Hint mode giving bad hints (Python engine analyzing)

[GoogleCodeExporter]

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. Set up the PyChess engine as the analyzer
2. Check on Hint mode
3. Play a game on an easy level (let's say 3)
4. PyChess will now give bad (weak if not absolute blunder) moves!

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?
Expected output is a good move (like using crafty of GNUChess).
What I see is a bad hint

Does it happen every time?

What version of the product are you using?
I think it's called "trunk"?  I got it off the SVN.

Did you use an installed version of PyChess or did you run in from a
tarball/svn?
SVN

Please provide any additional information below.
That's all I think you need to see the problem.  The analyzer (Hint mode)
is better when you start a game on level 10, but on the lower levels its
atrocious!

Please attach the latest pychess logfile. It's in a hidden folder, under
your homedirectory, named ".pychess/"

This last game just gave me some bad advice and stopped giving advice.  I
don't know what's up.  Crafty will give good advice, but then stops at some
point (maybe when it finds mate?).  I'm attaching the logs now.

Thank you so much for everything.  Please look into this if you could. 
This is one of the few linux games I play.  I'd love to see it get better.
 If there's anything I could do (short of program because I don't know
python) please let me know!!!

THANKS!!!

Sincerely,
John Zollo

Original issue reported on code.google.com by zollo.j...@gmail.com on 8 Mar 2009 at 2:08

Attachments:

• 2009-03-07_21-02-27.log
• 2009-03-07_21-02-40.log

[GoogleCodeExporter]

@Zollo, "Hint mode" and also "Spy mode" are totally useless according to my
experiance. I hope developers will make this two modes more useful.

@delopers: Are there any settings to improve this two modes?

Original comment by igo...@gmail.com on 9 Mar 2009 at 1:26

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I think that hint mode is actually very useful.  I've used it with crafty as the
analyzer, and it hasn't let me down.  Using PyChess engine for the analyzer 
doesn't
yield as good results -- hence starting this issue!

Thanks!

Sincerely,
john

Original comment by zollo.j...@gmail.com on 9 Mar 2009 at 3:30

[GoogleCodeExporter]

You'd better to chose crafty or gnuchess or any stronger engines for analyzing 
as
PyChess engine itself is by far the weakest engine (it's in Python!). Of course 
it's
the strongest Python engine ever :)

Original comment by gbtami on 9 Mar 2009 at 3:43

[GoogleCodeExporter]

As Tamás writes, there is no hope for the PyChess engine giving as good hints 
as Crafty.
Should we change this issue to "Crafty stops analyzing after it has found a 
mate"? Is
that reproduceable?

Original comment by lobais on 9 Mar 2009 at 4:24

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Ok, I'm sorry.  I was a little mistaken on this one. I though that the PyChess 
Engine
Analyzer only analyzed on the same level one would be playing at.  In 
otherwords, if
you played level 1, the advice would be level 1 and thereby very bad.  On the
otherhand if one played level 8, the advice would be level 8 and therefore very 
good.
 That doesn't seem to be true.  I played a game on both level 8 and level 1, and the
advice was very similiar and fairly good.  Although a few days ago when I 
started the
issue, the advice was terrible. The analyzer told me to drop a piece.  

I am now realizing maybe the PyChess engine isn't that fast on my computer.  
I've
noticed after playing a few more games, the hint gets better after waiting a few
seconds.  I literally just played a game where PyChess told me to put my bishop 
in a
position that would lose it.  After I undo'd the move, it still gave me the same
advice.  I had to wait a few seconds for PyChess to give me advice that was good
(maybe 5 seconds).  Maybe this is what happened the other time, I didn't give 
pychess
a chance to think!

Let me know what you think!

john 

Original comment by zollo.j...@gmail.com on 9 Mar 2009 at 8:46

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Your analysis is correct :)
For the first hint PyChess gives, it doesn't consider the opponents responce. 
That it
is only look half a move into the future.
I don't know if the game should have some kind of warning for this. I'd thought
people would notice fairly quickly ;)

Original comment by lobais on 9 Mar 2009 at 9:30

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Ok, so as I've played more games, I have noticed that PyChess will give better 
hints
the longer one waits for it.  I guess we can just leave it  the way it is.  I 
got ued
to it, I'm sure other people will to.  If they have a problem with it, then 
they can
always use another engine for the analyzer.  I guess you can close this out.

Sincerely,
john

Original comment by zollo.j...@gmail.com on 10 Mar 2009 at 2:44

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Original comment by gbtami on 19 Mar 2009 at 8:21

• Changed state: Invalid
• Added labels: Type-Defect