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Subject: Re: Beauty In Chess..The Differences Between Human And Computer Play

Author: Dann Corbit

Date: 11:55:09 01/20/05

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On January 20, 2005 at 14:09:32, Steve B wrote:

>In his  1997 book"Beautiful Mates:Applying Principles of Beauty to Computer
>Chess Heuristics",Ben Wallis attempts to program a computer to play chess more
>like a "Human"
>
>
>clearly the way current computer programs play is nothing like the way humans
>play
>
>current day programs rely chiefly on brute speed and the ability to analyze and
>evaluate millions of nodes per second
>
>while the algorithms employed to evaluate the positions are of course important
>,the sheer computing power and speed of current day hardware is chiefly the
>reason for the very high ratings achieved within  the last decade
>
>an example of this are the last two Kasparov matches against Deep Blue
>in the first match Deep Blue  using 40 processors lost to Kasparov by a margin
>of 2 points(although it did defeat him in the first game)
>in 1997 Deep Blue Employed 512 processors and as we all know defeated Kasparov
>
>Defining "Human" like play is not so easy
>
>based upon a previous study by Margulies who assembled a panel of 30 players who
>were rated over 2000(Elo),
>several concepts of "human like" play were created
>one such concept was "Beauty"
>
>shown this position :
>[D] k7/P1r5/K7/3N4/8/8/8/8 w - - 0 1
>
>90% of the rated experts preferred to deliver the mate by checking with the
>Knight at B6 rather then taking the Rook on C7
>
>the idea  of "Using the least amount of Force "was then included in the concept
>of "Beauty"

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  I would take the rook.

Besides, all checkmates are beautiful, unless you are the one checkmated.  In
that case, they are very, very ugly.

>Reuben Fine seemed to agree with this idea when he critiqued Margulies study
>
>the book goes on  to establish several different ideas like this all in an
>effort to describe or define human like play
>clearly no computer today is programmed to evaluate a position with "Beauty" in
>mind
>
>in the end Wallis programmed a computer to solve mating positions using several
>"human like" algorithms such as ..deliver mate with least amount of force"
>the program was then subjected to a series of mating positions and the results
>were compared to see how closely it compared to the panel of experts
>an argument can be made that Wallis program exhibits more human like play then
>that of todays programs (or at least solved mates more like a human player)
>
>i do not know what became of his program or if even was ever released
>
>the funny thing about all this is..
>if i were White in this position and i was playing a rated tournament game..i
>would snatch that rook off with my knight and slam it down on c7 with as much
>fanfare as  possible..not forgetting of course to bark out...MATE!
>
>now i am certainly no computer..but then again..i am no rated expert either
>:))
>
>Best
>Steve



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