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Subject: Re: interview with Michael Adams posted on chessbase

Author: Robin Smith

Date: 18:47:25 06/30/05

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On June 30, 2005 at 20:29:42, Robert Hyatt wrote:

>On June 30, 2005 at 16:08:32, Andreas Guettinger wrote:
>
>>On June 30, 2005 at 11:34:18, Evgeny Shu wrote:
>>
>>>http://chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=2485
>>
>>
>>Now this surprises me a bit:
>>
>>"I wasn’t really concerned about that possibility. In any case it would be
>>impossible for me to tell, because Hydra plays a very different game to any
>>other computer that I ever saw. Even in these six games it actually played
>>differently to anything I saw in its own previous games, so it’s not easy to
>>judge. But no, I don’t have any suspicions about human intervention. That’s not
>>something that concerned me."
>>
>>A replayed the matches live on Hiarcs 9.6 and Fruit 2.1 on my 2 computers, and I
>>would say above 95% of Hydras moves were suggested by at least one of them.
>>Especially Fruit did very well in predicting Hydras moves.
>>Therefore the sentence "Hydra palys a very different game to any other computer
>>that I ever saw" leaves me a bit out in the cold.
>>
>>regrads
>>Andy
>
>
>It's a little hyperbole and a lot of exaggeration.  :)  I had crafty analyzing
>most of the games live on ICC and it as well as most other programs predicted
>Hydras moves _very_ accurately...

Please define "_very_ accurately". 100% of the time?  :-) Or are you running
Crafty (or pehaps a stable of engines) and noticing that the engine(s), at some
depth or another, show the same move as Hydra most of the time. How often did
Crafty come up with the same move as Hydra when given the exact same amount of
thinking time? I haven't tested this, but I'll bet it is less than 95%.

And even if Crafty did predict Adams' moves (once out of book) perhaps as much
as 95% of the time, even that does not mean that Hydra didn't put much more
pressure on Adams than Crafty or other PC engines would have. At the highest
levels of chess it only takes a move or two per game to make a big difference.
One slip by the computer and the presure is off. More presure->"very different
game" (at least from a subjective human perspective such as Adams') even if all
the other moves would have been the same.

Then there is also the issue of opening books. Hydra leaves book faster than
most top programs, because the Hydra team believes Hydra handles being out of
book and finding good TN's better than other programs. Leaving book earlier is
already, all by itself, a radically different game, in spite of how many of
Hydra's subsequent moves the PC's  might find.

I am certain Adams has played many games against PC engines. I am certain Hydra
seemed subjectively, to Adams, as stronger and harder to handle than these PC
programs. This means that Adams statement "Hydra plays a very different game"
would, from Adams' perspective, be completely true; even though PC's can predict
most of Hydra's moves.

I think your claim above regarding Adams could be a little hyperbole and a lot
of exaggeration.  :)

-Robin



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