A recent interview with Stefan Meyer-Kahlen (summary)

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Sebastian Boehme
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A recent interview with Stefan Meyer-Kahlen (summary)

Post by Sebastian Boehme »

Dear chessfriends of computer chess, engines and chess in general :D

I just took the time to summarize a recent interview of Shredder programmer Stefan Meyer-Kahlen and to bring it into quite good English (please bear with my humble English :wink: )

Here is the link to the original version (in German): http://glareanverlag.wordpress.com/2009 ... er-kahlen/

(Please notice: When quoting this English summarizing translation or parts of it, please mention this thread of the Hiarcs forum as your source!)

Anyway here is now finally what I made of it:

Glarean: When can we expect Shredder 12 and will it again be the toughest opponent of Rybka in the well known rating lists?



SMK: Shredder 12 can be expected at the end of July. In my opinion most important about Shredder 12 are its elo-levels, where you can set up Shredder’s playing strength in elo.

Shredder will now make human-like blunders, according to its set playing level. Shredder also calculates the playing strength of its user and adapts itself automatically to that, if desired.

For the normal user this surely is more important, than a few additional elo points.



Glarean: How do you remember the history of the UCI-protocol and how do you see it in the future?



SMK: The first version of Shredder for Chessbase was 5.32, something in between 5 and 6. I don’t remember exactly though which was the first version of Shredder having used the UCI-protocol. I think 4 or 5. The motivation for coming up with UCI was our dissatisfaction towards the at that time existing Winboard standard.

So we (me and Rudolf Huber) thought why not create something new, something way better.

So because I program inside Shredder both the GUI and the engine myself, I then implemented UCI into both. It was sort of a reference-implementation!



The development of UCI is not finished yet. Our thought back when we created it, was that it would be possible to extend it without further problems, but that it at the same time would still be compatible with older engines and GUIs.



Glarean: Is a sort of Triple Brain an approach to answer the old question towards strategy and tactics? Like: one engine that highly selective calculates into depth and a 2nd engine that calculates at the foot of the search tree more in a broader way. Maybe controlled by either a “Master Engine” or the user himself in the decision, which search direction is more important for the evaluation in the certain position? What about that?



SMK: The current trend in chess programming is letting the engine calculate rather selectively and prune rather aggressively. This is done in the same way in the parallel version. But for sure there are people who follow this trend more and people who follow this trend less.

Clusters are lately quite in the fashion and it’s right that one can do other things with clusters than in the normal version.

The question whether to calculate less selective with clusters or not, remains unclear to me. Certainly a way to make an engine calculate on clusters is a sort of TripleBrain or even MultiBrain! If you got many processors it is difficult to let a classical chess program run effectively on them. There is a point, when multiple processors do not bring anymore improvements and then you got to look for other ways, to make use of the existing computing power. Certainly a lot is possible here and we are just at the beginning of a maybe long story.



Glarean: Will the complete 6-men tablebases by Nalimov, be available as Shredderbases and what can one expect for the outcome of the game?



SMK: Yes the total 6-men tablebases will be available as Shredderbases. We even already finished a beta version, which for all 6-men Shredderbases uses 40 GB.

Considering playing strength, I am not too sure what will happen. Honestly I already expected that the 5-men Shredderbases would be more effective than their according Nalimov tablebases. You simply get there a very quick access onto the perfect value for all positions with 5 pieces or less.

My current point is, that endgame databases certainly do not harm the practical play and there will be certainly a point in time when they will be of use. If it’s not the 6-men, then be it the 7-men Shredderbases. If not them then the 8-men and if these still do not get the job done, then it’s the 32-men at the end of the day, that will!



Glarean: How far will computing technique and science advance in the next months / years according to the calculability of the chess game?



SMK: Chess will certainly not be solved in a foreseeable amount of time, because it simply is too complex. It often was claimed, that engines at a certain point could no further advance or that chess is threatened by the “draw death”. Looking at the last 2-3 years, then things go forth as quickly as not seen for a long time. With this the programs didn’t just get better because the computers got quicker and more parallelized, but also because the algorithms got clearly improved. Looking at the existing, obvious weak points of the programs, you will quickly realize that there is still a lot of space for further improvements. I thus am quite confident, that computer chess will advance for a lot more years.



Glarean: Where does Artificial Intelligence advance to according to your opinion? What are the spearheads, after in chess barely any human can any longer win against the computer in usual tournament conditions?



SMK: Looking at KI or artificial intelligence, then this is quite a doubtful thing. The way programs play chess or checkers, this certainly can not be called intelligently. Looking instead at the pure result, so e.g. that a chess program can play chess on a stronger level, than all human beings, then yes this has surely a bit of intelligence. It is a question how you define it.


Kind regards,
Sebi
Nothingness! Sheer nothingness!
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Fernando
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Post by Fernando »

thank for the translation, Seba, an interesting interview.

fern
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Cubeman
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Post by Cubeman »

SMK: Shredder 12 can be expected at the end of July. In my opinion most important about Shredder 12 are its elo-levels, where you can set up Shredder’s playing strength in elo.
It is now September, why is all chess program development behind schedule?
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Silvian Rucsandescu
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Why not ???

Post by Silvian Rucsandescu »

Very interesting interview with SMK. Thank you !

A question a bit unclear for me: I see Mr. Fernando is "Admiral" on this forum .Why not "Generalissimo " ?
Hello mods !?!?!

Regards,
"Soldier" Silvian
:lol: :lol: :lol:
O tempora , o mores !
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Dr.Wael Deeb
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Re: Why not ???

Post by Dr.Wael Deeb »

Silvian Rucsandescu wrote:Very interesting interview with SMK. Thank you !

A question a bit unclear for me: I see Mr. Fernando is "Admiral" on this forum .Why not "Generalissimo " ?
Hello mods !?!?!

Regards,
"Soldier" Silvian
:lol: :lol: :lol:
A Soldier should never ask questions about Admirals :evil:
Dr.D





:P

:lol:
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Silvian Rucsandescu
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Re: Why not ???

Post by Silvian Rucsandescu »

Dr.Wael Deeb wrote:
Silvian Rucsandescu wrote:Very interesting interview with SMK. Thank you !

A question a bit unclear for me: I see Mr. Fernando is "Admiral" on this forum .Why not "Generalissimo " ?
Hello mods !?!?!

Regards,
"Soldier" Silvian
:lol: :lol: :lol:
A Soldier should never ask questions about Admirals :evil:
Dr.D





:P

:lol:

Hi Doc !

Not even admiring ones ?
Generalissimo is over Admiral !
I want to see "Muerte a los Latinos " in the apex of the top !
Diktator isn't good- is a political trick !
To be diktator -as a semi-rule- involves a nice & little pronunciamento !
Clear ?


Regards,
SS ( Soldier Silvian )

:lol: :lol: :lol: :shock: :lol: :lol: :lol: :shock: :lol: :lol: :lol:
O tempora , o mores !
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