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

Author: Jorge Pichard

Date: 00:03:28 01/21/05

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On January 21, 2005 at 02:15:00, Russell Reagan wrote:

>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"
>>
>>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
>
>
>Some call it "beauty". I would call it "foolish". I'd prefer the safer, smarter
>way :)
>
>If the "pretty" way fails 1 time out of 100 (i.e. the human overlooks something
>while trying to be "cute"), when there was a safer, clearer choice, it's not
>worth it IMO.


You can either kill him with kindness or simply knock him out his chair by
taking the rook; the bottom line is the same MATE :-)

Jorge



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