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Subject: Re: Double Nullmove

Author: José Carlos

Date: 23:36:28 04/25/02

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On April 25, 2002 at 19:50:21, Ricardo Gibert wrote:

>On April 25, 2002 at 17:13:41, José Carlos wrote:
>
>>On April 25, 2002 at 15:27:26, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>
>>>On April 25, 2002 at 13:49:42, Dann Corbit wrote:
>>>
>>>>On April 25, 2002 at 13:26:43, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On April 25, 2002 at 12:39:36, J. Wesley Cleveland wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>On April 25, 2002 at 02:54:03, Andreas Herrmann wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Hi,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>I want to implement double nullmove in my chess engine again. Now i'm searching
>>>>>>>for Zugzwang postions, which should be solved by double nullmove instead of
>>>>>>>normal nullmove.
>>>>>>>Another question: How much time costs the double null move in the average.
>>>>>>>I have tested it in some positions, and my engine needs about 30 to 40 percent
>>>>>>>more time for the same search depth. Is that normal or is that to much.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>That seems like far too much. Are you reducing the search depth again for the
>>>>>>second nullmove and only doing it when the first nullmove causes a cutoff? You
>>>>>>might also not want to do it too near the leafs, i.e. if the first nullmove goes
>>>>>>directly into your quiescence search.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>One simple test... determine how often, in normal positions, the _second_ null-
>>>>>move search fails high.  Whenever it does, the the first null-move search fails
>>>>>low and is useless.  that is probably where the cost is being exposed...
>>>>>
>>>>>In zug positions, the second fail high will cause the first to fail low, which
>>>>>prevents zug problems.  But if it also causes a large number of normal positions
>>>>>to fail this test as well, then it is losing part of the advantage of null-move
>>>>>in general...
>>>>
>>>>I had a notion about double null move --
>>>>
>>>>Implement double null move in the place where normally you will just turn null
>>>>move off [except for check].  Use your regular null move algorithm as always,
>>>>but when conditions indicate null move is not a good idea, switch to double null
>>>>move.
>>>
>>>
>>>If it was easy to identify positions where a null-move might cause problems,
>>>the problem would already be solved.
>>>
>>>:)
>>
>>  But I think Dann's idea is very logical, since a lot of us simply disable null
>
>When did it become "Dann's idea"? This is an obvious idea that occurs to every
>person who considers double null move seriously.

  I didn't mean to offend anyone. Dann said it; I had never though about double
null move before; Bob answered; then I called it Dann's idea just to name
someway, nothing more. But from now on, I'll call it "every person who considers
double null move seriously"'s idea :)

  José C.


>>move in some positions. Using double null move _only_ there must be better than
>>disabling it. Of course, that doesn't solve the problem of zugzwang in unepected
>>situations.
>>
>>  José C.



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