Conference turris::bridge

1954.0. "GIB (Goren-In-a-Box) news" by DAVIDB::DMILLER (This bug fix broke what???????) Fri Mar 28 1997 15:25

	GIB is Matt Ginsburg's double dummy solver and bridge player in
	one.  More info can be found at http://www.cirl.uoregon.edu/gib

	-Dave

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Newsgroups: rec.games.bridge
Subject: GIB v 1.2.10 (1.2.final?) released
From: [email protected] (Matthew L. Ginsberg)
Date: 28 Mar 1997 00:14:40 GMT

This is a status report on the GIB work.

First off, I have fixed a variety of bugs that have been plaguing the
recent releases.  My apologies; most of them involved my attempting to
keep multiple versions of the system current.  (A development one, a
released one, one for the Bridge Master folks to play with, and so
on.)  Provided that it is reasonably bug-free, this is the final
version of GIB that will be made freely available.  (It will be
available for free indefinitely, though.)

The two other main aspects of the GIB work are going smoothly.  Fred
Gitelman has combined GIB with his Bridge Master product in a way that
makes a usable interface; some of the nice features of what he's done
are that it is possible to interrupt GIB at any point and have it play
what appears to be the best card, and GIB highlights its current
choice of play as its analysis proceeds.  Fred and I hope that a GIB
product will be available early next year.

The bidding work is going well also.  I've got what appear to be
reasonable rules defining what bids mean (including Truscott's book,
where it applies), and GIB now selects its bid in a judgment-free way
by finding the bid that is the best match for its actual holding.  (In
the event of a tie, the bid with the narrowest meaning is chosen.)
Not yet implemented is the process of using a Borel simulation to help
GIB select its call; each deal in the simulation will be "bid out"
using the judgment-free rules, and the call that appears to work the
best will be selected.

Various public exhibitions of GIB are still in the works.  The $2500
challenge match against Bridge Baron is set for the weekend of 6/14 on
OKBridge, from 12-4 PM and 6-11 PM East Coast time.  I have suggested
to Matt Clegg that he make OKB free for the entire weekend, to
encourage people to watch the GIB match and to have a look at the rest
of the OKB services.  The winner of this match will play a short
exhibition match against a top human pair during the Albuquerque
nationals (also over OKBridge, probably at 1 PM East Coast time on
7/29).

The ACBL is also organizing a bridge program championship during
Albuquerque, and GIB may or may not participate.  Finally, we're
working on putting together a series of four challenge matches during
1998 with substantial prizes.  Each match would (tentatively) pit one
pair of GIBs and one pair of humans against two pairs of humans in a
64-board match.

More details will follow as I obtain them ...

						Matt Ginsberg

  While it is not particularly relevant, Matt is a former college roommate of mine.  We haven't
communicated in some time but ran into each other in Dallas at the Spring Nationals.

Matt has a very impressive record of developing intelligent systems long before doing so was
fashionable.  I would be willing to bet his computer bridge system will beat anything else out
there.