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Subject: Re: M$ goes Chess?!?

Author: Peter Kappler

Date: 15:13:57 01/05/99

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On January 05, 1999 at 16:57:40, Dann Corbit wrote:

>On January 05, 1999 at 15:19:09, Peter Kappler wrote:
>[snip]

>>"Much stronger" is pretty vague.  This could mean 50 ELO points or 200 ELO
>>points, depending on your point of view.  Can you be more specific in your
>>answer?

>Perhaps orders of magnitude stronger.

Argh!  I had just finished complaining that Eugene's "much stronger" comment was
too vague, and I'm afraid this isn't much better.  I'm looking for quantitative
estimates, specifically in terms of ELO ratings.

Please if anybody else has an opinion, and wants to respond, at least give a
rating range as part of your answer.  Thanks.


>  I worked at Microsoft for about 10 years
>and I can tell you that they have a large number of very talented people who
>work there.  You may imagine some giant pool of chowderheads,

No, I don't imagine that at all.  I know some Microsoft people too, and they are
all very bright.  But I am of the opinion that computer chess is now in the
realm of diminishing returns.  The current commercial programs already search so
deep that I think even a 50-100 point improvement in playing strength would be a
tremendous accomplishment.

I suspect that Microsoft could build something that would reach that "50-100
point stronger" point if they devoted enough resources.  Again, keep in mind
that I'm talking about a pure software implementation, and not a mixed
hardware/software project like IBM's Deep Blue.

--Peter



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