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Draw!

Posted by michael on from the dueling-banjos dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Heise (publisher of the famous german computer magazine c't) started a most unusual CPU benchmark, today. A dual P4 Xeon 2400 and a dual AthlonMP 2000+ have to prove their abilities to ... play chess! The opponents are running two of the best chess AIs (Previews of Deep Fritz 7 and Shredder 6), so there are four different configurations. With each configuration about 55 matches (~24h) are played. As yet AMD/Fritz is leading, but the benchmark has just started. You can follow the duell online [Sorry, site is in german, but the graphics of the java-applet should be multi-lingual]. What's next? Who wouldn't like to see a Linux/Windows mine sweeper death match!"

11 of 243 comments (clear)

  1. Time is limited by nniillss · · Score: 4, Informative

    For each game, both opponents have 10 minutes in total plus 2 seconds per move. Everything else being equal (or symmetric, with all combinations of programs being used) it is not too far fetched to assume that the faster machine wins on average

  2. explanation? by gripdamage · · Score: 3, Informative

    Hey everybody complaining about this not being a benchmark... presumably they are going to compare performance such as "AMD Fritz vs. Intel Shredder" against "Intel Fritz vs. AMD Shredder" when the games are all over. Unless the first move for instance contains some random factor the games should be exactly the same, no matter which processor is running the program. So they'll add up how long it takes for each processor to decide to make the same moves. Maybe?

  3. For the German Impared by ALoverOfPeace · · Score: 2, Informative

    AMD is up 11-7, with 8 stalemates. AMD has 15 points (57.7%) while Intel has 11 (42.3%). I assume the points are some sort of chess match scoring mechanism. I've only had 2 years of rudementary German, so I can't translate the article or anything close.

    1. Re:For the German Impared by TC+(WC) · · Score: 2, Informative

      As I understand it, you get 1 point for a win, 0 for a loss. However, for a draw you each get a half point.

  4. Update: submission is from yesterday by nniillss · · Score: 5, Informative
    The first match ended with a slight advantage for Shredder/Intel versus Fritz/AMD: 20 wins, 22 losses, 29 draws. The present match is for the flipped combinations: now Shredder/AMD leads with 11 wins, 7 losses, and 8 draws against Fritz/Intel. These results indicate a superiority of the AMD architecture (2x Athlon MP 2000+) over the Intel architecture (2x Intel Xeon 2.4 GHz) (see here) which would be in line with the chess SPECINT result.

    Note that both programs learn from game to game within each match, but are reset after the match. In the first match, Shredder started very weak and had a steeper learning curve against Fritz. Since in the second match Shredder/AMD already started strong, a landslide victory for this combination appears likely.

  5. Uhh ... AMD is winning? by Hektor_Troy · · Score: 2, Informative

    I may not be the best at understanding german, but I can certainly translate this:

    Anmerkung zur Runde 1: Fritz/AMD gewinnt geget Shredder/Intel 20 Partien, remiseirte 29 Partien und verliert 22 Partien

    into

    Noted for round 1: Fritz/AMD won against Shredder/Intel in 20 games, got a draw in 29 games and lost 22 games.

    Translating that into points, AMD has 34½ points (20 wins * 1 point/win + 29 draws * ½ point/draw) and Intel has 36½ points (22 * 1 point/win + 29 draws * ½ point/draw).

    How is AMD winnning?

    And at the moment, that score means nothing, as Shredder could be the better program, but being held back by the Intel CPU, just as Fritz could be the better program being held back by the AMD CPU - we won't know until the bitter end.

    Talk about premature conclusions ... this is even more premature than CNN declaring Gore, then Bush, then Gore, then Bush the winner of Florida ...

    Next time - learn the language of the article before drawing conclusions.

    --
    We do not live in the 21st century. We live in the 20 second century.
  6. Chess games are finite by yerricde · · Score: 4, Informative

    all this processing power, and i'm watching two computers too stupid to draw.

    Chess has several ko rules that will end the game after no progress. For instance, if twenty-five rounds have passed without a capture or pawn move, or if the same board position has appeared three times, the game is a draw.

    --
    Will I retire or break 10K?
  7. Actual contest is... by Krieger · · Score: 3, Informative

    4 seperate rounds of roughly 55 games day. We've caught it at the beginning of the second day. AMD lost the first day by a couple points 20 wins, 29 ties, and 22 losses. AMD is currently winning the second round as of 8:28PM EST 12-7-9. Everyday they reset the computers (since the programs learn over the course of the day), and switch the programs. Obviously they're going to attempt to fill the product matrix and see which processor performs better with the different programs.

    I'm curious to see how the different platforms perform...

  8. well, maybe. by jon_c · · Score: 3, Informative

    There are AI competitions http://www.cs.ualberta.ca/~darse/rsbpc.html

    -Jon

    --
    this is my sig.
  9. Ko by yerricde · · Score: 2, Informative

    Is there an over-riding force to prevent stalemate moves from continuing forever?

    See my other comment.

    --
    Will I retire or break 10K?
  10. Re:Weird opening moves ... by mefistofeles · · Score: 2, Informative

    Well, actually a correct terminology would be that both are using an indian setup. To me the Kings Indian black plays d7d6. Should black play d7-d5 in the aforementioned position it would be Grünfeld(-ish).

    /Mef.