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Subject: Re: The Relation between Search and chess-style

Author: Ed Murak

Date: 01:19:20 12/15/05

Go up one level in this thread


On December 15, 2005 at 03:42:50, Stephen A. Boak wrote:

>On December 15, 2005 at 03:11:18, Ed Murak wrote:
>
>>On December 15, 2005 at 03:00:42, Stephen A. Boak wrote:
>>
>>>On December 15, 2005 at 02:35:39, Chrilly Donninger wrote:
>>>
>>>[..]
>>>
>>>>One example for the practical consequences can be found in Rybka:
>>>>Probably a lot
>>>>of users think, when they choose the personality "very positionally", that the
>>>>programm has - in contrast to "very tactically" - more chess knowledge, that
>>>>there is a trade-off between knowledge and search-speed.
>>>
>>>>In fact the 4 personality settings change 2 numbers. These numbers influence
>>>>only the pruning/extension mechanism of the search tree. The "very tactical"
>>>>settings prune less than the "very positional" one. I have not tested the
>>>>differences in the playing styles, but from the theoretical considerations it
>>>>should indeed influence the style. The terms "tactical, positional" are just
>>>>labels. One has to give it a name.
>>>
>>>>The same is probably done in all other programms. E.g. an old Nimzo-version of
>>>>mine had already such a setting. The personalities were called aggressive,
>>>>solid.. These settings changed the shape of the tree in a similar way. Maybe
>>>>Rybka is a Nimzo clone :-)
>>>>
>>>>Chrilly
>>>
>>>Dr. Donninger,
>>>
>>>I understand pedagogical style and humor in education, but I request some
>>>clarification feedback, please.
>>
>> [snip]
>>
>>>You also recently (previously) wrote:
>>>
>>>"Rybka has Bitboards. But thats mentioned in the Readme File. So I am telling
>>>here no big news.
>>>
>>>But I really want to avoid to say some real internals.
>>>
>>>First of all I have not looked on all of Rybkas details. Would be much too much
>>>work and also boring.
>>>
>>>I wanted just to have the big picture. And even if I would know something
>>>important, I could/would not post it.
>>>
>>>This would be against the rules.
>>>
>>>Chrilly"
>>>
>>>Referring to your later posting (at top), and your recent (previous) posting,
>>>quoted above:
>>>
>>>1) Have you changed your mind about disassembling another programmer's work and
>>>speaking about "real internals"?
>>
>>
>>To see that the 4-position "Playing Style" (i.e. personality) switch directly
>>governs exactly two variables is trivial disassembly.
>>
>>To see what these two variables control (as Dr Donninger says, pruning and
>>extension) is less trivial.
>>
>>But are these "real internals", Mr Boak?
>
>
>You definitely understand the question


Thank you for your above guess.


>, but I was hoping not to answer it myself.  :)


But I thought it wisest never to ask a question unless one knew the answer
already.  This could correlate with why I remain a beginner in almost all things


>That is why _I_ asked for clarification.


I am not a proxy here, only trying to learn about chess, programming, logic and
rules.  So suitably caveated, could I essay that "real internals" is a term so
free from precise definition or refinability that it could mean anything at all.
 Indeed its meaning could be sensitive to environmental considerations and so
fluctuate as needed.

I am sure nothing useful I might by chance have thought would not already have
been considered by Dr Donninger prior to his employing the term "real
internals".

I mean, how 'internal' does internal have to get for it to be 'real' (as
distinct from superficial, I would imagine)?

My personal view is seeing that something is controlling the pruning / extension
parameters is seeing something pretty internal.

One could say, that by inserting "real" before "internals", Dr Donninger
provided himself in advance with a fourth degree of freedom.

But I am just a beginner [etc.]



>>>2) Are you not speaking, in your opinion, about "something important"?
>>
>>
>>:-)
>
>:-)  One good smiley deserves another!  In this case, a second one has been
>earned, IMO, therefore:  :-)


Please do not jest, this is not CTF.


>>IMO (I am just a beginner in this), yes.
>
>True, you have only just begun ... [to try to convince us].


What does it take to convince you that I am a beginner?  Mistakes?  You could
find them aplenty in-
http://www.talkchess.com/forums/1/message.html?470390



>But you haven't completed the task for some reason.  :)


I have a poor memory but try to learn quickly.  Please stay on-topic, though.

I understood -your- topic to be counting Dr Donninger's number of degrees of
freedom.  The three most obvious I gave already, and #4 above, and whether
"something important" adds 1 or 2 more due to the matrix is really the question.

So that totals 5.5, say. Non-integer degrees of freedom sorts out the
statisticians.



>>>3) Are you breaking "the rules"?
>>
>>
>>We all know there can be unspoken and unwritten rules, and about what.
>
>I'll bite.


Little fish, little fish.


>About what?


Well, finding ideas of others by peeking directly - like a brute force attack
effect?

Data-mining, behavior observation are other means less intrusive.

Also auto-testing, which I was sure Dr Donninger could remind one of in a
follow-up, and this duly happened.



>Ulterior motives?



The furtherment of chessical knowledge, of course.

Why - could you possibly you have had something else in mind?

I have advised the brilliant author of RYBKA to ensure that randoms bits of
assembler, self-modifying code and other little fish (red herrings in this case)
and irrelevant bitboards all somehow find their way into RYBKA to make any
innocent peeking a more challenging or rewarding pastime.
But, he is a purist!  He thinks I am but a murak.



>>Juridical
>>rules do not concern us, are irrelevant here and I ignore them.
>
>Agree 100%.


Yes.  Both semiotic rule-making bodies (US Congress and EU something-or-other)
tried something with reverse engineering and disassembly blockage as you know.
Might as well try to stop research into stem cells... ooops....


>>When Dr Donninger originally wrote [to do] "This would be against the rules",
>>that relates to _his_ perception _then_ of what the rules were _then_.
>
>Seems very likely.  :)


Yes, it was implied.  He did not need to add words, like the "real" to
"internals" or qualify with "something important" to create a sufficient vector
space.

The real question is, why share these here?  Furtherment, naturally.



>In which case, you wouldn't want to try to guess his thoughts on the matter, now
>would you.  :)


I can barely guess my own thoughts, sir, let alone those of experts when I am
such a patzer at this.  Having mastered en passant just yesterday, it would be
silly for me to say more, so anything more I say is deemed to be silly in
advance by me.  That is worthy of Uriah Heep.



>>That gives three degrees of freedom.
>
>
>
>Ah, the compound statement is difficult to pin down.



As you now see, I have established 5 or 6 degrees of freedom.  So in 5-space or
6-space, Dr Donninger has more maneuvering room than someone who omits
"distinct" from a statement of a problem could possibly need.

Purely hypothetically speaking, of course, as I am a proven idiot.



>As the compound question
>is difficult to answer.  :)
>
>Freedom allows escape ... if necessary.  :)



Be careful. A sharp tongue could cut you, sometimes, Mr Boak.  Or trip you up,
if long enough.

Attention!
I spoke nothing of "escape".  Only of "freedom", which in context ("degrees of"
is a technical term.



>>My above thinking is suitably mechanistic, I hope.
>
>
->Most certainly.


When "those doctors" have the means to start disassembling our mental programs,
I think solving 32-piece tablebase issues won't concern us any more.


>>Please excuse me for the intervention.
>
>
>Enjoyed the interlude, thanks.


There is simply no accounting for taste, unlike in CTF, where there is simply no
taste to account for.



>Come back when you get a Power of Attorney, and we can talk more.  Much more.
>:)


I somehow don't detect Dr Donninger reaching out to grant anyone one, and most
certainly not a clumsy ignoramus nobody such as myself.  The thought is
preposterous.


>A tip o' the cap & many smiley regards,


I am glad to have been of any service, to you at least.  I think Dr Donninger
has for the moment left the room, and no doubt HYDRA requires attention.

If I were he, I might even be casting a glance at the intricacies of pruning /
search-extensions ....  but, I am not.

Back to Wikipedia so I can learn what a Debugger is.  It sounds exciting!



>--Steve   =:0)


With a full 5.5 degrees of freedom, a better emoticon could not have been
chosen?



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