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Subject: Re: Please comment :Strength of Crafty these days

Author: Mike Byrne

Date: 10:17:53 10/17/04

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On October 17, 2004 at 12:05:22, Roy Brunjes wrote:

>With so many experts here on computer chess in general, I'm wondering where this
>group pegs Crafty's playing strength.  I'm confident it is below the top
>commercial programs, but by how much?  My unofficial guess is 100 rating points
>weaker, perhaps a bit more.  That would put it somewhere in the 2650 - 2700
>range (if using SSDF "ratings" as the standard for better or worse).
>
>What do others think?  For the sake of comparison, I'll have to assume the same
>CPU that the SSDF rates the programs using (Athlon 1200 MHz).
>
>Roy

The SSDF computer vs computer evidence for Crafty 18.12 points to a rating of
130 to 200 points below the top 3 or 4 engines in computer vs computer play.  It
is my belief that against human play, the rating difference will less
pronounced.  I say this for several reasons.  I believe that most commercial
programs gear their programs against other programs  - to get high SSDF ratings
and sell more copies.  Bob Hyatt does not sell Crafty - obtaining high SSDF
ratings is not a high priority -- no custom book for SSDF etc.  Many of Crafty
test games are against humans.  Bob has always spent most of his time tuning his
programs against humans - thus I believe it would do almost as well as
Shredder/Tiger etc against strictly human competition as the other top programs.
 His Crafty clone , "scrappy" who plays 100% humans I believe proves that point
more or less - it has always been one the top rated on programs on ICC (although
since I gave up my membership, I have not checked recently).  I also believe
that the strictly computer vs computer testing exaggerates differences between
programs - I call this the "Claude Bloodgood" effect.  Claude Bloodgood was a
convicted murderer (he murder his mother using an axe ) and served the remaining
years of his life in the Virginia penitentiary.  He was also perhaps one of the
strongest chess masters ever to serve a lengthy prison sentence.  While
incarcerated and playing a limited pool of other incarcerated chess players,
Claude Bloodgood became the second highest rated player in the USCF rating list.

Since his death and through the internet, the axe-murderer has become world
famous -- here's a picture of Claude on a Hong Kong Website

http://hk.geocities.com/goodchessclub/peo-bloodgood.html  -- yes he was really
that scary looking ....he actually got to write several books while in prison -
they are geared more towards the chess hustler type.

http://www.chesshouse.com/shopexd.asp?id=1887

http://www.chesshouse.com/shopexd.asp?id=1886



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