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Subject: Re: Futility Pruning

Author: Vincent Diepeveen

Date: 14:40:10 12/20/02

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On December 20, 2002 at 17:36:20, Tony Werten wrote:

>On December 20, 2002 at 17:20:26, Uri Blass wrote:
>
>>On December 20, 2002 at 16:30:32, Vincent Diepeveen wrote:
>>
>>>On December 20, 2002 at 12:02:23, Uri Blass wrote:
>>>
>>>>On December 20, 2002 at 11:26:28, Richard Pijl wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On December 20, 2002 at 10:54:01, Vincent Diepeveen wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>On December 20, 2002 at 08:23:59, Russell Reagan wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>No futility is 100% different from lazy evaluation.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Futility in fact selects less moves (in qsearch)
>>>>>>based upon alfa or beta and lazy evaluation gives
>>>>>>back a quick score a lot of the times.
>>>>>
>>>>>They are still related in a sense that both 'cut-off' the work to be done by
>>>>>saying that it can't get good enough to improve alpha, so better stop working on
>>>>>it.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>If you search a ply deeper a futile pruned move should not
>>>>>>get pruned, whereas a lazy evaluated position will give problems
>>>>>>no matter what depth you search.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>In contradiction to draughts where everything is seen fullwidth,
>>>>>>in computerchess the effect of futility can be very bad too,
>>>>>>because last 3 to 4 plies (R=2 versus R=3) the qsearch is returning
>>>>>>back a score instead of a full search.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>If that misses major problems then you are in trouble.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>The argumentation of Heinz that futility is correct, is using the
>>>>>>assumption that an evaluation doesn't get a big score for positional
>>>>>>matters. The problem is that todays top programs do give big scores
>>>>>>though.
>>>>>
>>>>>Although Baron is not a top program yet I'm starting to feel this.
>>>>>To be sure that the wrong nodes aren't getting pruned I wrote a little piece of
>>>>>test code. It returned the highest difference it found between the lazyeval
>>>>>score and the full eval score (but not with passers on the board, and not in the
>>>>>endgame). I added 20% to this and that was the threshold used for both lazyeval
>>>>>and futility pruning. It turned out that with every release of the Baron this
>>>>>value increased.
>>>>>Now I'm working on 0.99.4 and the margin was getting very large, more than 5
>>>>>pawns.
>>>>
>>>>I think that it may be interesting to see the position that you talk about
>>>>
>>>>When do you see a difference of more than 4 pawns between the static evaluation
>>>>and the lazy evaluation?
>>>
>>>define lazy evaluation in this case. Just material component or
>>>a function that quickly estimates lazy eval?
>>
>>I think that the definition of lazy evaluation may be a function that quickly
>>estimates the real evaluation(not just material)
>>
>>The estimate can also say that the big evaluation need to be done in small part
>>of the cases (for example you can decide that if there are no pawns near the
>>king then king safety can get big scores so you cannot trust fast evaluation).
>>
>>>
>>>Note that just a diff of > 4 pawns is not interesting, only when it
>>>would modify alfa or beta it is;
>>>
>>>if lazy eval is 2 pawns white up and actual score is 3 pawns white up
>>>and beta is 1.5, then obviously it is not interesting. A cutoff is
>>>a cutoff, isn't it?
>>>
>>>Idem for <= alfa.
>>>
>>>The interesting thing is when your quick eval with a margin is
>>>at the other side of the bound (alfa or beta) than the real eval.
>>>
>>>In diep i produced a big graph and found out that 1% was wrong.
>>
>>If I understand correctly in 99% of the cases when lazy without margin was in
>>the wrong side of the bound lazy with margin was right.
>>
>>I am still surprised to read it
>>My question is if you evaluate tactical stuff like pins or forks because my
>>opinion is that positions when positional stuff worth more than 3 pawns are
>>rare.
>
>Don't forget that one side only has to be 1,5 pawn up and the other 1,5 pawn
>down.

3 pawns up or 3 pawns down. A window of 3 pawns above beta and a window
of 3 pawns down alfa.



>Tony
>
>>
>>You say that you worked 3 monthes about your fast evaluation so the question is
>>in how many cases only material+margin of +3 is wrong.
>>
>>
>>Uri



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