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

Author: Arturo Ochoa

Date: 15:46:53 02/19/05

Go up one level in this thread


On February 19, 2005 at 18:34:05, Uri Blass wrote:

>On February 19, 2005 at 17:49:29, Arturo Ochoa wrote:
>
>>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......
>
>No
>I did not expect it to happen.
>
>I only responded to the follwoing sentence of Dan
>"We know Arturo builds good books - you could test with
>Diep or Zappa."
>
>I only explained why I could not test it.
>I did not compain about the fact that I am unable to test it.
>>
>>>>
>>>>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.
>
>Note that I never claimed that a good book cannot help an engine to win a
>tournament.
>If people understood it from me then I did a bad explaining job.
>I will try to do better explaining job in this post.
>

??????????? !!!!!!!!!!!!! Go to (*)(**)

>
>
>I said that I consider book as unimportant and I said that an engine that is

(*) unimportant = not meaning much, not having value or significance

(1) Contradiction: "I did not claim that a book cannot help an engine...." ....
"I consider the book as unimportant..."

(**) read the meaning of unimportant(*).



>strong enough has good chances to win even with 1.h3 but

(2) I have also suggested that 1. f3!! and 2. g4!! would be a lot better. :))
The tops engine are already prepared for all those idiot moves including 1. h3?
and 1. f3??


>I never said that the engines that play in world championship are strong enough
>relative to their opponents
>
>The difference between the best and the second best is for years less than 100
>elo and when there is a small difference of course a book can be the decisive
>factor about the question who is going to win.
>
>The point is that I believe in the following assumptions:
>
>1)It is possible to make an engine that is significantly stronger than
>shredder9(improvement of more than 200 elo in nunn type match and I am not
>talking only about nunn position but also about other equal positions out of
>book).

(3) This is not relevant to your contradiction in (1). Nunn Matches dont say
anything about the significance of the book component.

>
>I believe that it is only a question of time and I expect it to happen in less
>than 10 years from today.

(4) This is a prediction not related to the topic.

>
>2)A programmer who is good enough to develop an engine that is significantly
>stronger than the opponents has good chances to win WCCC even without working
>about book (when the opponents of course have not his new engine that made a big
>improvement of more than 200 elo).
>

(5) Shredder, Junior and Fritz han showed this is not true over the latest years
in Official Tournaments. All of them use strong book tuned by hand. I have not
seen the first case from a no-book engine winning an official Tournament. Where
are the facts?

AO



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