Forum for GNU Go
Regarding: strength GNUGo 3.4 (moved from GNU Go page) [#49]
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dnerra:
Regarding: strength GNUGo 3.4 (moved from GNU Go page)
(2005-10-12 01:53) [#116]
- GNU Go 3.4, a bit more than two handicap stones stronger than 3.2 .
- mgoetze: Yes, this is what everyone was dreaming of. In truth, however, in truth, it's not quite two stones stronger (perhaps one and a half), and actually a bit slower.
- evand: Well, judging the speed is a bit difficult. Suffice to say that it depends heavily on the type of game, and also on the computer (performance characterists change differently on different computers). Also, if you want it faster, you should try level 9. Level 9 should be stronger than 3.2 by some amount and faster than 3.2 or of comparable speed. The other thing worth noting is that the strength differences depend strongly on your measurement techniques.
- Concerning strength: GNU Go 3.4 wins over a half games against 3.2 with two handicap stones and komi 5.5, but less than a half if komi is 0.5. So one can say it is somewhere between 1 and 1.5 ranks stronger than 3.2. Komi matters.
- Scryer: When I was a chess programmer I found that playing my program against itself did tell which version was better, but it would not tell accurately how much better. This is because both programs shared weaknesses: for example, the better program would believe the worse program's threats, because they were just the same threat it would make itself. To get an objective measure of the actual strength difference I needed to play humans over the board in tournament conditions. Does this factor carry over into GNU Go? I assume you've decided the answer is "no", since you feel it's accurate enough even to make the komi relevant.
- dnerra: No, the answer is a definite "yes"! :-) Some aspects hardly appear in GNU Go vs GNU Go games, because GNU Go's style makes these games somewhat No-Contact-Games. But it's really the only thing you can measure reliably. GNU Go is playing hundreds of games on NNGS per week, but its rating can still vary highly e.g. due to some 2k* learning its weaknesses very well, and thus being able to beat it at 9 stones or so (and then playing tens of games against GNU Go...)
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