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Subject: Re: About diminishing returns (Uri)

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 12:38:01 11/23/01

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On November 23, 2001 at 14:31:39, Uri Blass wrote:

>On November 23, 2001 at 10:57:08, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>
>>On November 23, 2001 at 03:45:35, Uri Blass wrote:
>>
>>>On November 22, 2001 at 22:50:31, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>
>>>>On November 22, 2001 at 21:26:37, Dan Andersson wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>>It is anectodal from the perspective I gave...  namely that of playing
>>>>>>A vs A (different depths) to extrapolate how A does at increasing depths
>>>>>>against _anybody_.
>>>>>>
>>>>>I have to agree, but in its own context it would be called substantiated. The
>>>>>context or contexts of the different points of your posting was, IMO ambiguous.
>>>>>That's why i posted the factoid in return. I hope someone with more time in hand
>>>>>makes a similar test, in regards to accuracy and reliability. Many obstacles to
>>>>>generalisation to A B matches when A neq B exist. The internal definition of ply
>>>>>is one. Different extensions strategies is another. Bugs that occur rarely but
>>>>>wastes good play, or are a function of depth being a prime or generally a
>>>>>function of depth ... etc. It might even be that diminished returns between two
>>>>>different programs is dependent on too many factors to be measured reliably. One
>>>>>criterion that ought to be fulfilled before trying to find diminishing returns
>>>>>between two different programs. One that needs to be there, is that both
>>>>>programs show diminishing return in self play testing. I cannot give a valid
>>>>>reason right now. But I have a hunch that it might be an almost necessary
>>>>>prerequisite. Any thoughts?
>>>>>
>>>>>MvH Dan Andersson
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>Something tells me that for A vs A, there _must_ be a diminishing return,
>>>>because all that changes is the depth.  But in A vs B, the search depth is just
>>>>one difference between the two players.
>>>>
>>>>I _always_ find positions where another ply (or another N plies) would find
>>>>the right move...
>>>
>>>I do not understand why do you think that in A vs A there must be a diminishing
>>>returns.
>>>
>>>Is it the situation in all the other games?
>>>
>>>Uri
>>
>>The math suggests it is true.  If the _only_ thing that is different between
>>player (A) and player (B) is one ply of search, then going from 19-20 is less
>>of a change than going from 4-5.  It is possible that even this is not true,
>>of course, but intuitively it should be so.
>
>I do not see a reason to assume that intuitively there is diminishing return if
>you play the program against itself when you have not diminishing returns when
>you play with different programs.
>
>Suppose  that you have a game when half of the positions A does not understand
>and half of the positions B does not understand.
>
>At small depthes tactics is going to dominate so more plies are going to help
>between A and B.
>
>At big depthes in half of the cases A is going to lose the positions that it
>does not understand and in the second half B is going to lose the positions that
>it does not understand and you are going to get 50%.
>
>The depth is not going to be important because at every depth that is smaller
>than 30 plies and bigger than 10 plies the program that does not understand the
>position is not going to have enough depth to solve the problem by search.
>
>Uri


I can envision programs with an evaluation that gets better with depth, which
would make them behave _differently_ against other programs as opposed to
how they would self-play.  Whether this really happens or not is only a guess
at present.  But concluding that diminishing returns happens _only_ by playing
A vs A is also nothing more than a guess when extrapolated to the general case
of all programs at deeper depths.




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