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Subject: Re: The importance of opening books -- a simple experiment

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 07:07:37 02/18/05

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On February 18, 2005 at 05:38:26, Tony Werten wrote:

>On February 17, 2005 at 16:15:14, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>
>>On February 17, 2005 at 14:50:57, John Merlino wrote:
>>
>>>On February 17, 2005 at 14:23:20, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>
>>>>On February 17, 2005 at 14:15:57, Sune Fischer wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On February 17, 2005 at 14:03:30, Tord Romstad wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>Well 700 Elo is equivalent to about 5-6 pawns material advantage,
>>>>>I don't think I have ever seen that in an actual game much less
>>>>>seen it on average.
>>>>>
>>>>>I can believe in a good book giving half a pawn or ~50 Elo,
>>>>>not much more than that is realistic IMO.
>>>>>
>>>>>Perhaps the person you refer to is talking about a book
>>>>>with "perfect chess" reaching 80 plies deep? :)
>>>>>
>>>>>-S.
>>>>
>>>>No, the person he is talking about simply lives in an alternate universe where
>>>>our normal rules of physics and math do not apply...
>>>>
>>>>I don't see why anyone would even bother participating in that particular
>>>>discussion, much less running tests.  I claim that water freezes at 12.7C,
>>>>who is going to run a detailed test to see if that is right or not?  Or is
>>>>common sense enough?  :)
>>>
>>>I can't believe I'm going to do this. But, to defend Vincent and Arturo to some
>>>degree, I'm PRETTY SURE they were referring to a book that was specifically
>>>designed to be played against a single opponent. Somebody please correct me if
>>>I'm wrong.
>>
>>Even so, 750 points?  Against a program using a random unknown book with
>>learning?  I personally don't buy it.  Vincent's quote "you lose the first game
>>and the next 1980 games after that."  I can only say my program would not lose
>>the next 1980 games by playing the same again and again, with or without the
>>opening book.
>
>Doesn't "no book" also imply "no book learning" ? From Vincents quote, he seems
>to mean it that way.

No idea.  With no book, the only program I know of that will still do "book
learning" is MchessPro.  But position learning is a different matter, and is
independent of book learning...

>
>Maybe positional learning will prevent you from loosing the same game time after
>time, but not from loosing the same 5 games time after time.

It will eventually prevent me from losing _any_ game an excessive number of
times, again assuming that in general my opponent is not significantly stronger
than my program.  Vincent said "1920 times in a row".  Won't happen.



>
>Tony
>
>>
>>>
>>>So, the only accurate way to test this (regardless of your argument that it
>>>doesn't need to be tested at all due to "common sense" -- which may be a fine
>>>argument but I'm not too sure it holds up scientifically :-) would be to create
>>>a book that is designed to exploit the weaknesses in Hiarcs' book, and then test
>>>with that. Then compare the results to using NO book, which, I believe, Vincent
>>>was arguing reflected the other end of the 700-point range.
>>>
>>>Will it show the possibility of a 700-point ELO gain? I very highly doubt it.
>>>But I do think it will result in a much bigger difference than the 3 points out
>>>of 100 that came from the first test.
>>>
>>>jm
>>
>>
>>Here is the fly in the ointment.  I'll be happy to run the current version of
>>Crafty, using the current book, for 3 months.  Vincent or anyone can book up
>>against it until their hearts are content.  Then I will enter a match with them,
>>either using a book or not using one.  But I won't necessarily use that exact
>>version of Crafty for the match since I _always_ enter something more recent
>>than what has been publicly distributed.  What is the probability I will get
>>killed by a program that normally plays equal with me if we both use random or
>>no books, but I lose 99 of every 100 games (750 rating points is somewhere
>>around that win rate) when they use their super book and I use either no book or
>>a random book?  I'll bet the two programs will play within reasonable bounds
>>about the same as they did earlier.  No way to get a 99:1 win rate by just a
>>book, particularly when you are claiming you can extend that streak for 2000
>>games.  It just won't happen...  A pre-planned opening against a specific
>>opponent can win a single game, no question about it.  I have done this in the
>>past, multiple times.  But not repeatedly against a book with randomness and
>>learning, or against a version of the program that might well play different
>>from the first move out of book.



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