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

Author: Uri Blass

Date: 02:34:53 08/30/01

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On August 30, 2001 at 04:06:14, Mark Young wrote:

>On August 30, 2001 at 01:29:15, Uri Blass wrote:
>
>>On August 29, 2001 at 23:15:52, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>
>>>On August 29, 2001 at 16:35:15, Otello Gnaramori wrote:
>>>
>>>>On August 29, 2001 at 15:43:32, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>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.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>From the above statement it seems that no significative advancements were made
>>>>in computer chess since then... are you sure that is a realistic conclusion ?
>>>>
>>>>with best regards.
>>>
>>>
>>>Since DT's time?  I would say that is realistic.  There have been small
>>>qualitative improvements in the micro programs, to be sure.  But things that
>>>I was doing in 1992 are _still_ not done in many programs.  The pawn majority
>>>discussion is just one example.
>>
>>I saw a lot of gaes of deep thought and I never saw a position when this was
>>relevant for the game so I think that this knowledge is not the important
>>knowledge and the important knowledge is how to play the middlegame.
>>
>>I also checked some games of Deep thought and found that in the tactical
>>positions Deep fritz is simply better and there are cases when it can avoid the
>>blunders of deep thought.
>
>playing over the games of Deep Thought I drew the same conclusions, my guess any
>top program today on a PIII 800 or better would win a match against Deep
>Thought, Hitech, etc. Today micros are that good in my judgement playing over
>the old game files of the past "super computers".
>
>>
>>I do not talk only about the repetition bug.
>>
>>I saw good moves of deep thought that programs of 1992 could not find but I do
>>not know about good moves of deep thought that Deep Fritz cannot find(I did not
>>analyze all games so there may be but the fact that I found only blunders of
>>deep thought and not impressive moves of deep thought from Deep fritz's point of
>>view suggest that Deep thought was not strong).
>>
>>I saw cases when Deep Fritz can avoid blunders of Deep thought and I do not mean
>>only to positional blunders but also to tactical blunders when Deep Fritz like
>>the move of Deep thought after few seconds or few minutes but changes it's mind
>>leter when the time of finding the right move or the time of failing law is
>>enough to avoid the blunder at tournament time control.
>>
>>>
>>>I've said this _many_ times in the past...  I don't believe there have been
>>>more than a small number of "revolutionary" ideas in computer chess in the last
>>>35 years.  Hashing was certainly one.  Perhaps null-move another although it
>>>is not clear that you must use null-move to be competitive as Rebel shows (and
>>>the DT/DB/DB2 machines as well).  Iterative deepening with full-width search
>>>is another.  Extensions are collectively another one, some more-so than others.
>>>Perhaps EGTBs is the most recent one.  Everything else has been slow, methodical
>>>progress, something many won't like to hear.  Part of the progress has been due
>>>to incremental changes to chess engines/evaluations/etc, part has been due to
>>>the hardware speed advances.  Probably more of the latter than the former, if
>>>the truth is known...
>>
>>I think that advances in software from Genius2 to Deep Fritz is more than 200
>>elo at tournament time control.
>
>I have played matches with today’s programs with the programs of 10 years ago
>for fun; mismatch is an understatement in describing the outcome for the older
>generation programs.

I believe that 10 years ago there was clearly one program that was above the
rest(Genius).
I am not sure if it was Genius1 oor Genius2 at that time.
I know it was not Genius3 because genius3 is from 1994.

Did you use genius in your matches?

Uri



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