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Subject: Re: Some facts about Deep Thought / Deep Blue

Author: Derek Mauro

Date: 16:07:33 08/29/01

Go up one level in this thread


On August 29, 2001 at 15:43:32, Robert Hyatt wrote:

>On August 29, 2001 at 15:36:54, Uri Blass wrote:
>
>>On August 29, 2001 at 15:21:09, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>
>>>On August 29, 2001 at 14:41:48, Mark Young wrote:
>>>
>>>>On August 29, 2001 at 14:03:49, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On August 29, 2001 at 13:52:33, Uri Blass wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>On August 29, 2001 at 12:52:15, Roy Eassa wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>This sentence DOES say a lot, doesn't it:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>"By the summer of 1990--by which time three of the original Deep Thought team
>>>>>>>had joined IBM--Deep Thought had achieved a 50 percent score in 10 games played
>>>>>>>under tournament conditions against grandmasters and an 86 percent score in 14
>>>>>>>games against international masters."
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>That was 7 years before, and many-fold slower hardware (and much weaker
>>>>>>>software, no doubt), than what played Kasparov in 1997.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>No
>>>>>>This sentence tells me nothing new.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>I know that humans at that time did not know how to play against computers like
>>>>>>they know today.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Today programs got clearly better results than deep thought
>>>>>>and there is more than one case when they got >2700 performance inspite of
>>>>>>the fact that the opponents could buy the program they played against them
>>>>>>something that Deep thought's opponents could not do.
>>>>>
>>>>>Deep thought produced a rating of 2655 over 25 consecutive games against a
>>>>>variety of opponents.  None of them were "inexperienced" in playing against
>>>>>computers.  Byrne.  Larson.  Browne.  You-name-it.  That argument doesn't hold
>>>>>up under close scrutiny.
>>>>
>>>>In some ways, it appears that the GMs of today are
>>>>>prepared far worse than the GMs of 1992 were prepared to play computers.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>I don?t see how GM?s of today are less prepared to play computers. Anyone of
>>>>them can and has played computer programs at home stronger then the programs of
>>>>the early 1990?s.
>>>
>>>I am basing that on the games I have seen, plus the important detail that in
>>>1992, strong GM players at the US Open, the World Open, and other events
>>>(particularly those in the northeast US) knew they would be facing Hitech,
>>>Deep Thought, and at times, Belle and others.  Since 1995 this has not been
>>>the case as it is nearly impossible to find a tournament in the US that will
>>>allow a computer to compete.  If they aren't going to face the machines, they
>>>aren't going to study them.
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>>I don?t think preparation is the problem. It is the strength of the programs of
>>>>today. It seems if you are not in the top 100 of the Fide list your chances of
>>>>besting the better programs is not very good.
>>>>
>>>>It seems clear that the programs of today are stronger then Deep Thought of 1992
>>>>that produced a rating of 2655 playing against "Byrne.  Larson.  Browne.
>>>>You-name-it". Do you agree with this?
>>>
>>>
>>>No I don't.  I would agree that probably they programs of today are in the
>>>same league with Deep Thought of 1992, maybe.  At least on the 8-way boxes.
>>>Their NPS speed would be similar.  Deep Thought wasn't known to be an incredibly
>>>"smart" program, neither are today's programs.
>>
>>
>>I consider the top programs of today as clearly smarter than Deep thought.
>
>Based on what?  Top programs of today _still_ seem to be unable to understand
>simple chess concepts like the pawn majority we have been discussing in another
>thread.  I discovered, by bits and pieces, some of the knowledge in deep
>thought, and it was not "small" at all.  Everyone assumes that the micros are
>much smarter... and that us old supercomputer guys simply depended on raw speed
>to win games.  If you look at the game Cray Blitz vs Joe Sentef, from 1981,
>you will find a position that many programs today will blow, and that programs
>of 5 years ago would totally blow (bishop + wrong rook pawn ending knowledge).
>We weren't "fast and dumb" at all.  Neither was DT, DB or DB2.  Fast, yes.  But
>definitely not "dumb".  The "intelligence" of todays programs is mostly myth
>brought on by fast hardware that searches deep enough to cover for some of the
>positional weakness the programs have.

If DB was "smarter" than today's programs (and I believe you that it was), and
you consider today's programs not to be super-intelligent, why is it that we
haven't been able to make smarter programs?  It makes perfect sense that in 4
years we should have made more progress.  Did the DB guys just know a hell of a
lot more than we have figured out, or is it that because of some hardware issue
we just can't implement everything, or something else?

>
>
>
>>
>>Deep thought had also a problem in the repetition detection and I believe that
>>the search algorithm of the top programs of today is superior because Deep
>>thought did not use null move or other pruning methods.
>
>There is nothing that says you must use forward-pruning methods to write a
>strong program.  Nothing at all.  DT had repetition problems in the chess
>hardware, yes.  But in _spite_ of that it played like a super-GM.  DB and DB2
>had no such problems.
>
>
>>
>>Uri



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