Author: Majd Al-Ansari
Date: 03:24:44 08/22/05
Go up one level in this thread
On August 22, 2005 at 03:39:06, Thorsten Czub wrote: >i have shortened the whole text a litte. and when i read this, >it looks like a midlife crisis to me. > >May I quote Stefan Meyer-Kahlen: > >"With 1,5 points from 2 rounds, Shredder looks very promising in the tournament, >especially as my previous opponents are certainly among the >wider circle of favourites. > >After the first day, two newcomers are on top of the list: >Fruit from France and Zappa from the U.S, both having two points out of two >rounds. > >In the third round's top-match Zappa defeated Fruit >which brought him the single lead with three points from three games > >If Shredder wants to get the title, he must defeat the presumed outsiders. > >Considering that, the draw is a fair result. >It also keeps Shredder among the tournament's leaders. > >Shredder gained an advantage in the opening, but then the game slackened, >and for a long time it looked like a clear draw. But then Fruit played very >strong and after five hours and almost 100 moves I had to resign for Shredder. >That, of course, is a severe set-back for my title ambitions. I have to admit >though that Fruit played very well indeed in this game. Shredder also took one >of his legendary rests, contemplating endlessly over a certain position. >This time he invested ten minutes for this position, >but it didn't help him. After five rounds Zappa heads the list with 4,5 points >6 rounds are still to play, so there is still something possible. However, >I need a bit of luck to win the tournament now. > >After 8 rounds Zappa has now 7,5 points followed by a lot of persecutors >with 5,5 points: Shredder, Junior, Deep Sjeng, Fruit and Crafty. >It's rather hard for Zappa not to win the tournament now. Tomorrow Shredder >faces Zappa. > >Although the programmers do not have to ponder about >the moves during a computerchess tournament, >operating a chess program is very exhausting. >I feel very tired at the moment, perhaps this somehow infected Shredder. > >Apparently Shredder knew that he had to win. >From the very beginning he marched forward attacking hard. >But Zappa defended tremendously and turned the tide through some very good >moves. > >Shredder's attack fizzled out and Zappa's counter-attack was too strong. >Very well played by Zappa; somehow everyone here is playing superb. >Zappa is most certainly the new World Champion now, >while Shredder only plays for the golden lemon. > >Two more rounds are still to play, yet >most likely we will already have a new World Champion after the >10 th round tonight. > >So Anthony Cozzie, Zappa's programmer, is the new World Champion in computer >chess. > > > >Congratulations to Anthony for this outstanding performance. >Zappa played really impressively and undoubtedly deserved the title. >With one round to play, Zappa has 9,5 points. >Fruit is in second place with 7,5 points. Shredder, Junior and Deep Sjeng >follow with 6,5 points. Tomorrow Shredder will face Junior. >For the last ten years, this was the match for the title, >but this time it is probably just played for third place. > > >As mentioned earlier, the game wasn't that important, however. > > >Fruit also won, so that the final table shows Zappa on top with 10,5 points >followed by Fruit with 8,5 points. >Shredder captured a shared third place > > >Third place in a World Championship is certainly a very good result. >However, I wanted to win with Shredder, of course. > > >Zappa and Fruit have both played very strong, >so the third place for Shredder is quite ok in the end. " To me it sounded like a even headed gracious report ... no midlife crisis here. I still think that Shredder will kick any programs butt in a tournament with many games. I am looking forward to trying out the new Zappa in a long tournament with normal even books. I am still not convinced it is the strongest engine, even though I thought it played great. But it really was never in any trouble out of the openings and was extremely well prepared. I don't want to belittle Zappa's achievement at all, I think they were great. But a WCCC title doesn't automatically mean you have the strongest engine. I believe one of the main reasons Junior and Shredder's performance seemed sub-par was because if you go to the engine room on Playchess, almost every engine is playing one of these two. So it is easy to play thousands of automatic games and see which lines these 2 programs play poorly and cook books against them. Now Zappa is the new champ and people will probe for its weaknesses once the program is available for public download. By far the most impressive program in my opinion was Fruit. It is using a revolutionary type of evaluation that in many ways seems kamakazee. Yet it still manages to prove that its evaluation was correct. I think it will be the most difficult engine for other engines to deal with because most engines are not even considering moves that it chooses. This is why it can get away with dramatically inferior hardware and no EGTB and books off the shelf that are not tuned to its weird evaluations and still almost win the WCCC. A Fruit with EGTB and multiprocessor support with a Playchess engine room tested book will be a formidable opponent.
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