Computer Chess Club Archives


Search

Terms

Messages

Subject: Re: ideas for the hardware equality problem.

Author: Uri Blass

Date: 03:49:56 07/10/04

Go up one level in this thread


On July 10, 2004 at 01:02:39, Russell Reagan wrote:

>On July 09, 2004 at 23:18:40, Eric Oldre wrote:
>
>>I have a few ideas that if such a tourney ever takes place, may be useful for
>>the issue of unequal hardware.
>>
>>I used to be involved in the local stock car racing scene, and they had similar
>>issues to resolve. what they did was to say. if you place in the top 3 in a
>>race. you have the option of buying the winners engine for the price of $800
>>plus your engine.
>>
>>This kept people from spending huge amounts of money on their motors and buying
>>the race. but still allowed for some differences. I think a similar scheme may
>>be applicable here.
>>
>>The tournament could have a rule that the hardware you use must only be worth
>>$1500 (or pick a different amount). This could either be enforced with a
>>gentleman's agreement, or if that is not considered good enough. you could say
>>that someone had the option of buying the winners hardware for some amount.
>>
>>This allows people to target different platforms. PowerPC, Athlon-64, or
>>something else. without allowing someone to just buy the tournament. what do
>>people think of this idea. anyone have other suggestions?
>
>Okay, I'll try again :)
>
>Allowing people to bring any hardware they want is the fairest way to run a
>computer chess tournament.
 Any attempt to  equalize the hardware will cause more
>problems than it solves.


It is possible to do the tournament more fair by the following way:
1)Test every program on the tournament on the hardwares that the participants
use
2)Find the best hardware for every software(I guess that Crafty's hardware is
the best for movei inspite of the fact that movei cannot use more than one
processor).
3)In case that a software cannot use the best hardware delay the game of that
software and let it use the best hardware that it can use except the opponent
hardware(of course it cannot use the opponent's hardware but I find it unfair if
movei is not allowed to delay the games and use Crafty's hardware in games that
are not against Crafty).


>Point 2: Not needed
>
>There is no need for an equal hardware computer chess tournament. Searching a
>chess game tree is an exponential problem. Unless the engines are very close in
>playing strength, hardware isn't going to affect the outcome.

It seems most of the participants do not agree that it is not needed(otherwise
shredder could play with the tournament hardware).

The fact is that the top engines are very close in playing strength.
linear difference is still significant and your assumption(the engines are not
very close in playing strength is wrong).

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.