Re: computer-go: Engineering (was: Most simple Go rules)

[Don Dailey <drd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I  think resignation would  get used by players.   It's  true that you
give up  all hope of winning,  but on the  other hand it's not easy to
endure possibly long periods of time playing out a dead lost game.  In
chess, players rarely  get  to checkmate,  why embarass yourself  past
some reasonable point of being dead lost?

Even in computer chess tournaments operators resign on behalf of their
programs for the  same reasons.  In almost  all  tournaments you still
need the approval of the tournament director  just in case some player
made an impropoer judgement   (guiding principle is let the  comptuers
determine the result with as little human interference as possible.)

It's not unreasonable in a dead lost position to save everyone a great
deal of time and stop early.


Don



   Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2001 09:35:12 +0200
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   On Thu, Jun 28, 2001 at 05:20:02PM -0500, Daniel Hallmark wrote:

   > I understand that human players do resign lost games out of respect
   > and not to waste another person's time.  But I am curious whether
   > you think such behavior in a program might not deprive the programmer
   > of valuable information about the program's performance.  I understand
   > the point of a tournament is to win, but still, regardless of whether
   > your program is on the losing or winning side, is it not still possible 
   > to obtain useful data about the program's engame evaluations/tactics
   > by playing the game out?

   Well, I was thinking of resigning around the point when the game is
   practically over, even if the rules specify that all prisoners must be
   removed and all dame filled, or suchlike. After that point I see no
   information to be gained, and only a slight hope of the opponent making a
   mistake.

   > My thought would be that in program vs. program games, I wouldn't really 
   > mind "wasting" another program's time if some benefit could still be 
   > gained for either party.

   If any benefit, yes. If not, you might still be "wasting" the time of the
   operator(s), and of everyone waiting for the next round to start.

   -H

   -- 
   Heikki Levanto  LSD - Levanto Software Development   <heikki@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>