Computer Chess Club Archives


Search

Terms

Messages

Subject: Re: Hydra Mystery Remains Unsolved

Author: Anthony Cozzie

Date: 06:38:19 02/17/04

Go up one level in this thread


On February 17, 2004 at 08:41:16, Bob Durrett wrote:

>
>
>The fact is that Hydra whipped a bunch of conventional chess computers at
>Paderborn.  That fact is indisputable.
>
>How???
>
>How could Hydra, chugging away at the clock rate of a slow snail, win against
>the high-nps conventional machines?
>
>They say "nps isn't everything."  But could the truth be "nps isn't anything"?
>
>Maybe conventional wisdom ["The Earth is flat"] isn't right after all.
>
>Does anybody understand what happened?  I feel that the results were monumental!
>
>Bob D.

Tournaments with only a few rounds are simply lotteries.  Obviously, not all
participants have an even chance to win, but the chance of the best program
winning is not 100%, it is more like 30%.  This doesn't mean that they aren't
fun, but I wouldn't draw any serious conclusions about strength from 7 games
(IPCC) / 9 games (CCT) / 12 games (WCCC).  Top chess programs are close enough
in strength that you need hundreds of games to really decide which engine is
stronger.

anthony



This page took 0 seconds to execute

Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700

Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.