Author: John Merlino
Date: 08:58:57 11/30/04
Go up one level in this thread
On November 29, 2004 at 13:13:04, F. Huber wrote: >On November 29, 2004 at 12:27:32, John Merlino wrote: > >>On November 29, 2004 at 12:00:36, F. Huber wrote: >> >>>On November 29, 2004 at 10:54:04, Heiner Marxen wrote: >>> >>>>On November 28, 2004 at 17:43:44, F. Huber wrote: >>>> >>>>>On November 28, 2004 at 17:17:30, John Merlino wrote: >>>>>... >>>>>>The King is undoubtedly the best mate solving engine available, sometimes being >>>>>>even faster than programs dedicated to these kinds of problems. >>>>> >>>>>Yes, ´sometimes´ might be correct. ;-) >>>>> >>>>>But ´undoubtedly´ is _undoubtedly_ wrong - at least _I´m_ in doubt about it! >>>>>Did you ever hear about ´Gustav´, ´Chest´, ´ChestUCI´, .... ? ;-) >>>>> >>>>>Regards, >>>>>Franz. >>>> >>>>Hello Franz, >>>> >>>>I'm sure John knows quite well about Chest. We both compared results of >>>>Chest and ChessMaster numerous times for mate positions. >>>>And CM is really amazing at it. While there is no guarantee that CM >>>>will find the shortest mate, it very frequently does so, and faster >>>>than Chest most of the time. >>>> >>>>The terminology is a bit confusing at times. >>>>While Chest (and Gustav) are "mate provers", >>>>CM (and most playing programs) are "mate finders". >>>>The term "mate solver" is a bit ambiguous, so I would like to see used >>>>the former two terms... well. >>>> >>>>Cheers, >>>>Heiner >>> >>>Hello Heiner, >>> >>>of course I´m also sure, that John knows Chest - therefore my smilie ";-)" at >>>the end of my ´question´. >>> >>>It were only these two words ´sometimes´ and ´undoubtedly´ which caused me to >>>answer to his posting at all: >>> >>>From my test suite of mate problems I could easily give you 100 positions >>>where Chest would be absolutely the fastest, or another 100 where the same >>>is true for Gustav - and of course I´ll also find 100 for TheKing! >>>So _who_ of them is really ´the best´? >>> >>>And therefore the statement "The King is undoubtedly the best mate solving >>>engine available" is simply an exaggeration IMO. >>>(if he would have said "... one of the best ..." - no problem! ;-)) >>> >>>BTW, in its default mode also Gustav is _not_ a "mate prover" - >>>it uses similar restrictions as my additions in ChestUCI (e.g. flight squares >>>and mate threats), and so there´s no guarantee for a shortest mate. >>>This is only the case, if you switch Gustav to ´brute force´ mode - >>>but in this mode Gustav is not really fast at all. >>> >>>So my (quite general) conclusion in short: >>>Alybadix, Chest, GoliathMate, Gustav, King, Popeye ... (in pure alphabetical >>>order!) is undoubtedly ;-) _the_ best group of mate finders/solvers/provers! :) >>> >>>Best regards, >>>Franz. >> >>Franz, >> >>I meant no offense to any of the great and popular "mate provers" (to use >>Heiner's term). I meant to say that, of all the "mate finders" (i.e. >>chess-playing engines) I believe that The King is undoubtedly the best at >>solving mates quickly and accurately. >> >>I was not making any direct comparison between The King and programs like Chest, >>since I have no experience with any from the latter group (other than reading >>posts on this board). >> >>Once again, my apologies for any confusion, >> >>jm > >Hi John, > >there´s absolutely no need for you to apologize for _anything_ - >I really didn´t understand your statement as ´offense´ at all! ;-) > >And - to say the truth: >I like TheKing very much, also as a mate finder! :) >Whenever I get a mate problem with an unknown number of moves (or even if it´s >not sure to be a mate at all), TheKing is my first choice to analyze such a >dubious position. And most of the time he´s doing very well in such cases ... :) > >Well, it would be fantastic, if we could combine all those mate solvers >(I´ve mentioned above) to _one_ single engine - >this would really be ´The absolute mate engine´! >(maybe I´ll give it a try and write an interface for all of them ... ;-)) > >Best regards, >Franz. That was a very great compliment you have paid to Johan and The King. And, if you could write that interface, I have a feeling you would be able to sell quite a few copies to members of this board (and many others as well!). Good Luck! jm
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