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Subject: Re: What are the results between top ICC programs?

Author: Peter McKenzie

Date: 14:22:19 07/01/99

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On July 01, 1999 at 15:44:40, Robert Hyatt wrote:

>On July 01, 1999 at 14:34:26, blass uri wrote:
>
>>
>>On July 01, 1999 at 14:25:12, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>
>>>On July 01, 1999 at 12:18:30, blass uri wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>>On July 01, 1999 at 11:55:46, Bruce Moreland wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>On July 01, 1999 at 10:41:28, blass uri wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>I am interested to know results between top ICC programs at standard time
>>>>>>control(if possible 2 hours/40) from the last 2 monthes.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>I guess that the top ICC programs include Ferret,Shredder,Ban,Crafty.
>>>>>>Is it possible to get the games between these programs in ICC?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Which hardware do they use in ICC?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Uri
>>>>>
>>>>>There is no such thing as 40 moves in 2 hours on ICC, and you will find very
>>>>>very few games at time controls approximating that.
>>>>>
>>>>>bruce
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>I assumed that there is because otherwise I do not understand what is the reason
>>>>that Bob hyatt said that he is sure that there is at least one program that is
>>>>better than shredder and that he assumed that shredder is a good program but not
>>>>the best.
>>>>
>>>>We have no data to assume that shredder was lucky.
>>>>
>>>>It is also possible that shredder prepared better for the tournament time
>>>>control games.
>>>>
>>>>Uri
>>>
>>>
>>>Quite simple...  I have watched shredder and Ferret play for many months.  They
>>>are probably in the same ballpark quality-wise.  Except that Ferret is 3x faster
>>>with the parallel search.  In a match, I'd personally pick ferret, and the
>>>longer the match, the more I'd be willing to bet, because 3x speed advantage
>>>is way-non-trivial...
>>>
>>>That was my point.  Not that Shredder is 'bad' at all.  Just that Ferret is just
>>>as good on equal hardware (IMHO) and with 3x the hardware it is _very difficult_
>>>to handle.
>>
>>I do not agree that you can know from watching program playing at fast time
>>control what will happen at tournament time control.
>>
>>The only way to know is to play games at tournament time control.
>>
>>I read that the tester of shredder said about the results against commercial
>>programs that longer time control help shredder.
>>
>>Uri
>>
>>Uri
>
>
>Time doesn't matter _at all_ when you look at the right stuff.  If you only
>look at 1-0 or 0-1, then longer games tell you more about how it plays at
>longer time controls.
>
>But if you look at the _moves_ you can pick out 'quality' or the lack thereof.
>You can tell if a program has any understanding of passed pawns, king safety,
>pawn structure, center control, mobility, etc.  Even without knowing _how_ the

I think this is true to a certain extent, but things can get quite deceptive if
a program is being out searched (or it doesn't have the right extensions to deal
with the tactics in a given position).  In this case, the program that is being
out searched can appear to lack positional understanding because it makes moves
that lead to a weakening of its position.  In this case, the bad positional move
can be caused by EITHER poor positional understanding OR lack of search depth.

If you can see a programs score during the game, then it becomes easier to judge
the positional understanding of a program.

>game ended.  That is what I look at generally.  Knowing that longer time
>controls will repair many of the tactical mistakes, but _none_ of the positional
>mistakes...

I disagree with this.  Tactical and positional play are finely interwoven,
subtle tactical errors can cause positional mistakes.

Peter



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