Why is it important to let the player commit such a calculation mistake? Or do you think it is just too much help to detect such cases for the player? Well, this is what should be decided, what kind of help to give and what not...
The idea is that the software should not help beyond being a visual aid and a means to accurately undo move sequences.
Laskos wrote:What databases? GM's don't have problems with comps in openings, they are actually better there. And there are no middlegame databases, and hard to build in foreseeable future. That's the stage of the game where GM's are much weaker. So, a database is of small importance (I think Kramnik played Fritz with an opening database). You can offer a GM both opening and endgame databases with minimal effect.
Kai
I disagree that GM's are better than comps in the openings.
I agree that databases is not a big advantage for GM's but for different reasons.
The reason is that I expect the computer to escape from the main lines to throw humans into unknown territory(otherwise the humans may simply copy rybka-rybka games that they can find in databases).
Edit:the match of kramnik proves nothing for me because it seems to me that kramnik did not care much about the result of the match.
The best way for humans to be able to compete with computers is to have different time handicaps. This ofcourse is increasing in the computer's favor linearly as hardware increases. I can still win tons of games on a slow P4 against R3 if it has 1 minute and I have 15 minutes. On an Octa things change dramatically in the engine's favor. I expect within a few years, even the strongest GM will not be able to compete against Rybka using classical time controls and Rybka using only 5 minutes per game. That is how wide the gap between humans and engines is becoming.
M ANSARI wrote:The best way for humans to be able to compete with computers is to have different time handicaps. This ofcourse is increasing in the computer's favor linearly as hardware increases. I can still win tons of games on a slow P4 against R3 if it has 1 minute and I have 15 minutes. On an Octa things change dramatically in the engine's favor. I expect within a few years, even the strongest GM will not be able to compete against Rybka using classical time controls and Rybka using only 5 minutes per game. That is how wide the gap between humans and engines is becoming.
I don't think that time handicap will work, the decrease in Elo is logarithmic with time, very soon we will see 2 hours human versus 5 minute computer, and the handicap should increase with time (2 fold a year). This is silly. Maybe a better solution would be to give GM's a weaker tactical engine, to check for blunders, because this is what happens usually, super GM plays a series of 3200 Elo moves then one 1700 Elo. I don't know how to formalize that, what weaker tactical engine to give and so on. But in this way computer is not handicapped, and humans do not do stupid mistakes.
Uri Blass wrote:
I disagree that GM's are better than comps in the openings.
....
Uri
From what I saw in Kramnik and Kasparov matches, at least super GM's play evenly or even outplay comps in the opening. Opening books do not benefit from such advantages as hardware based engines, so I expect the current opening books to be outsmarted at least by super GM's. It is usually the super GM who makes a weird move to take the engine out of the book. Remember how Kasparov strangled Junior (with its large opening book) from the opening, and finally won that game?
I think you fail to realize how much engines have improved since Kasparov beat Junior ... they have improved tremendously, by maybe 300+ ELO points on equivalent hardware alone. Add to that hardware advances and we are talking about maybe a 400 to 500 ELO swing, now that is a lot.
One more thing, a good engine book is actually very strong against humans. Playchess is a site where all sort of ideas were used to try to get engines to play lines that do not fit engine play. This used to work quite well but again with improved hardware and improved software things have also changed in that aspect. If a human is forced to go into an inferior opening to get the engine out of book, chances are that it will backfire on him. Engines today are so strong that a minute plus will be milked into a huge plus very quickly. One tiny misstep and it is game over.
