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Subject: Re: computer aided chess

Author: James Kukula

Date: 22:27:26 01/06/05

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Here is a really simple way to see that some kind of "computer aided
explanation" is possible.

Suppose one actually had a small collection chess engines. At the beginning of a
play, one simply ran every engine in the collection. So then one would have a
list that gave next to the name of the engine the move that the engine
recommended. Maybe every engine recommends the same move! In which case the
choice is easy. But generally I expect the different engines will come up with a
few moves. One could assign each engine a voting weight, and then sort the moves
by the total weight of all the engines that voted for that move. Still, one
would see next to each move the list of engines that voted for it. The name of
an engine is a peculiar sort of "explanation" to provide for a move, but I bet
the folks here are very familiar with the quirks of the most popular engine, so
if the list says that "crafty" votes for some move, that would be a meaningful
explanation.

Here's the next level of interaction that I envision. Perhaps one actually has
quite a large collection of engines, so running the whole set would soak up too
much cpu resource for a given move. To start a move, one could pick some subset
of the engines to run. I imagine folks get a feel for engines, for knowing in
certain types of situations which engines are most likely to give the best
moves. Maybe one would run the engines sequentially, picking the next engine to
run after seeing the moves picked by the engines already run. If all the engines
so far have picked the same move, maybe some radically different engine will
pick a different move - if not, one really can conclude the single move picked
is the best way to go.

Does this direction seem like it ought to work, or what am I missing?

Thanks,
Jim



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