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Subject: Re: Missing Simple Tactics [OT]

Author: blass uri

Date: 07:42:28 05/03/00

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On May 03, 2000 at 10:34:28, Ed Schröder wrote:

>On May 03, 2000 at 09:41:13, Dan Ellwein wrote:
>
>>On May 03, 2000 at 01:21:58, Ed Schröder wrote:
>>
>>>On May 03, 2000 at 00:17:28, blass uri wrote:
>>>
>>>>On May 02, 2000 at 07:38:08, Ed Schröder wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On May 02, 2000 at 06:26:34, Michael Neish wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Hello,
>>>>>>
>>>>>>I wonder whether anyone could help me, or offer any suggestions as to the
>>>>>>following little problem.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>The program I'm writing needs two ply to see what I think should take only one
>>>>>>ply.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>In the position below White wins material by the blindingly obvious Bg5.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>[D]6k1/pp1nrppp/5rb1/P2P4/5BP1/5P2/4BK1P/R3R3 b - -
>>>>>>
>>>>>>However, if I set my program to look only one ply deep, it doesn't see this
>>>>>>move, and prefers Bb5.  At two ply, though, it sees it all right.  I think one
>>>>>>ply should be enough, as the Qsearch ought to take care of the ensuing
>>>>>>exchanges.  Indeed, other programs I have tried manage to find it easily enough
>>>>>>in one ply.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>This might be a trivial position, but if it's taking longer than it should to
>>>>>>see these tactics then I could be wasting plies in my search.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>By the way, in case anyone asks, I'm not doing anything unusual in Qsearch.  I
>>>>>>call Eval() first, return if it fails high, otherwise set alpha to the Eval()
>>>>>>score if it's greater than alpha, and then search through the available
>>>>>>captures.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Thanks for your help.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Mike.
>>>>>
>>>>>Rebel gives a bonus of 1.00 in eval for Bg5 assuming one of those rooks
>>>>>get lost. A higher bonus is quite risky as the opponent often has an
>>>>>escape. The effect in search is minor. It was effective in the days of
>>>>>programs running at 5 Mhz hiting 5-6 plies only. Nowadays I would not
>>>>>spend time on such (processor) time consuming cases.
>>>>>
>>>>>Ed
>>>>
>>>>I do not understand why not.
>>>>
>>>>If there is a long line when the final position is one of these cases
>>>>you can have a better evaluation.
>>>>
>>>>Usually long lines are not forced so the effect may be better positional moves
>>>>and not tactics.
>>>>
>>>>Uri
>>>
>>>Your point sounds very plausible but isn't true. Search solves these
>>>kind of cases and you only end up with some speed loss. Running a
>>>set of 500 positions only gave a few (non-important) different moves.
>>>
>>>That is one of the crazy things of CC, you have to go from scratch on
>>>your code every 3-4 years as many things that were good then are
>>>out-dated now because of increasing hardware (Mhz & Ram).
>>>
>>>A few days ago I wrote something about 1992 and one instruction making
>>>Rebel (The ChessMachine then) stronger. It made me think about and as
>>>a result I improved that piece of code with a net result of 28% speed
>>>gain. The change would not have been a good idea in 1992.
>>>
>>>Search is a strange animal and hard to understand for the human brain.
>>>It is full of unexpected surprises. I estimate that after 20 years
>>>wrestling with search I only understand 5% (or so) of search.
>>>
>>>Ed
>>
>>
>>Ed...
>>
>>sounds like there might be a correlation here between search and the human
>>brain...
>>
>>in that we 'only' use about 5% of our brain...
>>
>>and...
>>
>>after many years of performing brute force/selective search techniques (going
>>back to Shannon - 1950's), we only understand about 5% of what's really going
>>on...
>>
>>well... any-way...
>>
>>just a thought
>>
>>:)
>>
>>PilgrimDan
>
>Well maybe the 5% is also true for life itself no matter what age :-)
>
>Ed

I think trying to understand more is a good idea because knowing the reason that
something help your program may help you to discover more ideas to help your
program.

Uri



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