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Subject: Re: Scatha 0.2.6 released

Author: Ross Boyd

Date: 04:17:37 10/04/05

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On October 04, 2005 at 02:49:30, Alessandro Scotti wrote:

>On October 04, 2005 at 02:35:29, Ross Boyd wrote:
>
>>I've had a user request for this feature. To be honest, it goes against the
>>grain after toiling so hard for a handful of elo here and there. However, I plan
>>to honour the request when T2 is released which is still a long way off yet.
>>
>>As you indicate, its not as simple as randomly pruning moves from ply 2.
>>
>>My user suggested two approaches.
>>1. Make the search depth random between two adjustable depths- for example 3ply
>>and 6ply. Apparently this method is used in Crafty SE...
>>2. Make the engine choose ply 1 moves randomly but within a certain score range
>>of the best move... so it would occasionally play poor moves that lead to lower
>>positional scores without throwing pieces away.
>
>Hi Ross,
>that's a possible approach, but I don't like to throw away information. Instead,
>it should be possible to search all root moves at full depth and then pick one
>according to its score *and* PV.
>So if engine sees its score go up thanks to a tactical shot that gains material,
>it can "overlook" that continuation and pick another line. Conversely, if it
>finds a line where it goes down a piece with a capture that happens a couple of
>moves down the PV it can play that and see if the opponent takes the chance.
>There are other possibilities as well, to use for evaluation, e.g. leaving king,
>rooks and queen in "forkable" positions, downplaying king safety a bit and so on
>in order to increase the chance that a combination can be found... this should
>help in getting fun I think.

Hi Alessandro, yes that sounds good!

I like the idea of making a sparring partner that rewards a certain skepticism.
If there's anything that bugs me when playing computers its  that horrible
inevitable feeling that the computer never misses anything (tactically).

Nowadays when I play a computer I like playing the older weaker dedicated units
because they allow me to play a more natural game. Against tough computer
opponents I tend to play anti-computer stuff which ruins the fun completely.





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