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Subject: Re: Dr. Enriques Problem Set

Author: Ed Schröder

Date: 02:49:58 01/02/00

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On January 02, 2000 at 02:16:18, Christophe Theron wrote:

>On January 02, 2000 at 00:29:22, Ed Schröder wrote:
>
>>On January 01, 2000 at 18:26:05, Christophe Theron wrote:
>>
>>>On December 31, 1999 at 07:50:56, Enrique Irazoqui wrote:
>>>
>>>>On December 30, 1999 at 22:51:14, John Warfield wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>  My question is simple curiosity, Is it really possible for this so-called
>>>>>hidden Test of Dr enriques to accurately predict how a program will perform on
>>>>>the ssdf.  I find this difficult to believe, there seems to be alot of viarables
>>>>>to deal with, how would a simple test set, perdict precisely how fritz6 or tiger
>>>>>will score.  I am open to be educated here. If this test really exist I would
>>>>>love to get my hands on it, So Dr Enrique if you read this please send me the
>>>>>test, or let me know when it will be availble .  Thanks
>>>>
>>>>I am open to be educated too. :)
>>>>
>>>>This test exists and by now has 133 positions, all tactical, unambiguous, not
>>>>included before in any test, therefore not cooked. The fact that so far it shows
>>>>results very similar to the SSDF list came as a complete surprise to me. I don't
>>>>trust positional tests, and what I wanted to get out of my tactical suite when I
>>>>started building it was the difference between a tactical test and the SSDF
>>>>list. I thought that with this I could see the value of non tactical stuff in a
>>>>program. After running this test with some 30 programs, I was very, very
>>>>surprised to see that ratings obtained with a tactical test and comp-comp games
>>>>are basically the same, at least so far.
>>>>
>>>>As I said in other posts, any programmer can come with a version of his program
>>>>optimized for tactics and such a program would do better in a test than in
>>>>games. But since I test released, commercial programs tuned for real life and
>>>>not for tests, my test is nod being fooled.
>>>>
>>>>So far it works, but... I ran this test with Junior 6 and Shredder 4, and in my
>>>>opinion both programs scored less well than they should, according to what I see
>>>>when they play, and I trust what I see better than any tests, including mine. I
>>>>am extremely curious to see what will be the rating of J6 and S4 in the SSDF
>>>>list. In case there is a big difference with my test, it will be interesting to
>>>>know why these two programs are the only ones so far to do better in games than
>>>>in a tactical test. Maybe, after all, my initial purpose will work and we will
>>>>be able to see this difference tactical - not tactical (call it positional,
>>>>strategic, whatever, but without a direct impact in the speed up of the search).
>>>>Explaining this will be difficult, at least for me.
>>>>
>>>>(I hope this post is not too messy. While writing it I am instaling things in
>>>>the new computer)
>>>>
>>>>I got the following results of the last programs:
>>>>
>>>>              Test               SSDF scale
>>>>RT             12                   2695
>>>>T12-dos         0                   2683
>>>>CM6K          -10                   2673
>>>>N732          -20                   2663
>>>>F532          -21                   2662
>>>>F6a           -22                   2661
>>>>H732          -32                   2651
>>>>J6            -53                   2630
>>>>J5            -58                   2625
>>>>S4            -69                   2614
>>>>
>>>>Enrique
>>>
>>>
>>>I think your test shows something in what I believe since a while: positional
>>>and tactical abilities are not separate entities.
>>>
>>>Improving the "positional" skills of a program improves also his "tactical"
>>>abilities. A program with better positional understanding can also solve
>>>combinations faster. For various reasons:
>>>1) it spends less time hesitating between 2 inferior moves before finding a
>>>third move (which is the key move)
>>>2) with better knowledge a program can "sniff" a great combination one or 2
>>>plies deeper (I have seem CM4000 doing this rather often)
>>>
>>>The opposite is also true: a program that is better at tactics can look like a
>>>superiorly knowledged program. If you play the same program at ply depth N
>>>against the same at ply depth N+1, the first one looks as if it knew nothing
>>>about chess. It will be badly beaten, most of the time for what a human player
>>>will recognize as "positional" reasons. But in fact there is exactly the same
>>>amount of knowledge in both opponents!
>>>
>>>
>>>However I'm still surprised that your test is so accurate. I think that's
>>>because all the top chess programs are very similar in term of the chess
>>>knowledge they have. Or because the tradeoff involved in adding new chess
>>>knowledge leads to a balance between search and knowledge.
>>>
>>>So programmers have to break this balance by finding a new concept that goes
>>>beyond the usual tactical/positional dilemna, which in fact is an ILLUSION.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>    Christophe
>>
>>I say AMEN to that.
>>
>>Ed
>
>
>Ed, we should work together! :)
>
>
>    Christophe

I am already working together with a Christophe. Now two of them that
would be too much to handle for me :-)

Ed



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