[DenisO]

Jack plays WBridge5 today in the 64 board final of the computer championship at Estoril.

It says here that the final will be shown on BBO - is it on the schedule?

http://www.ny-bridge.com/allevy/computerbr.../rrresults.html


Denis

[Walddk]

It's all new to me. We have not been contacted regarding a broadcast from that event. However, if it appears, I will try to get ad hoc commentators.

Roland

[DenisO]

A segment (16bds) or two with commentary would be interesting

Denis

[Walddk]

I have now been informed that it will happen Sunday at 9:50 Paris time, 8:50 am London, 3:50 am New York, 7:50 pm Sydney.

We will be broadcasting the last segment of 16 boards with live expert commentary at 2 tables.

Roland

[DenisO]

Thanks for the update Roland.

Denis

[muggle]

3:50AM east coast! Thanks for the update. I'll make sure to set my alarm clock.

I'm curious about the expert communitiy's opinion of how well the best bridge programs play right now. GIB and Jack seem to make mistakes as my partner, but play great as my opponents.

[DenisO]

Jack has a mountain to climb in the final 16-bd segment - he lags WBridge5 by 48-86 aftter losing the 3rd stanza by 37imps. I don't think Jack has ever taken a drubbing like that before.

[muggle]

Very interesting show. Thanks BBO and organizers and participants for putting it on.

The declarer play and bidding standards where very high. It seems Jack was done in somewhat by overly aggressive bidding. It probably works very well against weaker opponents, but fails miserably against equal or better. Just like in real life F2F bridge.

Congrats to WB5. I will DL it and try it out.

[DenisO]

Because there were only 6 contestants this year, with two qualifying for the Final (no semi-final as in previous years), Jack was deliberately set up to play even more aggressively than normal. This stategy worked for the Round Robin as Jack topped that. However it seems to have backfired in the Final and Wbridge5 was a worthy winner.

I believe that although Wbridge5 is freeware, the version that played in Estoril is not the same as the free version. This was alluded to by Al Levy at the close of the commentary. I don't know if there are plans to release the stronger version.

[chicken]

what versionnumber was jack? i tested 1 or 2 hands with 3.0 and 2.04 and got different actions. i would like to know some feedback about WB5 because the program in the stores very often differs a lot from the championshipsoftware, thats why i stick to jack.

[Gerben42]

Wouldn't the programmer be allowed to change settings according to the state-of-the-match or at least make a "self-adapting-setting" that deals with both RR and KO environment. I can imagine real people taking different decisions in those situations, esp. if down with 16 boards to play or so. Jack should be allowed to do the same.

Jack is still the best!

[helene_t]

Dutch magazine IMP ran a number of test matches between Jack and various expert pairs. Jack lost some of the matches but won more of them. It is probably at about the same level as the Dutch national selection. Not far behind, anyway.

[barmar]

Gerben42, on Nov 2 2005, 07:50 AM, said:

Wouldn't the programmer be allowed to change settings according to the state-of-the-match or at least make a "self-adapting-setting" that deals with both RR and KO environment. I can imagine real people taking different decisions in those situations, esp. if down with 16 boards to play or so. Jack should be allowed to do the same.

If the programmer is changing settings during the match, IMHO it's like a kibitzer giving advice to a player, e.g. whispering to him "since you're behind, you should bid more aggressively".

So if you want your program to adjust its play based on the state of the match, that has to be built into the program. It would be OK if this is an option that can be set when starting the tournament (like the "self-adapting-setting" you mention), but I don't think the programmer should be allowed to make any changes to settings once the event has gotten under way.

A program that knows how to adjust its behavior automatically is arguably a better player than one that can't, and deserves to win. Why should the latter type of program be allowed an assist from its programmer?

[chicken]

Quote

Gerben42:Jack is still the best! smile.gif

and he?/it is dutch!