cracraft@sun1.uucp.UUCP (06/03/88)
Article 1178 of rec.games.chess:
Path: elroy!ames!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ukma!gatech!udel!rochester!pt.cs.cmu.edu!unh.cs.cmu.edu!fhh
From: fhh@unh.cs.cmu.edu (Feng-Hsiung Hsu)
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
Subject: Computers in Fredkin Masters Open
Keywords: Chess, Computers
Message-ID: <1828@pt.cs.cmu.edu>
Date: 2 Jun 88 15:50:07 GMT
Sender: netnews@pt.cs.cmu.edu
Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI
Lines: 61
Each year in the last few years, the Fredkin Foundation sponsored a chess
event designed to promote computer chess research. Traditionally, the
reigning ACM North American Computer Chess Champion is invited along with
possibly some of the stronger programs at the time. This year, the Fredkin
Masters Open was held from May 28 to May 30 on CMU campus. About 30 masters
participated. The computer opposition includes ChipTest, the reigning ACM
Champion, Deep Thought 0.01 (0.01 stands for single processor, successor to
ChipTest), Hitech (1985 ACM Champion) and BP (a Compaq 386). Phoenix
(number 3 finisher in ACM) and Lachex (number 4 finisher in ACM) did not
participate because of problems in obtaining computing time.
Alexander Ivanov (FIDE 2415), a recent Soviet emigre, won the event by scoring
5 out of 6 and received the $1,200 first prize. Deep Thought tied for 2nd
with 2 masters, scoring 4.5 out of 6. ChipTest tied for 5th scoring 4 out
of 6. Hitech scored 3.5 out of 6. BP scored 3 out of 6.
Based on the 3-month old ratings of the opponents, both Deep Thought and
ChipTest should obtain provisional ratings above 2500. Deep Thought beat
a 2339, drew a 2292, won against a 2299 and a 2389, lost to Ivanov, and
won against Vivek Rao (2491, among top 60 in the US, top in Pennsylvania),
receiving a provisional rating around 2570. ChipTest beat a 2354, drew a
2299, beat a 2421, drew a 2345 (?), beat Rao (2491) and lost to a 2321,
receiving a provisional rating around 2501. Hitech had a rough outing,
lost to a 2201 in the first round, beat and drew a few masters in the
2200 to 2360 range, and received a performance rating around 2312. BP
did quite well for a micro. It finished with a respectable performance
rating around 2189. If our calculation is correct, ChipTest should receive
$100 for its performance. Along with the $2000 it won in the ACM, ChipTest
has more than paid for its est. $500 cost (actually we never paid for the
parts--they were leftovers from other projects).
Both Deep Thought and ChipTest are definitely overrated at this moment.
Vivek Rao, who lost to both programs, was probably overconfident. Before
the game against ChipTest, he was openly expressing his contempt of chess
playing computers (he had numerous successful encounters with Hitech
earlier). ChipTest forced Rao to resign in under 30 moves with an
unexpected sack. Vowing to take revenge for the loss on Deep Thought, but
still expressing his contempt, he then proceeded to lose the last round game
after Deep Thought played an unexpected pawn push that sent him into
25 minutes of deep thinking.
If computer vs. computer rating does translate into computer vs. human
rating, ChipTest should at best be 50 points above Hitech, or roughly 70
points below its provisional rating. We will probably never found out what
ChipTest's real rating should be--this is ChipTest's last tourament.
Both ChipTest and Deep Thought are authored by Thomas Anantharaman, Dr. Murray
Campbell and yours truly of the Computer Science Department in Carnegie
Mellon University. Some of ChipTest source code (under 0.5%, mainly in
evaluation code) originated from Hitech, whose software development was
headed by Dr. Hans Berliner of CMU with hardware designed by Dr. Carl Ebeling
while he was at CMU. Deep Thought has its code completely rewritten, and
does not contain any code from Hitech. Dr. Murray Campbell also worked on
the Hitech project in association with Dr. Hans Berliner. Both Thomas and
I are still graduate students (associated with the Speech group and the
VLSI group respectively.).
Deep Thought was still being wire-wrapped 2 days prior to the event. One
point for the flakey hardware.
I will post some of the games if there is interest.
Article 1180 of rec.games.chess:
Path: elroy!sun1!cracraft
From: cracraft@sun1.uucp (Stuart Cracraft)
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
Subject: Re: Computers in Fredkin Masters Open
Keywords: Chess, Computers
Message-ID: <6925@elroy.Jpl.Nasa.Gov>
Date: 2 Jun 88 23:47:09 GMT
References: <1828@pt.cs.cmu.edu>
Sender: news@elroy.Jpl.Nasa.Gov
Reply-To: cracraft@sun1.UUCP (Stuart Cracraft)
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Lines: 21
Larry Kaufman has calculated the following ratings based on the Fredkin
results:
Chiptest 2496 (by method of CRA rating formula)
2504 (by method of linear formula)
DeepThought 2588 (by method of CRA rating formula)
2586 (by method of linear formula)
These values are based on a USCF-estimated-rating for Ivanov, the
strong emigree whose FIDE rating was mentioned as 2415. USCF equivalent
for this would probably be 2415+95 = 2510.
Some future speculation:
If DT's correct rating is USCF 2500, as is more likely -- with
a good opening book and better endgame knowledge, a dual-processor
version would probably be about USCF 2550. A full-fledged 100 processor
version, would gain about 60-fold in speed, resulting in a USCF
rating of about 2800, or FIDE 2700. So the program would come in
just behind Kasparov and Karpov.
Stuart