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Subject: Re: Never Say "Impossible"

Author: J. Wesley Cleveland

Date: 14:27:53 05/16/01

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On May 16, 2001 at 16:27:16, Robert Hyatt wrote:

>On May 16, 2001 at 16:07:11, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>
>>On May 16, 2001 at 15:10:33, J. Wesley Cleveland wrote:
>>
>>>On May 16, 2001 at 14:07:18, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>
>>>>On May 16, 2001 at 13:05:13, J. Wesley Cleveland wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On May 15, 2001 at 22:11:15, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>On May 15, 2001 at 12:18:43, J. Wesley Cleveland wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>[snip]
>>>>>
>>>>>>>>First, how do you conclude 10^25?  assuming alpha/beta and sqrt(N)?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>It is a classic alpha-beta search with a transposition table large enough to
>>>>>>>hold *all* positions found in the search. I'm guessing at the number of
>>>>>>>positions, but I feel that the same logic should hold, as only positions with
>>>>>>>one side playing perfectly would be seen.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>I don't follow.  We know that within the 50 move rule, the longest game that
>>>>>>can be played is something over 10,000 plies.  IE 50 moves, then a pawn push
>>>>>>or capture, then 50 more, etc.  Eventually you run out of pieces and it is a
>>>>>>draw.  But 38^10000 and 10^25 seem to have little in common.  The alpha/beta
>>>>>>algorithm is going to search about 38^50000 nodes to search that tree to max
>>>>>>depth of 10,000.
>>>>>
>>>>>Look at it another way. The only positions that are visited by an alpha/beta
>>>>>search (with perfect move ordering) are those where one side plays perfectly.
>>>>>The question is what fraction of the total number of positions that is.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>The precise formula is:
>>>>
>>>>    N = W^floor(D/2) + W^ceil(D/2) for all D.  floor means round down in integer
>>>>math, ceil means round up.  For the cases where D is even:
>>>>
>>>>    N = 2 * W^(D/2)  which is 2 * sqrt(minimax).
>>>>
>>>>If you assume that the total number of positions is roughly 2^168, then you
>>>>get 2 * sqrt(2^168) or 2 * 2^84.  Which is fairly close to the number of atoms
>>>>in the universe.
>>>
>>>2^84 = 1.9*10^25 If these were atoms, it would be 32 moles, or about 1kg of
>>>silicon.
>>
>>
>>I discovered that I was having a small overflow problem on my calculator.  It
>>told me that 2^84 was roughly 10^81, which is wrong.
>
>
>I should add, however, that if you searched at DB2's peak speed of one billion
>nodes per second, and you could search non-stop for one trillion years (longer
>than the expected life of the universe) you would not quite reach the 1% done
>stage....
You really need to get that calculator fixed. 10^9 nps * 3.15*10^7 seconds/year
*10^12 years = 3.15*10^28 nodes. But, if Moore's law holds until the end of the
century, we should be able to solve chess at blitz speeds.



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