[Bug-gnubg] Kazaross on GNU 0.14

[Albert Silver]

I thought this would be of interest to all here, so I'm reposting what was
said by Backgammon Ginat No.2, Neil Kazaross, at the GammonLine forum. There
was a discussion on the respective strengths and weaknesses of both Snowie
and GNU, and this time, Neil went beyond his already known opinion on GNU's
overoptimism for the holder in holding games.

Note that his query on the GNU 0-ply vs Snowie 1-ply was no doubt inspired
by a comment I made in the thread stating that if the issue of strength
between GNU 2-ply and Snowie4 3-ply was up to debate, I believe GNU 0-ply to
be considerably stronger than Snowie 1-ply.

Albert

If you are a GammonLine subscriber, the link is
http://www.gammonline.com/members/board/config.cgi?read=128533

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I clearly don't feel nor observe that Snowie's play in priming games is any
better than GNU's. Both bots can make some brilliant plays and also make
some bad errors in priming battles.

In developed backgames.. ie one side bearing off or almost about to bear
off, with the backgame player having a good board/resonably advanced
backgame, both bots are about the same. I have done enough rollouts to be
certain of that fact.

In DEVELOPING backgames this is a different story and Snowie 4 most
definately plays better than GNU from both sides when the backgames aren't
yet developed but are most likely. Snowie 4 also can handle the aftermath of
a badly crushed or split backgame better than GNU.

GNU is most definately superior to Snowie in races. GNU 3 ply (due to lucky
odd ply effects) does a very good job of evaluating most common holding
games.

Does this mean that Snowie is a bit better than GNU, I'd suspect so, but
many positions have shown that in random typical positions GNU may get just
a bit more correct.

I feel that the two bots are equal strength.

I'd love to see the results of a long session with GNU 0-ply vs Snowie 1 ply
!!

.. just my experiences.. neilkaz ..
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