From: Peter_Stockhausen@mindlink.bc.ca (Peter Stockhausen)
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
Subject: Re: When Deep Thought Beats Kasparov...
Date: 9 Oct 92 23:34:51 GMT
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Distribution: world

> Peter Marko writes:
>
> Msg-ID: <1992Oct9.141937.19212@bnr.ca>
> Posted: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 14:19:37
>
> Org.  : Northern Telecom Canada Ltd.
>
> In article <16139@mindlink.bc.ca> Peter Stockhausen,
> Peter_Stockhausen@mindlink.bc.ca writes:
>
> >  1,  Deep Thought never achieved anything resembling a 2600 rating
> >performance against Grand Masters in tournament play. As a matter of
> fact, as
> >stated earlier, it played in only one (1) Grand Master Tournament in
> 1990 or
> >1991 in Hanover Germany. The score was +1 =2 -4 with a performance rating
> >below 2400 and missing an IM norm.
> >
> >  2,  To the best of my knowledge Deep Thought has not played any other
> Grand
> >Master Tournaments since.
> >
> >  3,  We should not be misled by promotional "off hand" games and the
> >occasional IM and GM "scalp".  Those kind of performances do not make a
> World
> >Champion.
> >
> >  4,  I think we will have to wait until Deep Thought or Deep Thought II
> will
> >play a string of GM tournaments, say five or six with some sixty or
> seventy
> >games before a conclusion can be reached.
>
> I quote from the article:
>
> "By the summer of 1990 [...] Deep Thought had achieved a 50 percent score
> in 10 games played under tournament control against grandmasters and an
> 86 percent score in 14 games against international masters.  Some of
> these games and dozens of others against less distinguished opponents had
> been played under the auspices of the U.S. Chess Federation, which used
> the results to derive a chess rating of 2552.  [...]  In the games played
> after August of 1988, when the computer reached its current analytical
> speed of 750,000 positions per second, its performance rating exceeded
> 2600."
>
> So I take it that the 2600 rating was derived from ALL the games Deep
> Thought had played between August 1988 and the summer of 1990.  This,
> apparently, included 10 games against GMs, 14 games against IMs and
> dozens of games against LDOs ("less distinguished opponents").  Since
> much more than 30 games were used for the calculations, there is no
> reason to doubt the accuracy of the above rating.
>
> I do not have the facts before me, just taking the article at face value.
>
>    ...Peter
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
> Peter Marko    .....    (613)763-5344    .....    pmarko@bnr.ca
> Northern Telecom Canada Ltd.   .....    Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

You are of course absolutely right. If we could have the tournament
results and conditions in chronological order with the opponents
and their ratings in front of us, our discussion would be a heck
of a lot more meaningfull.
Again, a 50% result against 10 IGMs does not make a World Champion.

I am still not convinced that Deep Thought or it's successor should
get a match with Kasparov without going through the same qualifying
cycle as any would be Challenger has to go through.

Deep Thought should be seeded in the next US Zonal (the US could easily
be given one more human qualifier to the Interzonal IF Depp Thought
succeeds in qualifying). If it does, it will face some heavy competition
in the Interzonal and if it qualifies for the candidates matches than
it has earned its spot fair and square.

I am however afraid that this scenario is a bit naive since computerphobia
is fairly widespread amongst chessplayers of all strengts.

At the last FIDE meeting an idea was presented to field a computer
team in the next Olympiad. This rather splendid idea was rejected.
I guess we can just wait and watch Bobby!!
Peter
--

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   Peter_Stockhausen@mindlink.bc.ca         Vancouver, Canada
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