Big amateur tournament: participants searched

[Uri Blass]

Geschrieben von:/Posted by: Uri Blass at 24 May 2004 16:35:24:
Als Antwort auf:/In reply to: Re: Big amateur tournament: participants searched geschrieben von:/posted by: Kurt Utzinger at 24 May 2004 16:22:44:

I am going to think about it but fear that an engine without EGTB-support
will score 5-10 % less than with EGTB's. On the other hand: a trial may be
justified with an engine like Thinker 4.6b which seems to have a great
endgame skill.

I think you are greatly overestimating the importance of EGTBs for practical
play. The tests I have seen indicate that the difference in playing strength
with and without EGTBs is usually too small to be measured. While I believe
that EGTBs can be of great help to engines with poor endgame skills, I doubt
that they would be very useful for an endgame specialist like Thinker.
Tord

Hi Tord
My statement is based on my experience with The King 3.23. This
engine even supports EGTB but not in its search. And in some games
the program missed a win or a draw so that after 50 games there
is a difference of 2-5 (missing) points.
Kurt

It may be interesting if you post the positions when you think that it missed a win or a draw because of not having EGTB.
The question is also if this is really the reason.
What was the distance in plies from the root position when it made the mistake and the position when tablebases are relevant?
Uri

[Bryan Hofmann]

Geschrieben von:/Posted by: Bryan Hofmann at 24 May 2004 18:02:52:
Als Antwort auf:/In reply to: Re: Big amateur tournament: participants searched geschrieben von:/posted by: Bryan Hofmann at 24 May 2004 15:54:32:

We are planning to play a big amateur tournament
time control 120'/60, ponder=off, using Wb2Uci.exe,
under Fritz8-GUI, with 8 participants under the
following conditions:
- own book must be available for each engine
- access to EGTB possible
- no commercial version of the engines on the market
- only versions released for public (no change during tournament)
and are now wondering which are the strongest engines we should/could
use in this long tournament over 70 rounds whereby two (2) programs may
not belong to the best ones provided they play a particular interesting
style. In this respect: we have already reserved a place for Gothmog 0.4.8.
Considering these conditions we see that no List, no Ktulu, no Ruffian
can participate. I am awaiting your suggestions for this tournament
possibly with explanations why engine X should be included.
Kurt

Hi Kurt!
I hope that WildCat meets all your demends and she is strong enough.
Recently she improved strenght at long time controls (due to better move ordering). May be 30 - 60 Elo points.
I hope you allow to participate to my simple engine.
Also don't forget about following great engines:
Amyan, LG, GLC, AnMon.
Best wishes,
Igor

P.S. I don't think that it is good to include Tao, because it doesn't know chess rules.

There is only one item Tao does not understand and that is under-promotion. So stating that it does not understand chess rules is simply not true as it is only one rule.

I just tested the underpromotion and found that it is no longer a problem.