Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83 (MC830713); site regler.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!mtuxo!mtunh!mtung!mtunf!ariel!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!hplabs!pesnta!greipa!decwrl!decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!think!harvard!seismo!mcvax!enea!alibaba!regler!janeric From: janeric@regler.UUCP (Jan Eric Larsson) Newsgroups: net.chess Subject: Chess programs cheating at chess. Message-ID: <33@regler.UUCP> Date: Fri, 5-Jul-85 18:43:03 EDT Article-I.D.: regler.33 Posted: Fri Jul 5 18:43:03 1985 Date-Received: Fri, 12-Jul-85 03:43:12 EDT Organization: Lund Institute of Technology, Sweden Lines: 42 Do computers cheat at chess? This discussion has been around many times. The argument is that chess programs use internal representation of the chess board, i.e. another board and/or an opening book. A human player is allowed to bring neither an extra board or an openings book. Therefore chess programs is cheating and should not be allowed in human competition. This is all very confused. The argument can be met at two different levels. First, human players think of the board position or different aspects of it, and they usually also have learnt a few opening variations from a book. The same thing should be alright for a chess program. Isn't it quite obvious that memory, even say a disk, is an internal part of the computer system? I think that one should compare a human player with the entire system, not only with the cpu, disk or (let's say) the housing. In this way, the analogy argument does not say that computers cheat at chess. But of course there is a good formulation of the argument. I think it could be simply "Chess programs are not (even comparable to) humans, so they should not be allowed in human competition". This is both simple and, I think, valid. The solution to the whole problem is to have different classes, human, computer and open to all. Jan Eric Larsson Department of Automatic Control Lund Institute of Technology Lund, (Close to Copenhagen), Sweden Path: !seismo!mcvax!enea!alibaba!regler!janeric By the way: An opening book doesn't usually give a program very much in playing strength. Most tests actually points in the opposite direction if anywhere at all. The main use of the book in a program is to make its play more interesting to humans. I would be very sorry if opening books in chess programs were skipped.