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Subject: Re: Speaking of the Thesis by Marcel van Kervinck (hopefully no storms).

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 07:11:42 09/07/02

Go up one level in this thread


On September 07, 2002 at 04:12:17, Dave Gomboc wrote:

>On September 06, 2002 at 21:27:36, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>
>>On September 06, 2002 at 20:43:55, Dave Gomboc wrote:
>>
>>>On September 06, 2002 at 18:44:22, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>
>>>>On September 06, 2002 at 16:26:44, Tony Werten wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On September 06, 2002 at 16:15:25, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>On September 06, 2002 at 16:06:43, Tony Werten wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>On September 06, 2002 at 16:03:06, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>On September 06, 2002 at 15:46:53, Tony Werten wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>On September 06, 2002 at 14:45:11, Dann Corbit wrote:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>Did anyone notice his cutoff idea in the evaluation function?
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>It seems to me to be a very good idea, and I don't know if others have tried it
>>>>>>>>>>out.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>Basically, it consists of three modes with two early exits...
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>1. If the material + structure score alone is dominant enough, it exits right
>>>>>>>>>>away.
>>>>>>>>>>2. Otherwise, it processes the piece list.  If that score is dominant, it exits.
>>>>>>>>>>3. Otherwise, it does a full board control scan for all 64 squares.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>It is described starting on page 62 under the section "3.3.2 Multi Staged
>>>>>>>>>>Design"
>>>>>>>>>>He gets roughly 71% evals returning in stage #1, 13% in stage #2 and 7% in stage
>>>>>>>>>>#3.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>It seems like it might be a big win to do it that way.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>It's called lazy eval and is not a good idea. The times it is wrong happen to be
>>>>>>>>>the important ones.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>Tony
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>Two things...
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>First, you _can_ do a lazy eval with zero error.  I did it in Cray Blitz and
>>>>>>>>I explained the idea here before...
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>You can compute the possible "positional error" (the amount the score will
>>>>>>>>change max and min) for each type of piece.  When you do a lazy eval, you
>>>>>>>>can use this min/max and sum 'em up (or do it incrementally as we did, which
>>>>>>>>can be a headache) so that you know the "independent piece max/min scores".
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>If you lazy eval based on that, you get _zero_ errors because you will _really_
>>>>>>>>know that the individual piece scores can't produce a number larger than X or
>>>>>>>>smaller than Y, so you can make an informed decision.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>I don't do that today because each time you change the eval, you have to
>>>>>>>>update those min/max values which is something I would continually forget.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Yes, correct. But when you get 71% hitrate your bounds are not very wide.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>2.  You can get good results with remembering the min/max positional scores
>>>>>>>>during a real game.  yes, the scores will continue to "widen" and reduce lazy
>>>>>>>>eval exits, but the error rate is not that bad.  Compared to the cost.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>In XiniX the hitrate drops to <5% quite fast this way. IMO not really worth it.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Tony
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>I don't see it drop that far, but I don't watch it carefully unless I am
>>>>>>suspecting trouble either...  I will take a longer look.
>>>>>
>>>>>Might be better for other programs i think. My kingsafety is calculated during
>>>>>the piece evaluations as is my passed pawn score. ( to name 2 big ones )
>>>>>
>>>>>Tony
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>Mine is actually calculated _last_ as I need to know stuff about all the
>>>>pieces first.  But I just factor that into the "error window".  The passed
>>>>pawn scores and stuff like trapped bishops are done early since they are
>>>>big values too.
>>>
>>>Not big enough, judging from that bishop on a8 in the other thread. <grin>
>>>
>>>Dave
>>
>>
>>Wrong bishop idea.  :)
>>
>>I am talking about white playing Bxa7 and black playing b6 which traps the
>>bishop.  :)
>
>What's the difference?  You're down a piece either way.  One just stays on the
>board a while longer!
>
>Dave


One is probably going to be lost.  The other might one day see light again,
although in _that_ position probably not.  But even then it might help defend
a weak pawn and act like a "tall pawn"...

But the a8 bishop was bad of course...



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