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Subject: Re: Opinions? A Crafty experiment...

Author: Uri Blass

Date: 09:46:09 05/26/04

Go up one level in this thread


On May 26, 2004 at 12:23:08, Robert Hyatt wrote:

>On May 26, 2004 at 05:16:05, José Carlos wrote:
>
>>On May 25, 2004 at 20:15:58, Dann Corbit wrote:
>>
>>>On May 25, 2004 at 15:12:01, Russell Reagan wrote:
>>>
>>>>On May 25, 2004 at 14:33:31, Dann Corbit wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>I doubt that very much.  There are some engines that vary in strength with time
>>>>>control, but it is generally at the blitz level where these transitions take
>>>>>place.  An engine that scores 30% at G/40 will probably score 30% at G/120 and
>>>>>at 40/2 against the same opponent.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>I'll test it. What engines would you like me to use?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>I suspect that you saw it happen once or twice and are now extrapolating the
>>>>>result in your mind.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>Yes, maybe. I need to test the idea some more.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>If the effect were profound, wouldn't Crafty score 50% against Shredder in the
>>>>>SSDF?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>I don't understand the reasoning here. The effect may only be subtle. I don't
>>>>even know if it is testable in practical time.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>The reason an engine might pick up strength at longer time controls is that it
>>>>>has a better fundamental algorithm, but it is poorly microoptimized.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>What about diminishing returns? If we plotted the results of matches with
>>>>respect to time (ex. 30%, 35%, 38%, etc.), what do the curves look like? At the
>>>>beginning of the curve, the slow program with a superior algorithm won't fit the
>>>>overall pattern, but I'm after the overall shape of the curve, where it levels
>>>>off (or if it levels off), and things like that.
>>>
>>>Why will one program have diminishing returns and not the other?
>>>There is no conclusive evidence that diminishing returns occur.  Citations"
>>>"Dark Thought Goes Deep"
>>>"Crafty Goes Deep"
>>>
>>>>>A great painter paints a picture in a month.  The same painter paints a picture
>>>>>in ten minutes.  I am guessing that the slower time of painting made a much
>>>>>better picture.
>>>>>
>>>>>When I play a chess engine contest, I want the result to be art, not comedy.
>>>>>For me (though not for the majority) high speed blitz games are a crime against
>>>>>humanity.
>>>>>
>>>>>It is not the end point (who won?) that is interesting to me.  It is the journey
>>>>>along the way.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>This is where we differ somewhat. I am not uninterested in the quality of the
>>>>games, but I am more interested in the outcome of the match and finding out who
>>>>is better. A G/30 match might be of lower quality, but in general it will
>>>>probably produce the same winner as a G/120 match, don't you think?
>>>
>>>What you will see is how strong the program is on that hardware at G/30.
>>>Chances are good that there is a correlation to how the program does on that
>>>hardware ag G/120.
>>>
>>>>I am thinking about this from the point of view of an engine developer. If I can
>>>>reliably tell which engine is stronger in 1/10th of the time, without having to
>>>>play G/120 matches for weeks, then that will benefit me greatly in finding out
>>>>whether changes to the engine are improvements, and the engine will improve more
>>>>quickly.
>>>
>>>The higher the speed of the games, the greater the amount of randomness if the
>>>pace is very fast.  At some point, I think it levels out.
>>
>>
>>  This is an interesting point. I had never thought at it that way. So basically
>>you say "faster implies more data and more randomness, and that probably levels
>>out at some point". So an interesting experiment would be: try 1000 games at G1,
>>100 games at G30 and 10 games at G120. The % of w/d/l should somehow be similar.
>>Of course the numbers should be calculated in a more elaborated way, I just made
>>them up, but that's the idea. Do you know how to do the calculations (my
>>mathematical background is not enough)?
>>  Or we could do the other way, this is, run 1000 games at G1. Then start a
>>match at G30 (with at least n games) until results are similiar in % to the
>>first match. Then do the same with G120.
>>  What do you think?
>>
>>  José C.
>
>I think the idea is flawed.
>
>Suppose you play two programs and limit them so they can only search to a depth
>of 1 ply.  It becomes "static evaluation vs static evaluation".  If A has a
>better evaluation, A wins.
>
>Suppose you now search for a long time, but A uses minimax (Just for a gross but
>impractical example) and B uses alpha/beta.  B will probably win on tactics.
>Short games favor good evaluation over tactics.  Longer games can give a program
>a tactical edge over a smarter program...
>
>I am _certain_ that Crafty plays worse against the same program at blitz, as
>opposed to playing the program in standard time controls.  From looking at
>literally thousands of logs from ICC...

Crafty against which program?
Is not the answer dependent on the name of the opponent program?

Uri



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