Computer Chess Club Archives


Search

Terms

Messages

Subject: Re: Is anybody still playing?!

Author: Roger D Davis

Date: 10:31:39 12/28/04

Go up one level in this thread


On December 28, 2004 at 07:53:40, Marc wrote:

>What is considered to be the most attractive feature of a chess engine? Is it
>the ability to crush all the other monsters (which probably isn't the same as
>objective strength), is it playing style, or?? Do people still fight them? And
>if so, which engines are considered the most interesting to play?
>
>As a draughts-player I dislike playing programs because sometimes it's hard to
>even recognise the game. The game of the machine is tough to crack, and it is
>often dangerous, but there is a very obvious lack of real 'understanding'. These
>programs are not nearly as evolved as modern chess engines, btw. Does playing a
>modern chess engine still give you this sensation?

To my knowledge, there is no test suite of positions for which there is both a
human-like move and a different machine-like move. Accordingly, it's impossible
to quantify rigorously the extent to which any particular engine is human-like
versus machine-like. Would be nice to work up such a set of positions, which
might consist mostly of closed games, I don't know.

One way to identify computer moves might be to look at computer novelties in
well known lines of opening theory, at least, those novelties that have "caught
on." The assumption here is that since human grandmasters couldn't find the
computer novelty, the novelty lacks the human quality.

Presumably, computers nowadays are so good that it is difficult to distinguish
those moves that are purposeless from that create a very delicate balance
between the multiple needs of offense and defense that might characterize any
given position. What appears purposeless may just be an exquisite balance of
objectives. Proving that to be case, however, is another story.

Roger



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.