[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

RE: [computer-go] future KGS Computer Go Tournaments - two sections?



Nick, your hypothetical is not far from the truth, except that I don't
depend on Go income to live on
(see http://www.ubicom.com/company/management.htm ).

I think your two tier tournament is very sensible, and if/when I get around
to implementing GTP, I'll certainly enter  it.

Regards,

David

> -----Original Message-----
> From: computer-go-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
> [mailto:computer-go-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Nick Wedd
> Sent: Wednesday, May 11, 2005 3:24 AM
> To: computer-go
> Subject: Re: [computer-go] future KGS Computer Go Tournaments 
> - two sections?
> 
> 
> In message <Pine.LNX.4.61.0505111121150.26140@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Michal 
> Bazynski <bazik@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes
> >
> >On Wed, 11 May 2005, Vlad Dumitrescu wrote:
> >
> >> If the answer is "to crown the best playing program", my 
> feeling is 
> >> that any program should be allowed to enter, in any 
> amount. I assume 
> >> an "all-play-all" tournament, so that no competitor is 
> pushed down in 
> >> a lesser league just because there are many entrants.
> >
> >hmm i do not understand where the problem understanding why 
> it's wrong
> >to have two same/similar programs comes from... to continue David's 
> >example:
> >
> >assume MFoG and GNU can beat every other program out there 
> 100% of the
> >time.
> >assume MFoG can beat each GNU version 70% of the time.
> >let's have 2 GNU's and one MFoG play in a tournament.
> >
> >what is MFoG's chance of winning? 70? nope, it has come down 
> to 50%. 3
> >copies of GNU's and its down to 35%. and all that time MFoG 
> is clearly 
> >best - 70% winning chance or better against every other opponent.
> 
> Yes, it's clearly best to you, and to all readers of this 
> mailing list. 
> But it is no longer clearly best to the marketing guy in the Japanese 
> company that David Fotland is negotiating with.
> 
> Ok, I don't even know if David is negotiating with any 
> Japanese company. 
> Let's consider a hypothetical, but entirely plausible, case.
> 
> <hypothetical>
> Suppose I have written a good Go-playing engine.  I started 
> doing this 
> for fun, but my engine is good enough that I sell it 
> commercially, I and 
> my family now depend on it for our living.  Using the 
> published results 
> of past computer Go Tournament results, I have persuaded a Japanese 
> company to pay me for it, put their own Japanese-language UI 
> on it, and 
> sell it in Japan.  The marketing guys in this company can't 
> program and 
> can't play Go, but they can read results tables;  and if they 
> see that 
> my program has lost to a rival they will start thinking, 
> particularly if 
> they can get that rival for free.
> 
> Now, I believe that my program is a couple of stones stronger 
> than GNU 
> Go.  I am happy to enter it for a tournament where it will be playing 
> against GNU Go.  I am even happy to risk the occasional loss. 
>  But if I 
> am going to have to play multiple copies of GNU Go, it will 
> be more than 
> an occasional loss, and it is my livelihood that is threatened.  I am 
> not going to enter a tournament under those conditions. 
> </hypothetical>
> 
> If a company executive, or indeed an ordinary member of the 
> public who 
> is deciding what program to acquire, reads a results table that begins
>      1st    GNU Go version 3.8
>      2nd    Many Faces of Go
> they may not read any further.  Irrational of them, perhaps;  
> but this 
> is what is likely to happen.
> 
> I would like commercial programs to enter these KGS tournaments.  But 
> they are unlikely to do so unless they have their fair chance of 
> winning.  This is what I am trying to arrange.
> 
> I am planning on having a "formal" division and a "casual" 
> division. The 
> formal division will only allow one copy of any one program, and will 
> require entrants to state their real names, so that we know who to 
> revile if they are found cheating.  The casual division will have few 
> restrictions, it is entirely for fun.
> 
> Programs that qualify for the formal division will be 
> permitted to enter 
> both divisions (though as they will be played simultaneously, 
> this may 
> present problems for them).  I expect that commercial 
> programs will only 
> enter the formal division.  I hope that people deciding what 
> program to 
> buy will look at the results of the formal division, and 
> ignore those of 
> the casual division.
> 
> >what would make it fair is if MFoG could enter as many copies as
> >GNU-based folks can.
> 
> This is what I am proposing.  What do you think that number 
> should be? I 
> think the obvious answer is "1".
> 
> Nick
> 
> >(i am assuming with those calculations that the GNU version that gets
> >lucky against MFoG beats other GNU-s, so the real numbers are not as 
> >bad (assuming different GNU's can't arrange the wins between 
> them, but 
> >that is a totally different topic))
> -- 
> Nick Wedd    nick@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> _______________________________________________
> computer-go mailing list
> computer-go@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
> http://www.computer-go.org/mailman/listinfo/computer-go/
> 


_______________________________________________
computer-go mailing list
computer-go@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.computer-go.org/mailman/listinfo/computer-go/