Computer Chess Club Archives


Search

Terms

Messages

Subject: Re: Comments on SSDF by Mr.Diepeveen * The Two Computer Quest

Author: Mridul Muralidharan

Date: 09:21:11 03/06/04

Go up one level in this thread


On March 06, 2004 at 06:08:31, Rolf Tueschen wrote:

>On March 05, 2004 at 19:44:56, Ed Schröder wrote:
>
>>On March 05, 2004 at 18:23:44, Vincent Diepeveen wrote:
>>
>>>On March 05, 2004 at 15:51:47, Thoralf Karlsson wrote:
>>>
>>>>On March 05, 2004 at 03:54:57, Afzal Siddique wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>Hello All,
>>>>>
>>>>>http://www.aceshardware.com/forum?read=105063596
>>>>>
>>>>>Afzal
>>>>
>>
>>>>I have never asked Vincent Diepeveen for money in order to test his program.
>>
>>>That is correct. You told me that you were lacking hardware that much that
>>>without another machine or 2 you would not be able to garantuee me that diep
>>>would be soon at the list.
>>
>>So from that statement (we don't have enough PC's to test Diep) you concluded
>>Thoralf was asking you to send him 2 PC's?
>>
>>Ed
>
>
>Dear Ed,
>
>please stop playing these games and let me answer for VD. Yes, of course, a
>young programmer MUST understand the words of TK this way! Period.
>
>VD wanted to reach the goal that his program was tested as soon as possible.
>Understandable wish. Now the responsible man from SSDF says that he could only
>do this if he had more resources - BUT of course he hasn't yet. OF COURSE this
>does NOT say word for word that Vincent should send hardware as soon as
>possible. But the implication is absolutely clear. Taken that VD WOULD have done
>this, the SSDF certainly wouldn't have rejected the kind present.
>
>But all this is only part of the overall general problem!!!
>
>And we should thank VD that he has published this here in CCC. The other aspect
>of the problem is that a company like ChessBase has more resources than just a
>young programmer. THEY make an invoice with an autoplayer and whoopieee, the
>SSDF is accepting it. Later it was found out that this autoplayer gave FRITZ an
>edge. At that moment also Ed Schröder began to jump up and down. A kind of war
>began.
>
>So here we come to the final aspect of this problem. Speaking in terms of
>history. Overall, these parts of the "SSDF problem" could be defined as follows:
>
>   *** the SSDF is held by amateurs, by certainly sympathetic hobby freaks
>
>   *** due to a lack of resources SSDF had to test by hand in the early days
>
>   *** due to that same aspect SSDF became open for manipulative tools
>
>   *** in consequence gifts of hardware alone _could_ influence the results
>
>This is all, what Vincent is saying and this is correct. If the SSDF were really
>independent, they would test completely without contacts with the programmers.
>They would buy the progs in shops and they would test them. They would test in
>the spirit of the potential clients, the end-users. The whole communicating with
>the programmers and their companies makes the SSDF object of almost invisible
>manipulations.
>
>Also herefore Vincent gave perfect examples. The invoice of special "books" and
>"learning files" is obviously a tool to manipulate the results of the tests
>because the programmers want to react themselves on the reactions of the other
>collegues with newer program versions on _their_ progs. Obviously this has no
>longer something to do with independent and reliable testing standards.
>
>To make this absolutely clear: a test, once begun, does NOT allow a tester to
>later make all kind of replacements or manipulative novelties because that
>simply and perfectly destroys the validity of the tests! (Just to tell the truth
>to many testers here around: you should NOT update your progs in a test
>"tournament" because that makes the whole tournament invalid.

<snip>


Hi Rolf,

  Very nicely put.
I would like to point out another thing - Vincent mentioned that he was asked
for Hardware : some 6 years or so back - not yesterday or last year !

Ed also keeps mentioning - "not anymore" - does this mean that there
may/defintely(!?) have been problems earlier on in the past ?
Could this h/w request also be a thing of that same past period ? :)

As any businessman will expect a return of investments , so would any
hypothetical company say chessbaseX expect return of investments in case they
did donate machines to SSDF (If the implict request for machine was made - then
it might have been made to others too and some of whom would have obliged).

This need not be in terms of manipulating games - a strict no no - but could be
the strategic entry of a new engine in the list , a new killer book , etc , etc
,etc

Mridul

>
>
>Rolf



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.