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Subject: Re: Why is HIARCS X so good at Blitz & Standard Chess?

Author: stuart taylor

Date: 02:12:39 01/09/04

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On January 08, 2004 at 21:18:38, Bob Durrett wrote:

>On January 08, 2004 at 21:14:23, stuart taylor wrote:
>
>>On January 08, 2004 at 18:34:40, Stephen Ham wrote:
>>
>>>On January 08, 2004 at 17:16:17, Bob Durrett wrote:
>>>
>>>>HIARCS X plays as “sinferno” at ICC on an AMD Athlon XP 2400+ @ 2.5GHz computer.
>>>>It holds the "official" ICC Blitz Record at 3604 and has the fewest losses and
>>>>better overall records versus strong titled players than any other computer on
>>>>ICC.  It has only lost five games to two titled players but has played a large
>>>>number of GMs, IMs and FMs.  It is currently the top engine at ICC using
>>>>Standard time limits.
>>>>
>>>>Why is that?  Why is it better than all the other chess engines no matter what
>>>>the hardware?  Is SSDF missing something here?  Is there a disconnect here?
>>>>
>>>>Bob D.
>>>
>>>Hi Bob,
>>>
>>>That's a great question, to which I'd like to learn the answer too. I don't know
>>>anything about the ICC; I've never been there. But a few nights ago I thought
>>>that it might be fun to have a 5' match (10-games) against Shredder 7.04.
>>>
>>>Although I'm bored stiff by 5' computer games, I saw value in this one since I'd
>>>completely overhauled Shredder's opening book to only play the lines that I play
>>>in Correspondence Chess. Ordinarily, at slow time controls, Shredder virtually
>>>ALWAYS wins. So I naturally feel smug about my opening book. ;-) Therefore I
>>>thought it would be fun to finally see what my book and Shredder would do to
>>>Hiarcs 9 at 5'. After all, Shredder 8 defeated the latest Fritz at Blitz in
>>>Graz.
>>>
>>>To my shock and horror, Hiarcs 9 won convincingly (I don't recall the score but
>>>it was probably +3). So I examined the games and saw that Hiarcs and it's goofy
>>>opening book actually played superior tactics than Shredder. So I repeated the
>>>experiment. This time the score was something like +2, favoring Hiarcs 9. Same
>>>story on game quality. So I prepared Shredder's opening book for some of the
>>>offbeat stuff that Hiarcs plays (Hiarcs repeats the same lines it has success
>>>with a great deal), and the next result over another 10-game match was 5-5.
>>>
>>>Conclusion: Hiarcs' 5' tactical skills seem superior to Shredder's. Also, while
>>>Hiarcs' opening book seems quirky (and often downright bad), Shredder seems to
>>>need more time to refute the stuff that Hiarcs plays. In my latest long
>>>time-control match and tournament, Shredder was dominant.
>>>
>>>If I get time, I'll try a long time-control match and switch opening books. I
>>>have a theory that Hiarcs 9 would perform better if it weren't handicapped by
>>>its opening book. Oddly enough, this quirky book just may be an asset at short
>>>time controls in that it often removes the other engine from its book, saving
>>>Hiarcs time on the clock. Clearly this isn't much of a factor at longer
>>>time-controls where quality of moves played prevails.
>>>
>>>Well, that's my 2-cents worth.
>>>
>>>All the best,
>>>
>>>Stephen
>>
>>Might it be possible that the next Hiarcs could be a breakthrough in computer
>>chess level, from what you can guess (based on your understanding)? I'm talking
>>about long timings too.
>>Or is it that Shredder etc. is the REAL monster when given time? (and Hiarcs
>>might just be optimized for blitz, but improves evaluation very slowly after
>>more time, by which time Shredder catches up and overtakes)?
>>S.Taylor
>
>HIARCS X has the highest rating at ICC at Standard Time controls.
>
>Bob D.
Wow!



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