would be achieved as the >interface program would ask the individual program to only play the type of >position it played best at. > >kasparov once mentioned that in certain positions junior plays at 150 elo points >higher than the competition, on the other hand he said fritz is more 'certain'. > >An interface program should be a far tougher challenge for kasparov to crack. It >would truly reflect the best of computer science against the best chess player. > >I do not know much about computer chess, but I assume that to implement this in >at least a basic way should not take a great deal of time. (a week ?) > >Is this right? and if so (although it is easy to ask) why is nobody doing it.? > >There must be many good programmers on this site whose chess programs while good >cannot realistically hope to reach the 'top 10'. Surely (assuming the top 5 >chess program authors co-operate with this) they would be making a much bigger >contribution to computer chess by implementing an interface program. > > > > > >duncan roberts For this to work, you'd need to have your top 5 programs all working on separate computers, so they wouldn't interfere with each other's computing time. Then sure enough, you'd get Junior with one best move, and Fritz with another, and Shredder with still another best move, while ChessMaster might agree's with Fritz's best move. So what move would you, or your interface program, pick? Your interface program would have to be as smart as Kasparov to tell which move really was best (and sometimes Kaspy'd be wrong!). It isn't enough to classify a position as "open", "closed", "beginning", "middle", "end", etc. That's WAY too broad, and the whole classification might change dramatically in 4 ply or more, so now the position being searched would need to be classified again, wouldn't it? Pretty soon your work to classify the position would be eating up the programs time to search, if you weren't careful. All programs do better in open, tactical positions. They all try to avoid closed and blocked positions, simply because the best move is not frequently within their search of the game tree. It's too deep to be found in the time alloted. I believe Kasparov has his hands full just playing against one of the top 5 programs. No need to gang up on him with more programs. Dave
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