Author: Albert Silver
Date: 19:31:12 01/14/06
Go up one level in this thread
On January 14, 2006 at 22:11:01, Albert Silver wrote:
>On January 14, 2006 at 21:50:14, stuart taylor wrote:
>
>>I had been under the impression that Rybka's main strength was positional, and
>>that others came no where near it. I thought I had heard it was tactically good
>>too.
>>But thanks for letting me know it was purely tactical. I had been under the
>>impression for some reason that the ice was beginning to be broken from the
>>stagnation of some of chess computing weaknesses.
>>So there is still way to go, and Rybka might yet be succeeded by about another
>>200 elo, by positional improvement alone!
>>S.Taylor
>
>He's wrong.
>
> Albert
I should add that the evidence he is wrong is absolutely *huge*. He is basing
his statement on an analysis by Lacrosse showing Rybka is a tactical beast. Of
course, there is no question of that. Without tactics, it couldn't possibly have
a chance.
Lacrosse's analysis showed above all that in the 87 positions he tested, that
Shredder 9 and Rybka scored 57% given 10 seconds, and Fruit and Toga and company
are much weaker with so little time, and thus much weaker in blitz. Well, if
that is true then Shredder 9 should be far ahead of Fruit and Co. on the blitz
rating lists, but of course they aren't. Not on a single one in fact. Let's take
the ever popular CEGT Blitz rating lists
(http://www.husvankempen.de/nunn/eloblitzall.html):
no Program Elo + - Games Score
4 Rybka 1.0 Beta 32-bit 2824 12 17 1694 69.1 %
5 Rybka 1.0 Beta 32-bit VT2786 16 20 1131 66.8 %
6 Hiarcs 10 Hyperm 2783 22 22 720 60.0 %
7 Fritz 9 2773 14 17 1551 65.0 %
8 Hiarcs 10 2768 19 16 1133 55.8 %
9 Fruit 2.2.1 2761 10 10 3254 61.0 %
10 Fruit 2.2 ht50 ks104 2756 22 28 584 67.3 %
11 Toga II 1.1 2754 14 14 1655 59.9 %
12 Shredder 9.1 UCI 2739 14 15 1803 60.7 %
As you can see, not only are Fruit and Toga better blitz players (which is no
news actually), but the more tactical setting of Rybka (VT = Very Tactical)
scored considerably worse than the default Very Positional setting.
Mind you, this is just a comment on the numbers. As a player, the games speak
for themselves. I don't mean who wins and by how much, but how the games are
win. It is completely obvious that Rybka is outplaying its opponents (just see
how often it says +0.60 and the other thinks IT is better by a similar score),
and not simply by better tactics.
Albert
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