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Subject: Re: Why dont engines support the egtb format that Chessmaster uses?

Author: Dann Corbit

Date: 16:05:09 04/01/04

Go up one level in this thread


On April 01, 2004 at 18:38:59, Sune Fischer wrote:

>On April 01, 2004 at 18:29:27, Dann Corbit wrote:
>
>>On April 01, 2004 at 17:59:38, Eugene Nalimov wrote:
>>
>>>On April 01, 2004 at 15:16:34, Marc Bourzutschky wrote:
>>>
>>>>The Chessmaster format is indeed better
>>>
>>>What does it mean "better"? :-)
>>>
>>>It stores less information, thus compresses better.
>>
>>I have an idea that I think would be helpful if you should be so kind as to
>>perform it.
>>
>>Write a scanner that reads your wonderful EGTB files and spits out a two bit
>>state only for each position (won/lost/drawn/broke) to create bitbase files.
>>
>>The reason I suggest it is that a bazillion programmers won't have to reinvent
>>the wheel.
>>
>>I suggest the use of the bitbase files early in the search (completely pulled
>>into ram) and then EGTB at the leaves if the bitbase indicates it is worthwhile.
>
>You must mean it the opposite way, bitbases at the leaves and EGTBs a near root?
>
>I think it would be better to use bitbases in the entire search and only use
>full EGTBs when the position is at the root.
>
>Or, if you want the search to eventually return mate scores, probe EGTBs when
>bitbases say it is won and beta>=mate_bound or bitbases says it lost and
>alpha<=-mate_bound.
>Perhaps probing directly into EGTBs when window allows it would be faster,
>matter of tuning of course.

I guess I had not thought about it carefully enough.  I imagined using bitbases
to get a won/lost/drawn opinion (at all nodes).  But unless you know the exact
value of the leaves, I don't see how you can choose the best move.

I imagined something like this:
If the best evaluation is drawn or lost, who cares.  Do whatever move is among
the suggested list.
If the best evaluation is won, then:
Examine the bottom leaves that are won and perk the correct values back up.

How will we otherwise find the true value?  I am afraid I don't understand how
it can work.





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