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Subject: Re: EGTB: Until what depth ?

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 10:03:14 03/30/01

Go up one level in this thread


On March 30, 2001 at 12:34:37, Christophe Theron wrote:

>On March 30, 2001 at 03:29:51, Tony Werten wrote:
>
>>On March 29, 2001 at 22:38:33, Christophe Theron wrote:
>>
>>>On March 29, 2001 at 16:01:51, Tony Werten wrote:
>>>
>>>>On March 29, 2001 at 15:12:21, Christophe Theron wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On March 29, 2001 at 14:39:34, Tony Werten wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>On March 29, 2001 at 14:21:16, Christophe Theron wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>On March 29, 2001 at 13:49:06, Tony Werten wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>On March 29, 2001 at 13:31:59, Christophe Theron wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>On March 29, 2001 at 09:14:57, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>On March 29, 2001 at 06:22:13, Jouni Uski wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>On March 29, 2001 at 06:17:50, Alexander Kure wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>On March 29, 2001 at 04:37:19, Tony Werten wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>Hi all,
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>until what depth do various programs probe the tablebases ?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>cheers,
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>Tony
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>Hi Tony,
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>In London 2000, I let Nimzo 8 play with a depth of 6 plies, but later I came to
>>>>>>>>>>>>the conclusion that 8 plies might be better overall. This is indeed the default
>>>>>>>>>>>>setting of NimzoX and Varguz playing on ICC.
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>Greetings
>>>>>>>>>>>>Alex
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>Sorry one stupid question: is this the first or last 6/8 plys?
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>Jouni
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>His statement would make no sense if it were the _last_ 6-8 plies.  Those
>>>>>>>>>>are the ones that kill performance if you aren't careful.  The first 6-8 plies
>>>>>>>>>>don't cost a thing.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>But it could also mean it probes TBs in all the plies except the last 6/8.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>Meaning that if Nimzo is doing a X plies search, then the program probes the TBs
>>>>>>>>>in the tree for all nodes that have a distance from the root below or equal to
>>>>>>>>>X-6 (or X-8).
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>Could be but that would mean, with an average depth of 10 to 12, you'd be
>>>>>>>>probing the first 4 to 6 ply. I mean, it helps but it could help more.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>That is, not counting extensions, but you if you search 10 ply, you don't know (
>>>>>>>>at ply 8 ) how many plies are still coming.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>cheers,
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>Tony
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>But you know how many plies you have done since the root position...
>>>>>>
>>>>>>2 possibilities:
>>>>>>- We are talking about different things
>>>>>>- I don't get it
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Might be both.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Tony
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>You don't know how many extensions you are going to do, so you just ignore
>>>>>extensions and assume you are going to search full width the same number of
>>>>>plies as your iteration number.
>>>>>
>>>>>So at iteration 10, stop probing TBs after two moves from the root (assuming
>>>>>like Nimzo that you don't probe in the last 8 plies of search).
>>>>>
>>>>>That is why I say "you know how many plies you have done since the root
>>>>>position...".
>>>>
>>>>But then you don't have almost no depths where you probe. (In your example only
>>>>ply 1 and 2 )
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>Yes, but your NPS does not go too low then.
>>>
>>>It's a compromise between speed of search and accuracy of the evaluation.
>>>
>>>Don't forget that accessing a TB slot can be as expensive as searching 1000
>>>nodes (depends on your program). And that many TB accesses are just a waste of
>>>time because they are not going to have any influence on your main line.
>>>
>>>I'm not saying that 8 plies like in Nimzo is the right number (actually I'm not
>>>even sure that Nimzo does it this way).
>>>
>>>In Tiger I stop accessing the tablebases a few plies before I reach the horizon.
>>>If I don't do that the program gets much weaker because of the dramatically
>>>slower NPS.
>>
>>Make your program slower !
>>
>>XiniX is a slow searcher and I'm testing on slow hardware so I hardly notice a
>>slowdown because of probing. ( Might not be the best solution )
>>
>>The idea I have for probing a lot is that if a position is worth being searched,
>>it's probably worth being probed. ( Unless you're very near to the leafs )
>>
>>Hmm, search position normal, then store no nodes in hashtable, then when
>>searched second time: if n.o. nodes>1000 do probe. I'll have a try.
>>Maybe combined with: first x ply always probe.
>>
>>Positions below current position stored in hashtable can help with enhanced
>>transposition cutoffs as well.
>>
>>I'll put it in my totry book.
>>
>>Tony
>
>
>If you search 1000 positions per second and your hard disk is fast enough to
>make 1000 probes per second, don't hesitate, you can probe everywhere in the
>tree.
>
>But if you can make 100000 NPS, then probing always will weaken your program
>significantly.
>
>That's also why you need 2 days to implement TBs in a program, and 2 months to
>have them working right (improving the strength of your program).
>
>
>
>    Christophe


Note that even though you search 1M nodes per second as I do.  I _never_ probe
at that rate.  Because if you only probe for captures that take you to 5 or
fewer pieces, you eliminate most of the nodes quickly and don't probe there.
The requirement that Move(ply-1)-> capture and TotalPieces(ply)<=5 _really_
restricts the number of probes, because if you probe there and you don't get
a hit, you won't probe anywhere _below_ that node in the tree until another
capture is made...



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