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Subject: Re: 2 points Chandler

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 09:50:52 01/13/05

Go up one level in this thread


On January 12, 2005 at 21:47:05, Les Fernandez wrote:

>On January 12, 2005 at 21:21:34, Dann Corbit wrote:
>
>>On January 12, 2005 at 21:18:22, chandler yergin wrote:
>>
>>>On January 12, 2005 at 21:13:08, Dann Corbit wrote:
>>>
>>>>On January 12, 2005 at 21:09:16, chandler yergin wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On January 12, 2005 at 21:02:01, Dann Corbit wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>On January 12, 2005 at 20:57:40, chandler yergin wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>On January 12, 2005 at 20:33:25, Dann Corbit wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>On January 12, 2005 at 20:25:24, Uri Blass wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>On January 12, 2005 at 19:56:25, Dann Corbit wrote:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>On January 12, 2005 at 19:37:29, Steve Maughan wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>Dann,
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>Things that seem impossible quickly become possible.
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>I recon about 300 years before a computer will solve chess.  This assumes
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>1) 10^120 possible positions
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>This is far, far too large.  Chess positions have been encoded in 162 bits,
>>>>>>>>>>which puts an absolute upper limit at 10^58 (and it is probably much less than
>>>>>>>>>>that).
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>2) Alpha-beta cutting this down to 10^60 sensible positions
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>The incorrect first assumption renders this and all following assumtions as
>>>>>>>>>>moot.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>The second assumption is also not correct.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>By the same logic alphabeta can cut less than 2^30 positions in KRB vs KR to
>>>>>>>>>2^15 positions but it does not happen and solving some KRB vs KR position with
>>>>>>>>>no KRB vs KR tablebases is not something that you need 2^15 nodes for it.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>No.  The second assumption would be true if the first was true.  This was
>>>>>>>>formally PROVEN by Donald Knuth.  In a perfectly ordered alpha-beta solution
>>>>>>>>tree, the number of nodes is proportional to the square root of the nodes in the
>>>>>>>>full tree.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>If there were 10^120 in the full tree, then about 10^60 would be in the solution
>>>>>>>>tree.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>It can be less than that.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>It "Can't be LESS than that!
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> But it cannot be more.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>It Certainly CAN!
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>In any TREE.. the TREE ONLY represents "What HAS Been PLayed."
>>>>>>>REFUTE THAT!
>>>>>>
>>>>>>You do not have to solve every game.  Only every position.  Look at the two
>>>>>>chess games that I posted.  The end position for both was identical.  In fact,
>>>>>>despite the many moves, there are only a very few positions that are distinct.
>>>>>>For each of those positions, if you know the best move, you do not care how you
>>>>>>got there.
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>How do you now the "Best Move" until you have calculated them ALL?
>>>>
>>>>The miracle of alpha beta is that it allows you to prune away huge chunks of the
>>>>tree and get EXACTLY the SAME answer you would get if you examined every single
>>>>leaf.
>>>>
>>>>>Hmmm?
>>>>
>>>>Read a paper on alpha-beta and you will find the answer.
>>>
>>>Still doesn't come CLOSE to 10^ 120th Power for Solving ANYTHING!
>>>Also.. there are positions for "Underpromotion" which you don't take into
>>>account.
>>
>>Underpromotion is also completely irrelevant.  Each of the possible outcomes of
>>promotion is simply a new position.  Those positions have already been counted
>>in the set of 10^43 distinct positions.  So you see, underpromotion does not
>>even complicate things at all.
>>
>>>That's WHY 7 man EGTB'S will NOT jump the ELO Rating...
>
>#1 Chandler just because we do not see a measurable advantage that 6 piece
>egtb's offer a computer doesnt mean that a larger,ie 10 piece egtb, wouldnt be
>measurable.  Think about it.  With only 6 pieces on the board most GM's I
>suspect would know how to handle that even though some of the 6 piece egtb's can
>be very tough even for them.  Now if that GM was to try and develope a workable
>approach to survivng an endgame for which we have perfect information for 10
>pieces I doubt in most cases he could survive (IMHO).  I suspect the benefits of
>egtb's will become more obvious as we develope large sets.
>
>#2 In one of the other threads of yours you mentioned the incredible magnitude
>of chess positions and that there was 0% chance of solving chess.  Well in
>support of Dann's statement where he corrected your figure of 10*120 let me just
>say that although perfectly ordered alpha-beta solution will reduce this number
>I can probably also reduce that number quite a bit further when we talk about
>unique positions vs positions.  Although the task "seems" unattainable you just
>probably have not looked at all kinds of methods that may offer ways of trimming
>down that one number that you are baseing all your thoughts on.  Keep an open
>mind, we see this stuff happen every day in technology.
>
>Les
>


This is irrefutable: Each successive generation of tables provides a _higher_
strength improvement than the previous generation, until we get the 32 piece
tables done at which point perfect chess will be played.  We won't reach there
for a long time, if ever (never is such a long way away I try to not use it) but
from personal experience, having started off with just 3-4 piece files, then
adding all the 5's, I can assure you that the 5 piece files added much more to
my program than the 3-4 piece files did.  And the 6's have added even more even
though all are not done.  I can't say it is an exponential growth with so few
data points, but I can say without fear of being proven wrong later that it is
just as clearly more than a linear growth in playing strength.




>>>>>>>>tree
>>
>>That has more to do with disk access time.  But I expect that judicious use of
>>the data will increase Elo ratings.
>>
>>>They, can't even be solved yet.. and NOT in your lifetime either.. will they..
>>>or for future generations to come.
>>>STOP! The NONSENSE!



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