Author: Enrique Irazoqui
Date: 07:46:30 02/04/99
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On February 04, 1999 at 09:15:07, Robert Hyatt wrote: >On February 04, 1999 at 08:22:06, Enrique Irazoqui wrote: > >>On February 04, 1999 at 08:13:52, Jouni Uski wrote: >> >>>On February 04, 1999 at 07:37:11, Enrique Irazoqui wrote: >>> >>>>On February 04, 1999 at 06:25:11, CLiebert wrote: >>>> >>>>>Fritz-Crafty16.4-Engine: 4-CPU-Version / Support of Tablesbases >>>>> >>>>>Die neue Version von Crafty 16.4 bietet auch unter Fritz interessante neue >>>>>Möglichkeiten, s. Titel. >>>>>Hier das Readme von Chessbase, Download in Kürze über die CB-Homepage. >>>> >>>>I don't see it there yet, but let me tell you that the results I am getting with >>>>this Crafty 16.4 are much, much better than with 16.1 and 16.3. It feels like a >>>>different engine altogether, even on a single processor machine like mine. >>>> >>>>Enrique >>>> >>>I am curious - please tell some results! >> >>A have few and as always I get carried away with first impressions. :( >> >>Anyway, Junior 5 used to be Crafty's nightmare: 8.5-1.5 against 16.1 and 8-2 >>against 16.3, and 16.3 did not clear hashtables as a Fritz engine. Instead, >>Crafty 16.4 is beating J5 3.5-2.5. In other words, it is scoring in 6 games as >>many points as the other Crafties in 20 games. 16.4 is playing much sharper than >>before and is also quicker in tactics. >> >>I know I need more games and more opponents, but the first impression couldn't >>be better. Now, imagine 16.4 on a dual pentium, or a quad... >> >>Enrique > >I'm not sure 6 games means a lot... Sure, but based on these few games and on the positive impression I have so far we can start some speculation. After all, speculating is the salt of computer chess, no? :) I think that the successful development of Crafty has all sort of consequences. To begin with, Crafty is for free (after the copyright discussion, I don’t dare to say “freeware” anymore), and if it is as good as the commercials it will have a great impact in the market and therefore in the further development of commercial programs. On the other hand, it should benefit the development of non-commercials, assuming that the copyright is not an obstacle. Crafty runs in Unix, Linux, DOS, Windows, and can be used already now on parallel machines. If it is true that parallel is the way PCs will develop, Crafty has already a very big advantage over other programs that, as far as I know, didn’t even start preparing for parallel processing. Of course, commercial programmers can take a look at Crafty’s code and get “inspiration” for a few tricks here and there, including parallel processing. But the fact that Crafty is copyrighted doesn’t mean that Bob will be legally entitled to make claims on the intellectual property of some code present in commercial programs? More speculation. Two years ago we had this giant discussion about DB having or not having the same quality evaluation functions of the commercials. Then Bob put Crafty as an example of what DB people were doing in this regard: Crafty and then some. He also posted a 10-0 win from DB against top commercials. Skepticism, if not downright disbelieve, was the normal reaction and from there it came the 100:1 challenge from Rebel 8 and then Hiarcs 6. Crafty lost the first game and it wasn’t better in the second, in spite of the odds. But today’s Crafty is not that old Crafty, so imagine this 16.4 running on a 1000 times faster machine, like DB did: who would doubt a 10-0 against the best commercials? I for one wouldn’t, not even for a second. I would also start questioning who is the best chess player in the world. As I said, speculation... Enrique >IE Crafty played a match vs Phalanx last >week on one of the servers, where I had a big hardware advantage, and I watched >Crafty lose the first 4 games in a row, before it won 24 in a row. >Statistically unexpected, but it happens... > >And I don't have to 'imagine' how it does on a 'quad' I get to see it every day, >and it is very dangerous. There is going to be a Crafty VS GM demo at a Linux >conference somewhere in Europe. More details when I get 'em. The folks there >are borrowing a quad xeon and are going to run crafty 'full-blown' with all the >5 piece tablebases (22.5 gigs, just like I run on ICC) and so forth. > >I have been noticing that I generally don't see less than 9 ply searches any >more, even in fast blitz games...
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