On Mon, Mar 03, 2008 at 12:15:36PM -0800, Christoph Birk wrote: > > On Mon, 3 Mar 2008, Don Dailey wrote: > >What you are trying to do is more in the category of opponent > >modeling. You want to optimize for the case that you might > >occasionally salvage a game against an opponent that is much weaker than > >you but is beating you anyway. > > No, absolutely not. The idea of following the 0.5 pt loss is always > true, even if the opponent is of comparable strength.
I agree with this, 100% > >strength level. If your program KNOWS it is losing by 0.5 points, then > >it's reasonable to expect that your opponent does too, especially given > >the fact that he just outplayed you. > > I think you are too much of "chess player" :-) > The fact that he is 0.5 point in the lead does not imply he is > (much) stronger. Any player, in particular a human player, is capable > of the making a mistake. So it is important to stay on the 'small' > losing line. That might a difference to chess, where there is no > 'small' loss. Even the top professionals make the occasional small mistake in the end game. I expect our programs will be playing (much) lesser opponents for the foreseeable future, and thus have a good hope of seeing slightly suboptimal play in the end game. > >So at best you hope your opponent will make a stupid mistake in an > >obviously lost position for you. > > No, the opposite. Not a stupid mistake; I am hoping for the subtle > mistake. But you throw that opportunity away If you play "desparate" > moves just because you think you will lose the game by 0.5 points. Indeed! And there still is a (non-zero) risk that the program is estimating wrong, and actually has a small lead. Playing tight will preserve that, with a chance of improving it a bit, whereas playing "desperate" moves will throw it all away. Of course, if a program knows it is going to loose, it might as well resign. -H -- Heikki Levanto "In Murphy We Turst" heikki (at) lsd (dot) dk _______________________________________________ computer-go mailing list computer-go@computer-go.org http://www.computer-go.org/mailman/listinfo/computer-go/
