Computer Chess Club Archives


Search

Terms

Messages

Subject: Re: Human/Computer Interactive Analysis

Author: John R. Menke, Sr.

Date: 00:41:08 09/30/99

Go up one level in this thread


On September 29, 1999 at 14:31:35, Dann Corbit wrote:

>On September 29, 1999 at 13:18:31, John R. Menke, Sr. wrote:
>
>>It would be very useful if chess software offered an interactive analysis
>>feature. It would work something like this...
>>
>>First, the proposed analysis tree is constructed by computer.  Human can then
>>view and prune the tree before initiating analysis.  Also, human should be able
>>to prune while analysis is in progress, if computer gets stuck in irrelevant
>>branches.
>>
>>This would be great for analyzing games or positions, possibly speeding up the
>>analysis several times compared to currect software.  It also offers the
>>possibility for a new human+computer chess playing standard for competitions
>>where they are allowed to freely consult. Surely human+computer is potentially
>>much stronger than either alone, maybe 200+ ELO points stronger!?  Isn't that
>>the next quantum leap for chess software that everyone is looking for?
>
>The chess database programs already do this (at least Bookup and Chess Assistant
>do).  The strength of humans is long term strategic planning.  The strength of
>computers is short term tactical analysis.  These skills are opposites, in a
>sense.  So the combination makes sense.  I think it would be good also for chess
>database systems to have mate finders incorporated as well.  I don't know of any
>that do this.  So instead of just "analyze this position for tactical strikes"
>you could also say "check for nearby checkmates" which is a very different
>thing.
>
>Additionally, these chess database programs can import precomputed chess
>analysis, such as that produced by C.A.P.


The database programs do this for the opening, but not the nitty-gritty of the
middlegame and endgame.  Right?  Or am I missing something?  For example in a
typical middlegame/endgame there are several likely moves (candidates), and a
lot of irrelevant moves.  Chess programs can prune out some of the nonsense
moves, but not all of them.  Humans can do a much better pruning job, easier &
faster than computers can do, if offered that capability.  It wouldn't require a
very strong human player to prune properly, and speed up the analysis
severalfold.

I got this idea by sitting and watching the Chessmaster 6000 analysis window in
progress for more hours than I care to confess!?  (hundreds of hours, at least)
I would estimate that it spends at least 75% of its time analyzing lines which
most good chessplayers would rule out (prune) quickly -- and properly so.  I'm
talking about ordinary tactics as well as long-term strategy here.  The chess
programs just aren't very good pruners.




This page took 0 seconds to execute

Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700

Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.