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Subject: Re: Uri's ETC

Author: Dieter Buerssner

Date: 14:26:21 03/24/04

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On March 24, 2004 at 17:14:26, Tord Romstad wrote:

>On March 24, 2004 at 16:52:04, Dieter Buerssner wrote:
>

>>Are there cases, where ETC on needs one depth more, to solve a tactical
>>problem, than ETC off? I would guess, that this could be the case now and
>>then.
>
>I am 100% sure it happens now and then, and I'm also 100% sure that the
>opposite thing happens.

Yes, I don't doubt, that the opposite can happen (although it would not happen
in a plain alpha-beta search without extensions/pruning).

>One of the things I consider when making pruning
>and reduction decisions is the history of the move.  Moves which have
>very rarely failed high in the past are more likely to be pruned or reduced.
>Of course, it will happen many places in the tree that one particular move
>at one particular node is pruned with ETC disabled and not pruned with
>ETC enabled, because the history count of the move will be different in the
>two cases.
>
>Even tiny changes in my move ordering often results in a tactical problem
>being solved one ply earlier or later.

No doubt about this. Without having it tried yet, I feel that ignoring extension
decisions for ETC is more severe, however (somehow like a first order error
term, while other things you mention are second order error terms). After all,
we think we have a good reason to extend some moves. Getting a cutoff into the
search tree (or better graph) by ignoring that reason seems dubios to me.

>>Are you trying ETC after hash probing and before null move?
>
>No, after both.

Can you elaborate? I don't see the sense in doing this twice.

Regards,
Dieter



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