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Subject: Re: How Strong is Hiarcs 10?

Author: Mark R. Anderson

Date: 21:29:04 02/10/06

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On February 10, 2006 at 11:43:02, George Tsavdaris wrote:

>On February 10, 2006 at 11:32:31, Mark R. Anderson wrote:
>
>>On February 10, 2006 at 10:47:48, Sarah Reynolds wrote:
>>
>>>This program to me seems stronger then Rykba, it plays a mean game of chess and
>>>doesn't give the human player any chances at all, great program i think.
>>
>>Sarah,
>>
>>I agree that Hiarcs 10 is a very strong engine, that it plays a mean game and
>>doesn't give the human play any chances, and that it's a great program.  Having
>>said that, I must disagree with your other statement .... as much as I love
>>Hiarcs and its very nice style and capabilities, Rybka is most definitely
>>stronger.  All of our testing and also inspection of the games between the
>>engines confirms this many times.
>>
>>Hiarcs is a wonderful analysis engine ... it is very strong tactically (one of
>>the top 4 or 5), plays very good speed chess, has a very good positional game, a
>>very human-like style that is also very active and agressive, and also has good
>>PV evaluation numbers.  It also has a good endgame, but not as good as Shredder.
>> I use it more than Fritz, Shredder, Fruit and Junior for analysis generally.
>>However, I have been extremely impressed by Rybka's play and results (haven't we
>>all?) and when using it to help analyze top human GM games, I find that it finds
>>the "human" line of play better than other engines, and it finds these moves
>>rather quickly also, which is impressive.  Also, it is positionally without
>>peer, IMHO.
>>
>
>>The present version (1.01 Beta 13b) is a real beast, but when the final verizon
>>comes out with improved search and also endgame heuristics, it will be a true
>>monster.
>
>"Real beast", "True monster", what's the difference? Both will kill me and all
>other programs out there! :-)
>
> While i'm always impressed when i see a new super strong program, with Rybka i
>have the impression that it gets its Chess knowledge from another
>dimension....No kidding. It seems to have a higher understanding of Chess. But
>that is probably an illusion of me.....

George ... I have such an impression too.  These engines of ours are already
intimidating enough to play against, and when you're psyched out like I am
against Rybka, it doesn't help one's play!  (Rybka is unimpressed with my play,
even if I give it my best "Mikhail Tal" stare.  LOL)  So far, Rybka has shown me
that it is a monster and I am an ant, to be stepped on.  Of course, it makes me
feel a bit better that it soundly defeats Fritz 9, Fruit 2.2.1, Hiarcs 10,
Shredder 9, and Junior 9, so I guess I am in good company, anyway.  Ha ha.

Humbled by the Beast Regards,
Mark Anderson

>
>>Oh, one more thing ... I agree with another poster here that Rybka
>>"spots" and frustrates attempts to use closed positions and other
>>"anti-computer" strategies to get draws or occasional wins.  Recently, my
>>girlfriend was really impressed when she saw me get a draw in a game with Tiger
>>15 at Game/20.  I said, "Thanks, I think I played pretty well, but this one will
>>bring me down to earth."  I then played a similar game with Rybka, and it
>>basically turned my game into ground hamburger ... not a pretty sight.  She just
>>said, "Oh, that must be the really strong one you talk about."  I said, "Yes,
>>there's no fooling the Monster."  (What's Russian for "Big Monster?"  "Little
>>Fish" doesn't seem to do justice to this one.)
>>



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