Author: Kurt Utzinger
Date: 00:33:56 08/20/05
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On August 20, 2005 at 03:20:10, Keith Hyams wrote:
>Hi Kurt,
>They are not “dumb time limits” they are just time limits. In the same way that
>many people feel that for an engine to be classed as high strength it has to
>perform well in both open and closed positions, some people also feel that for
>an engine to be classed as strong it has to perform well at all time limits.
> Is a 100 metre sprint “dumb” compared to a 1500 metre race? Is a high jump
>competition a better indication of athletic ability than a pentathlon?
I am not sure if your comparison does meet the point. A 100 metre
sprinter will never be able to compete at a pentathlon, computers
can play at all time controls. Some days ago, Shredder has become
Blitz world chess computer champion: who cares? It's not a very
important title. What counts in Reykjavik are the normal games
at slow time control. In my opinion the importance of blitz games
is overestimated and slow games underestimated and that's a pity.
Kurt
>
>Many programmers devote a substantial part of their testing to blitz games. One
>reason for this in addition to the one above is the size of “error bars”. In
>order to get meaningful error bars in the region of +20 and -20, you need to
>play about 600 games. This is simply not feasible for most of us at long time
>limits.
Fully agreed: testing new versions of an engine is a very time
consuming matter. In such cases blitz games can also be helpful
to find out bugs.
Kurt
>
>Your contribution here is extremely valuable for a number of reasons. One of
>them is that you are one of relatively few people who can and will play longer
>matches and the feedback that you provide is therefore very valuable. I visit
>your website very frequently to keep track of them. Although I don't email you
>every week saying “Well done Kurt another 12 interesting and informative long
>games”, that does not mean that I don't find the material that you publish
>valuable.
Thank you Keith.
Kurt
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