Author: Uri Blass
Date: 17:20:39 03/07/04
Go up one level in this thread
On March 07, 2004 at 20:12:06, Jon Dart wrote: >On March 07, 2004 at 16:46:28, Andrew Williams wrote: > >> Speaking of book issues, I have been experimenting with >>an improved "preferred" book for PostModernist. I have essentially got rid of >>the lines which I had been adding because I think PM has done Ok with them at >>ICC. Instead I have been inserting "bog-standard" lines. All this was done on >>Peter Berger's advice. The results have been *ASTONISHING*. > >I rather like tinkering with the opening book, so I do it quite a lot. >If I spent the time actually improving the engine I've spent on the >book, I'd probably have a computer chess champion by now ;-). But it's >a hobby, so I do what I like. Besides observing behavior on ICC I also >run auto-play matches on a spare matchine and look for opening "busts" >or interesting novelties. Occasionally I run a match from a fixed >opening position if I suspect there's some problem with the book for >a particular line (for example, I did this for the Caro-Kann Advance a >while back). > >Lately my opinion has been that a smaller book is better, because it seems >large PGN collections always have some bad lines in them and win/loss or >frequency data doesn't necesssarily eliminate them. If you have a smaller >book and use it a lot, you have a chance to find really bad opening ideas >and weed them out. > >I don't try to encourage any particular opening "style", but I set most >of the gambits to "never play": for example, King's Gambit as White, >Benko Gambit as Black. This is just based on experience. If the opponent >follows "book" exactly then these openings are playable, but I think >the computer doesn't cope with them well if someone deviates in the opening. > >--Jon My opinion is that the optimal size of the book is dependent on the time control. I believe that a big book is good for blitz because even if there are mistakes in the book the program has no time to find better moves and saving time is important. A smaller book may be better for long time control. Uri
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.