Author: Djordje Vidanovic
Date: 17:08:29 02/12/05
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On February 12, 2005 at 19:47:16, stuart taylor wrote: >On February 12, 2005 at 18:35:27, Djordje Vidanovic wrote: > >>A couple of years back I stated with absolute certainty that Chess Tiger 12 was >>the best chess program I'd seen up to then. And it was, really, notwithstanding >>the SSDF list where it eventually held spot #1 for a while. >> >>Now I can say that Shredder 9 is the best chess program ever. In my opinion of >>course, which some of you may well doubt. But I firmly contend that Shredder 9 >>is a work of art, something that a chess friend of mine called a Chinese piece >>of art, rounded and perfect. Congratulations to the author for this primarily >>labour of love, and not solely of programming perfection. >> >>I am amazed at its playing prowess, at its intelligence and, in ultima linea, at >>its performance against other programs. >> >> >>-- >>Djordje > >I am the second here to ask a similar question, as follows..... >It's nice to hear someone is happy, and it's also well known that many chess >programs are now really great, in very many ways, much much more than a few >years ago. >But how do you compare Shredder 9 to Shredder 8, or to 7.04? or to other top >programs from the top 10 or so, or even the top 5? >I am one of a few people here waiting exasperatedly for results to come through >about Shredder 9. The past over 2 years, there has hardly been a program, which >clearly outsmarts its recent predescessors, and Shredder 9 is still unclear if >it does. It appears that it does not CRUSH its closest rivals, but it's still >possible that it might be slightly a first among equals, slightly "more equal" >than others. But I don't know. >Are you answering that question for us? Or are you just comparing it to Tiger >12? >S.Taylor As it is very late over here now, and as the whole story about Shredder9 as I see it would take a long time to tell, I will try to put it in a nutshell. From what I've seen in Shredder 9 (more than 500 very fast games -- G/3, G/5, G/10) on fast machines, it appears that Shredder 9 has surpassed the oppostion in search and in some other parameters that remain unknown to me, but are very clearly observable. The latter is, above all, its almost perfect ability to "understand" space on the board, better than any other program, even better than Junior. Note that I am not talking about time (in terms of tempi) or compensation (in terms of material that can be compensated by space or time advantage) but about space and the control of it. This seems a bit vague, I admit, but the closest I can come to explain what I have in mind is the game of go where space seems to be dominant. That is something still elusive for me, but I can see it and feel it. The only thing left for me is to conceptualise it in the future, if I can... which I've come to doubt. There is something new in Shredder's search when compared to Shredder 8, its mighty predecessor. Some sort of highly effective branching factor enabling Shredder 9 to reach great depth without losing search accuracy. And then... I am lost again, compelled to paraphrase the words of a well-known programmer who said about Shredder that 'it is from another planet'. So much at this late hour. And get Shredder, you will love it. Oh, before I forget: its endgame is faultless, literally faultless. --- Djordje
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