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

Author: Arturo Ochoa

Date: 14:49:29 02/19/05

Go up one level in this thread


On February 19, 2005 at 17:08:23, Uri Blass wrote:

>On February 19, 2005 at 16:33:48, Arturo Ochoa wrote:
>
>>On February 18, 2005 at 16:19:26, Uri Blass wrote:
>>
>>>On February 18, 2005 at 13:55:25, Dan Honeycutt wrote:
>>>
>>>>On February 17, 2005 at 17:48:18, Uri Blass wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On February 17, 2005 at 14:42:41, Dan Honeycutt wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>On February 17, 2005 at 14:03:30, Tord Romstad wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>A couple of days ago, a well-known programmer and regular
>>>>>>>poster here on the CCC claimed that a good opening book
>>>>>>>was worth at least 700 Elo points.  I thought this number
>>>>>>>looked completely outrageous, and decided to do a simple
>>>>>>>experiment.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>I am the author of a basic and minimalistic UCI chess engine
>>>>>>>called Glaurung.  Source code and executables for Mac OS X,
>>>>>>>Linux and Windows can be found at the following URL:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>http://www.math.uio.no/~romstad/glaurung/glaurung.html
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Recently, I have played some test matches with Glaurung
>>>>>>>against the strongest engine I have on my compter: Hiarcs
>>>>>>>9.6.  Not surprisingly, all such matches end in crushing
>>>>>>>victories for Hiarcs.  The last match I played ended
>>>>>>>75-25 in Hiarcs' favor.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>As a crude test of the "good book=700 Elo" claim, I have
>>>>>>>now repeated the match with identical program versions
>>>>>>>and conditions, except that Hiarcs was now playing without
>>>>>>>an opening book.  Assuming that Hiarcs' book is worth 700
>>>>>>>Elo, the expected result of this second match would be
>>>>>>>something like 95-5 in _Glaurung's_ favor.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>The actual result of the second match was very close to
>>>>>>>the first match:  Hiarcs won by 72-28.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>As far as I can see, this means that at least one of the
>>>>>>>following must be true:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>a) The statement "good book=700 Elo" is lightyears away
>>>>>>>from the truth.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>b) Hiarcs has an extremely bad opening book, and with a
>>>>>>>half decent opening book it would be several hundred
>>>>>>>rating points ahead of Shredder.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Tord
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Hi Tord:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>I too think 700 is a number from the twilight zone.  But the statement, IIRC,
>>>>>>was 700 points for a very good book vs no book.  So you have to include the
>>>>>>possibility:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>c) Glaurung's book is no good.
>>>>>
>>>>>Glaurung's book is not the subject here.
>>>>>
>>>>>Tord simply comapred hiarcs book with no book.
>>>>>
>>>>>He let Glaurung with it's own book to play agaisnt Hiarcs with it's book and let
>>>>>Glaurung with it's own book play against Hiarcs with no book.
>>>>>
>>>>>Hiarcs with it's own book failed to perform even 100 elo better.
>>>>>
>>>>>Uri.
>>>>
>>>>All right then add the possibility:
>>>>
>>>>d) Hiarcs' book is no good.
>>>
>>>Tord already considered that possibility
>>>
>>>one of the possibilities that tord considered:
>>>
>>>"b) Hiarcs has an extremely bad opening book, and with a
>>>half decent opening book it would be several hundred
>>>rating points ahead of Shredder."
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>>However you take it, to prove or disprove the statement you are going to have to
>>>>test with a "good book".  We know Arturo builds good books - you could test with
>>>>Diep or Zappa.
>>>
>>>Arturo did not make his books public so I cannot test them.
>>>
>>
>>I dont have reasons to make public my books.
>
>No problem with it.
>I only responded to "you could test with Diep or Zappa."
>

I run my own private tests and I know what the advantages of a tuned book are.
Of course, I would be crazy or I would be very idiot to give such a book to bad
testers and/or unrelieable people. And the authors that I help would not be
happy with such idiot actions.

>
>
> Neither Vincent Diepeveen nor
>>Anthony Cozzie would be happy about that :) Besides, why to make public a book
>>that is useless, boring and not required for the majority of the public
>>(specially persons as you?
>
>I did not ask to make it public.
>

When you said that I had not made public any of my Tournament Books, you were
expecting that something like that might happen. Of course, it wont happen for
the know reasons......

>>
>>Ask Vincent Diepeveen or Anthony Cozzie if they are really willing to give such
>>a combination of software: their own engines plus my tournaments books.
>>
>>
>>>
>>>> We know Sandro builds good books - you could test with Shredder.
>>>
>>>I do not know that the book that you can give to shredder is defined as a good
>>>book by Arturu.
>>>
>>
>>My name is Arturo not Arturu. My books are tuned foor specific engines.
>
>sorry for the mistake in your name.
>
>Again I only responded to the poster and the subject was not your book but the
>question if sandro's book are good book.

Well, I would doubt that Mr. Sandro´s books are bad. I would not defend this but
this question is quite.....

You will know how the combination of a strong engine like Shredder plus a tuned
book for it is very successful. However, you cotinue missing and ignoring the
point. The time has showed who is wrong.....


>
>The point is that using them in the discussion about the value of book is
>irrelevant if the public book of shredder is not considered by you as a good
>book.

I am not talking about a specific case: You generalized about how useless are a
book is. Therefore, I have showed why this position is absurd and wrong.




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