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AIList Digest Volume 2 Issue 130
AIList Digest Wednesday, 3 Oct 1984 Volume 2 : Issue 130
Today's Topics:
Games - Chess Program,
Pattern Recognition - Minimal Spanning Trees,
Books - Tim Johnson's Report,
Academia - Top Graduate Programs,
AI Tools - OPS5 & Windows,
Games - Computer Chess Tournament & Delphi Game
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 2 Oct 84 21:46:14 EDT
From: "David J. Littleboy" <Littleboy@YALE.ARPA>
Subject: Chess Request
I would like to acquire a state of the art chess program, preferably better
than USCF 1500, to run on a 68000 based machine (an Apollo). Something
written in any of the usual languages (C, Pascal) would probably be useful.
Since I intend to use it as an opponent for the learning program I am
building, I would also like the sources. I am, of course, willing to pay for
the program. Any pointers would be greatly appreciated. Alternatively, does
anyone know of a commercial chess machine with an RS-232 port?
Thanks much,
David J. Littleboy
Littleboy@Yale
...!decvax!yale!littleboy
By the way, the basic theoretical claim I start from is that the "problem
space" a chess player functions in is determined not so much by the position
at hand, as by the set of ideas, plans, and experiences he brings to bear on
that position. Thus I view chess as a planning activity, with the goals to be
planned for deriving from a player's experiences in similar positions.
------------------------------
Date: 2 Oct 1984 11:25-cst
From: "George R. Cross" <cross%lsu.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa>
Subject: MST distributions
[Forwarded from the SRI bboard by Laws@SRI-AI.]
I am interested in references to the following problem:
Suppose we have n-points uniformly distributed in a subset S contained in
p-dimensional Euclidean space R^p:
1.What is the distribution of the largest length of the Minimum
Spanning Tree (MST) over the n-points? Assume Euclidean distance is
used to define the edge weights.
2.What is the distribution of the length of edges in the MST?
3.What is the distribution of the size of the maximal clique?
Asymptotic results or expected values of these quantities would be
interesting also. We expect to make use of this information in
cluster algorithms.
Thanks,
George Cross
Computer Science
Louisiana State University
CSNET: cross%lsu@csnet-relay
------------------------------
Date: Tue 2 Oct 84 09:54:13-PDT
From: C.S./Math Library <LIBRARY@SU-SCORE.ARPA>
Subject: Tim Johnson's Report
The Commercial Application of Expert Systems Technology by Tim Johnson is
a 1984 publication from Ovum Ltd., 14 Penn Road, London N7 9RD, England.
It is also available from IPI, 164 Pecora Way, Portola Valley, Ca. 94025
and sells for $395. The report is 382 pages and primarily covers expert
systems research in the USA and UK although it also describes some of the
larger research projects worlwide.
Harry Llull, Stanford University Math/CS Library
------------------------------
Date: 29 Sep 84 20:19:50-PDT (Sat)
From: decvax!ittvax!dcdwest!sdcsvax!daryoush @ Ucb-Vax.arpa
Subject: Re: Top Ten
Article-I.D.: sdcsvax.149
Stanford is defintely one of the 3 best, if not THE best.
--id
------------------------------
Date: 3 Oct 84 11:41:55 EDT
From: BIESEL@RUTGERS.ARPA
Subject: OPS5 info summary.
Thanks are due to all the folks who responded to my request for information
on OPS5. What follows is a summary of this information.
There are at least three version of OPS5 currently available:
1) DEC Compiler QA668-CM in BLISS, available to 2 and 4 year degree granting
institutions for $1000. Documentation:
AA-GH00A-TE Forgy's Guide
AA-BH99A-TE DEC's User Guide
2)Forgy's version (Charles.Forgy@CMU-CS-A), running under Franz Lisp on
VAXen. A manual is also available from the same source.
3)A T Lisp version created by Dan Neiman and John Martin at ITT
(decvax!ittvax!wxlvax!martin@Berkeley). This version is also supported by
some software tools, but cannot be given away. For costs and procedures
contact John Martin.
Short courses on OPS5 are available from:
Smart System Technology
6870 Elm Street
McLean, VA 22101
(703) 448-8562
Elaine Kant and Lee Brownston@CMU-CS-A, Robert Farrell@Yale and Nancy Martin
at Wang Labs are writing a book on OPS5, to be published this Spring by
Addison_Wesley.
Regards,
Pete
------------------------------
Date: Mon 1 Oct 84 14:35:13-MDT
From: Stan Shebs <SHEBS@UTAH-20.ARPA>
Subject: Summary of Window Responses
I got several replies to my question about the relation between windows
and expert systems. The consensus seemed to be that since an expert
system development environment is like a programming environment, and
since PEs are known to benefit from having multiple windows available,
windows are an important part of expert system tools. Incidentally, the
issue of graphics is orthogonal - graphics is useful in a great number
of applications (try describing the weirder geologic formations in words!),
although perhaps not all.
I have a little trouble with both assumptions. I looked in my nifty
collection of reprints, "Interactive Programming Environments" (Barstow,
Shrobe, and Sandewall, eds., pub. by McGraw-Hill),
and found no research supporting the second assertion. Its main
support appeared to be anecdotal. My own anecdotal experience
is that even experienced users spend an inordinate amount of clock
time trying to do something right, but are not aware of just how
much time they're taking (pick a menu item, oops!, undo, try again,
then search all over the screen for 5 chars of text, then go through
an elaborate sequence of ops to grab those chars, paste them in the
wrong place when your mouse hand jiggles, delete, and try again, etc).
It's interesting to note that Winograd's two papers (from 1974 and 1979)
talk about all kinds of things that a PE should have, but with no mention
of graphics anywhere.
The first assertion appears to be true, and is a sad comment on the
sophistication of today's expert system tools. If expert system
environments are just PEs, why not just supply PEs? What's the
important difference between a Lisp stack backtrace and a rule
system backtrace? Why can't today's expert system tools at least
provide a TMS and some detailed explanation facilities? Why
hasn't anybody included some meta-level knowledge about the tool
itself, as opposed to supplying an inscrutable block of code and
a (possibly correct) user's manual? I don't understand. It seems
as though the programming mentality reigns supreme (if you don't
understand that remark, go back and carefully reread Winograd's
1979 paper "Beyond Programming Languages" (in CACM, and reprinted
in the abovementioned book).
stan shebs
------------------------------
Date: Tue Oct 2 12:24:29 1984
From: mclure@sri-prism
Subject: reminder of upcoming computer chess tournament in San
Francisco
This is a reminder that this coming Sunday (Oct 7) will herald the
beginning of the battle of the titans at the San Francisco Hilton
"continental parlors" room at 1pm.
Cray Blitz the reigning world champion program will attempt to
squash the vengeful Belle. Nuchess, a perennial "top-finishing
contender" and descendent of Chess 4.5, wants a piece of the action and
would be very happy to see the Belle/Cray Blitz battle cause both to go
up in a puff of greasy, black smoke, leaving Nuchess as the top dog for
the entire year.
It promises to be as interesting as it is every year. You don't
have to be a computer-freak or chess-fanatic to enjoy the event.
Come on by for a rip-roaring time.
Stuart
------------------------------
Date: Sun Sep 30 16:02:03 1984
From: mclure@sri-prism
Subject: Delphi 15: cruncher nudges bishop
The Vote Tally
--------------
The winner is: 14 ... Ne8
There were 16 votes. We had a wide mixture. The group seemed to have
difficulty forming a plan. Many different plans were suggested.
The Machine Moves
-----------------
Depth Move Time for search Nodes Machine's Estimate
8 ply h3 6 hrs, 4 mins 2.18x10^ +4% of a pawn
(P-KR3)
Humans Move # Votes
BR ** -- BQ BN BR BK ** 14 ... Ne8 4
** BP ** -- BB BP BP BP 14 ... Rc8 3
BP ** -- BP -- ** -- ** 14 ... Nh5 3
** -- ** WP BP -- ** -- 14 ... Nd7 2
-- ** -- ** WP ** BB ** 14 ... Qd7 2
** -- WN -- WB WN ** WP 14 ... Nxe4 1
WP WP -- ** WQ WP WP ** 14 ... Qb6 1
WR -- ** -- WR -- WK --
Prestige 8-ply
The machine's evaluation turned from negative to slightly positive.
Apparently it likes this position somewhat but still considers the
position even.
The Game So Far
---------------
1. e4 (P-K4) c5 (P-QB4) 11. Be2 (B-K2) Nxe2 (NxB)
2. Nf3 (N-KB3) d6 (P-Q3) 12. Qxe2 (QxN) Be7 (B-K2)
3. Bb5+(B-N5ch) Nc6 (N-QB3) 13. Nc3 (N-QB3) O-O (O-O)
4. o-o (O-O) Bd7 (B-Q2) 14. Be3 (B-K3) Ne8 (N-K1)
5. c3 (P-QB3) Nf6 (N-KB3) 15. h3 (P-KR3)
6. Re1 (R-K1) a6 (P-QR3)
7. Bf1 (B-KB1) e5 (P-K4)
8. d4 (P-Q4) cxd4 (PXP)
9. cxd4 (PXP) Bg4 (B-N5)
10. d5 (P-Q5) Nd4 (N-Q5)
Commentary
----------
BLEE.ES@XEROX
14 ... Ne8 as
14 ... Nh5?; 15. h3 B:f3 (if 15 ... Bd7?; 16. N:e5
and white wins a pawn) 16. Q:f3 Nf6 (now we've lost
the bishop pair, a tempo and the knight still blockades
the f pawn and the white queen is active...)
(if 16 ... g6?; 16. Bh6 Ng7; 17. g4 and black can't support f5 because
the light square bishop is gone) while
14 ... Nd7?; 15. h3 Bh5; 16. g4 Bg6; and black has trouble supporting
f5. I expect play to proceed:
15. h3 Bd7
16. g4 g6
17. Bh6 Ng7
18. Qd3 f5 (at last!)
19. g:f5 g:f5
JPERRY@SRI-KL
In keeping with the obvious strategic plan of f5, I
vote for 14...N-K1. N-Q2 looks plausible but I would
rather reserve that square for another piece.
SMILE@UT-SALLY
14 ... Nh5.
Paves the way for f5. Other possibility is Qd7 first. Either
way I believe f5 is the key (as it often is!).
REM@MIT-MC
I'm not much for attacking correctly, so let's prepare
to double rooks: 14. ... Q-Q2 (Qd7) (It also helps a
K-side attack if somebody else can work out the details.)
VANGELDER@SU-SCORE
14. ... Nxe4 (vote)
In spite of what the master says, White can indefinitely prevent f5 by
h3, Bd7, g4. Will the computer find this after Ne8 by Black?
Stronger over the board is 14 ... Nxe4. If 15. Nxe4 f5 16. N/4g5 f4
and Black regains the piece with advantage. The
majority will probably not select this move, which may
be just as well, as attack-by-committee could present
some real problems. Nevertheless, the computer
presumably saw and examined several ply on this line and
it would be interesting to see what it thinks White's
best defense is. An alternate line for White is 15.
Nxe4 f5 16. N/4d2 e4 17. h3 Bh5 18. Bd4 Bg4!? 19.
Nxe4 fxe4 20. Qxe4 Bxf3 21. gxf3 Rf4.
There are many variations, but most are not decisive in
8 ply, so the computer's evaluation function would be
put to the acid test.
ACHEN.PA@XEROX
13 ... Nh5 (keep up the pressure)
this might provoke 14 g3 Bd7, either 15 Nd2 or h4 to
start a counter attack. the black is hoping to exchange
the remaining knight with queen's bishop 16 ... Nf4
then maybe attempt to encircle the white with Qb6
attacking the weakside behind the pawns. (note: if 13
... Nh5 can't 14 ... f5 for the obvious reason)
Solicitation
------------
Your move, please?
Replies to Arpanet: mclure@sri-prism, mclure@sri-unix or
Usenet: ucbvax!menlo70!sri-unix!sri-prism!mclure
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End of AIList Digest
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