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Subject: Re: What is the purpose of Hydra?

Author: George Sobala

Date: 14:38:25 08/23/04

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On August 23, 2004 at 05:43:50, Mike Hood wrote:

>On August 22, 2004 at 18:29:14, James T. Walker wrote:
>
>>On August 22, 2004 at 13:46:54, George Sobala wrote:
>>
>>>On August 22, 2004 at 13:01:16, James T. Walker wrote:
>>>
>>>>If it has no commercial value then what is it's purpose.  Are they trying to
>>>>accomplish what Deep Blue already has done?
>>>
>>>And what was it that Deep Blue did exactly? It beat Kasparov in an emotionally
>>>charged match where he threw the last game, only to be immediately dismantled
>>>and it never played again. It certainly did not demonstrate true chess
>>>superiority over the World Champion
>>
>>Your assumption that "Kasparov threw the match" is silly.  Unless of course you
>>have some proof.  Yes it was dismantled after it accomplished what it was built
>>for.  I wish it had not but since IBM paid for it they can do what they want
>>with it.
>
>If Kasparov did indeed throw the match (which I doubt), it was only because of a
>temper tantrum caused by the emotionally charged matches. And a win is a win,
>whatever the reason, so let's leave this point be.
>
>As for IBM dismantling the machine, everyone knows why they did this. Defeating
>the reigning world champion was a major PR victory, but IBM was afraid it was a
>fluke, so they wanted to quit while they were ahead. Kasparov might have won a
>return match. And Anand (in my opinion the world's best anti-computer player)
>might have squashed Deep Blue 4-0 a month later, which was too much of a risk.
>Who knows? Give Eduard Nemeth an Internet connection to Deep Blue and, after
>some experimenting, he might have chalked up a 24-0 victory.

I agree entirely. (I used the phrase "threw the match" to mean that he was too
emotionally disturbed to play properly, not that he lost deliberately. And yes,
a win is a win, but it left the chess-playing ability of the winner in doubt.)

So there you have it: perhaps the purpose of Hydra is to be a real and
consistent World Champion beater.



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