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Subject: Uncertainty Analysis (was Re: check your e-mail)

Author: Walter Faxon

Date: 05:19:35 01/17/06

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On January 17, 2006 at 06:50:44, Eelco de Groot wrote:

>On January 17, 2006 at 01:15:40, Sandro Necchi wrote:
>
>>On January 16, 2006 at 22:34:24, Eelco de Groot wrote:
>>
>>>Hello Andreas,
>>>
>>>I had a little question, maybe Sandro knows, we could read that in Paderborn and
>>>in Leiden Stefan played with his Mac version, and that Gravis actually sponsored
>>>him with the machine:
>>>
>>>http://www.shredderchess.de/schach-news/shredder-news/ipccc2005b.html
>>>
>>>(Sorry folks, only in German but the text is easily translatable I think)
>>>
>>>But did Stefan Meyer-Kahlen not optimize Deep Shredder for 64-bit yet on the G5?
>>>Stefan writes he got the machine from Gravis long in advance to optimize his
>>>program, so it would seem plausible he already made a 64bit version? Or would
>>>that not run on regular Macs, so Mac owners will then probably not get this
>>>version? I have no idea about the latest Apple developments, I only know Apple
>>>decided to switch to Intel chips instead of IBM, does that apply to the G5
>>>already or is that still IBM architecture?
>>>
>>>I thought that was the reason Sandro had to ask permission from Stefan, as this
>>>probably is also the machine Shredder will be running in Turin in May WCCC, I
>>>would think Shredder is already well optimized for this computer.
>>>
>>> Regards, Eelco
>>
>>Sorry, but what I sent has nothing to do with Shredder on quad. I have sent a
>>book and not for Shredder.
>>
>
>Ah, that makes more sense! I think I can guess for what program Albert wanted a
>book from you!
>
>
>>Stefan could not optimize the engine on the quad because he was very busy
>>completing the work on the new commercial releases.
>>
>>The same is true for the engine as in the last 2 years and a half he only worked
>>on the engine less than a month as we did not need to increase the strenght much
>>because we were on the top.
>>
>>Now he is working on the engine full time and I think he will until March at
>>least.
>
>Thanks for the info about Shredder Sandro. If Stefan Meyer-Kahlen can now work
>fulltime on the engine for a while and last 2½ years could do that only for a
>month, we can expect some progress!
>
>If Fruit makes a 100 elopoints gain by March, I think that would be an awful
>lot, considering it is already a strong engine, it would be an enormous leap at
>that level. I think 50 would be a more conservative bet, compare grandmasters
>for instance, no human grandmaster can get 50 points stronger than their normal
>level in a year. My guess is that Rybka cannot make the same kind of progress,
>more than 50 points in a few months, simply because now Fabien has had more time
>since the last version and Vasik also has to iron out some minor issues and work
>on endings, analysis etc. This is only good for Rybka because the elonumbers are
>not everything and also the more customers, the more diverse the wishes (and
>vice versa I think)! So my own bet is Fruit could be strongest in March even
>with a gain of say 50 points, but then again Ryan Benitez was not quite so
>optimistic Fruit would come out on top. Or maybe Gambit Fruit, or Shredder of
>course, or Glaurung makes another jump in strength..
>
>
>>
>>This is why I am optimistic about the outcome.
>>
>>Sandro
>
> Good!
>
> Eelco


There is some well-known result in decision theory/uncertainty analysis (but not
so well-known that I can find it!) regarding making estimates that depend on
uncertain parameters.  If you have only a couple of unknowns your errors will
have a large effect on the outcome.  But if instead there are a large number of
unknowns it turns out that the less you know, the more likely it is that your
errors will "even out" to produce a reasonable ballpark estimate.

But that's for a single estimate.  I think you stretch this method too far by
trying to compute the relative rankings for several such estimates.

The new competitive landscape implies that someone will probably come out with a
substantially improved chess engine within the next few months or a year.  Don't
take any bets on who will do it!

-Walter



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