The problem is avoiding that an inferior program wins a lost position on time extending the number of moves. If you could choose, what side would you prefer to be? As a human, there is no doubt. But as a program it is even better: the strongest program. Because computers can play faster than humans.
It is so much easier to make a strong program manage its time better than to make a weak and fast program stronger. Therefore, I propose a silly idea: Introduce a bot (I suggest the name "mosquito") *intentionally* that tries to exploit time weakness. Just an ultra blitz player that plays some good looking move at 1 ply without search and never resigns. If your program loses games against mosquito you have to improve your time management. If there is a mosquito (annoying but otherwise harmless insect) always present in the system, serious programs will have extra motivation to care about time management. Of course, its only a half serious proposal. And the problem with the Philippines won't be solved, perhaps it just a mater of increasing the 1/4 sec extra time to 1/3 or something like that. Of course that is not fair, because it is an advantage for those with better connections, but that cannot be avoided. Working with 16 cores is a much bigger advantage and is not avoided either. Jacques. _______________________________________________ computer-go mailing list computer-go@computer-go.org http://www.computer-go.org/mailman/listinfo/computer-go/
