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Subject: Re: Most brilliant novelty from cct7 Witchess-Arasan

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 12:48:31 02/16/05

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On February 16, 2005 at 12:09:08, Vincent Diepeveen wrote:

>On February 15, 2005 at 17:43:32, Peter Berger wrote:
>
>>On February 15, 2005 at 15:57:20, Uri Blass wrote:
>>
>>>I think that Crafty did the expected result in WCCC.
>>
>>Actually you did predict it to the point before the tournament, so I agree with
>>you.
>>
>>The influence of book is just *way* over-estimated by people who had a too low
>>expectation of Crafty's potential. There were some games where Crafty's book was
>>really fine, mainly against Shredder,Junior, Fritz and Sjeng . But it only got
>>1/4 out of them, which means this includes most points lost. And the book
>>variation chosen against SOS was bad, this one had been mostly untested due to
>>lack of time, and just used based on analysis that didn't turn out to be
>>relevant.
>>
>>I was unhappy with openings against Falcon, Diep and IsiChess, and they clearly
>>left a lot to be desired. This time the net result was 3/3 though.
>>
>>I think Crafty had really bad books in most past WCCs it played in - this time
>>it was quite OK, nothing more, nothing less.
>>
>>I can add further evidence for my assessment : the blitz event where Crafty
>>finished 2nd, it played with a completely random ( and I mean it, because a
>>screwed up non-working 32-bit one was used) book.
>>
>>I think people just tend to underestimate Crafty on strong hardware , especially
>>several well-known programmers. It was even seeded 8th (!) by ICGA officials
>>e.g., and this was not the least bit controversial with programmers present. The
>>major reason probably is that under conditions more often used in tests at home,
>>it can't compete with the top. I also think that it was indeed a very good and
>>well-tested version. Crafty's released versions always goes up and down a bit.
>>
>>Peter
>
>At WCCC2004 i was a bit amazed to hear from all programmers that none of them
>had even tested a single game against crafty. Perhaps junior did. If so then
>that extra half point they scored against crafty brought them the world title if
>you may say so.

I would say that if "all programmers" said that, you can rest assured that not
all programmers are honest.  I had people helping me by playing games against
various programs before the WCCC.  Peter and someone were playing shredder and
hiarcs games on ICC quite a bit using the opteron box and my dual for testing
Crafty.  Etc.


>
>Diep was tested against crafty at home. There was just 1 opening where diep had
>problems with as diep strategically reacted wrong there.
>
>You played that opening against diep.
>
>By being quickly out book you also avoided Arturo's perfect preparation in that
>opening to avoid horrors of diep. the horrors came however on the board from
>both sides with crafty at the winning end.
>
>So IMHO you were the decisive factor there, whatever viewpoint you see it from.
>
>Additional no one is posting here another important factor. You did a perfect
>operating job and managed to have a stable connection to the crafty machine.
>Very unlike Uri Blass.
>
>You had prepared everything, including how to operate efficiently. There is many
>ways to mess up and you messed up nowhere.
>
>Took always the strategic right choice. I'm not sure that you even realize how
>many points it brings just to already choose the right opening against the right
>opponent.
>
>Bad luck doesn't exist in that respect. You increased the winning chances of
>Crafty simply. I had short before world champs hard statistics upon which
>openings i would have a 100% winning chance and in which openings it was 90,
>which it was 80 and only 1 it was real bad.
>
>You choose that opening and that's what mattered a lot.

Can we avoid the science fiction stuff?  Peter made a single "lucky choice" in
choosing the only possible opening we could win?

Just come back next time better prepared without that big a hole and then you
should beat me easily, right?

>
>Vincent



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