Author: Paul Richards
Date: 16:52:28 05/25/99
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On May 25, 1999 at 15:28:46, blass uri wrote: >I believe that kasparov also could find the draw in tournament time control >against a human but he believed in your thoery that deeper blue cannot do >tactical mistakes so he even did not check it. That's not my theory, my theory is that tactics and strategic understanding are aspects of the same thing. This is a grey area, but when I say that machines are better at tactics I mean that they are faster and more accurate, not that they will necessarily find the right move in a given position. I.e. I mean it in the same sense as saying that computers are better at sorting huge databases than we are. That's a hopeless contest. I am not claiming that speed and accuracy of calculation means finding the best move in a position, because even perfect vision doesn't help if you aren't looking for the right things. This may be an abstract point, so I understand that it will be easy for someone to not "get" what I mean. In a practical sense programs still have a hard time seeing past draws, and as Dr. Hyatt pointed out they are not too good at following forcing lines (a phenomenon I have observed many times). Maybe I can put it this way: a silicon brain is naturally superior at tactics, and it fails only because that ability has not been harnessed correctly. If it could be given an equivalent understanding of the game, its perfect calculation would see it win every time. Imagine Kasparov with a computer chip implant to augment his searching. The human has the selectivity to know what to look at, but not the raw calculation ability. The selectivity and a decent calculation ability is usually superior to weak selectivity and great calculation ability, until you crank up the calculation ability so high that the other term becomes insignificant. ;) The fact that Kasparov can beat a machine now does not mean his brain is faster or more accurate in terms of calculation. I may be splitting hairs semantically, but that's how I am defining tactical ability.
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