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Subject: Re: One possible cause of Rybka Weakness in endgames

Author: Dann Corbit

Date: 21:40:15 12/08/05

Go up one level in this thread


On December 08, 2005 at 23:57:51, Uri Blass wrote:

>On December 08, 2005 at 23:35:36, Dann Corbit wrote:
>
>>On December 08, 2005 at 23:19:39, Uri Blass wrote:
>>
>>>On December 08, 2005 at 19:32:53, Dann Corbit wrote:
>>>
>>>>On December 08, 2005 at 19:09:42, Uri Blass wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On December 08, 2005 at 18:27:01, Claude Le Page wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>Sevral posts have noticed that Rybka is rather weak in endgames ,especially
>>>>>>against Junior : this put me on apossible track : when its position is not
>>>>>>clearly better , a Juhior engine uses its fastness to complicate  , and Rybka
>>>>>>must follow at maximum depth ,what is very costly in time : so , in endgame ,
>>>>>>Rybka is in zeitnot , and analyzes only at depth 13 where thr other is at depth
>>>>>>17
>>>>>>The same happens between Junior  and Hiarcs : Their Knowledge slowen hem too
>>>>>>much in front of engines that use long calculated lines
>>>>>>The same seem to happen vs  TogaII 1.1a , whose style is similar to Juniors
>>>>>>Could this be a possible explanation?
>>>>>
>>>>>The reason that rybka has problems in endgame is simply lack of knowledge about
>>>>>the endgame.
>>>>>
>>>>>I do not understand why people try to find other excuses.
>>>>
>>>>Perhaps Rybka is a program that could benefit greatly from EGTB (such that a
>>>>clear increase in Elo does occur from their use).
>>>
>>>I think that it can earn more from endgame knowledge.
>>
>>It is an interesting idea to me to try it both ways.  I am thinking about it
>>this way:
>>
>>Adding endgame knowledge will slow down the eval.
>
>It is not a problem for rybka.
>
>As Vasik explained in the readme file
>
>"Rybka aims to have a fully knowledgeable evaluation function. This term however
>has taken some abuse recently, so let me make something clear: chess knowledge
>wins chess games. If it doesn't, it isn't knowledge."
>
>It already has a lot of middlegame knowkledge in the evaluation and it is
>productive and it is clear that adding endgame knowledge is an easier task as
>Vasik said in one of his posts.
>
>
>  Perhaps leaving it out and
>>allowing the EGTB to handle endgame is good enough.  But what happens when you
>>have not got all the way to EGTB land (e.g. 10 chessmen on the board).
>
>You cannot expect more than 7 piece tablabases in the next few years so I do not
>think that it is relevant.

If there are ten chessmen on the board, then 4 captures means 6 men hits.
Crafty sometimes probes endgames when lots of chessmen are left on the board.

For instance, with 14 chessmen and 5 man tablebase files, I got ten probes here:

[D]3bkb2/3pnp2/4q3/8/8/4Q3/3PNP2/3BKB2 w - -

White(1): epdpfga \probetest.epd probetest.out
PFGA: EPD record: 1
              clearing hash tables
              time surplus   0.00  time limit 16:39 (+0.00) (16:39)
              depth   time  score   variation (1)
                8     0.84   0.13   1. Bh3 Qc6 2. Nd4 Qh1+ 3. Ke2 Bb6 4.
                                    Ba4 f5 5. Kd3
                8     1.17   0.27   1. Bb3 Qf6 2. Bg2 Qa1+ 3. Bd1 Bg7 4.
                                    Be4 Ba5 5. Nf4
                8->   1.44   0.27   1. Bb3 Qf6 2. Bg2 Qa1+ 3. Bd1 Bg7 4.
                                    Be4 Ba5 5. Nf4
                9     1.67   0.10   1. Bb3 Qf6 2. Bg2 Qa1+ 3. Bd1 Bg7 4.
                                    Be4 Bc7 5. Nf4 Bd4
                9     2.25   0.11   1. Bh3 Qc6 2. Bb3 Bg7 3. d4 Ba5+ 4.
                                    Kd1 Qh1+ 5. Kc2 Qc6+ 6. Nc3 d5
                9->   3.78   0.11   1. Bh3 Qc6 2. Bb3 Bg7 3. d4 Ba5+ 4.
                                    Kd1 Qh1+ 5. Kc2 Qc6+ 6. Nc3 d5
               10     5.77   0.15   1. Bh3 Qc6 2. Nd4 Qh1+ 3. Bf1 Bh6 4.
                                    Qe5 Kf8 5. d3 Ng6 6. Qe4
               10->   8.17   0.15   1. Bh3 Qc6 2. Nd4 Qh1+ 3. Bf1 Bh6 4.
                                    Qe5 Kf8 5. d3 Ng6 6. Qe4
               11    38.69   0.26   1. Bh3 Qc6 2. Nd4 Qh1+ 3. Ke2 Qa8 4.
                                    Bc2 Bb6 5. Qe5 Qa7 6. Nb5 Qb7
               11->  42.52   0.26   1. Bh3 Qc6 2. Nd4 Qh1+ 3. Ke2 Qa8 4.
                                    Bc2 Bb6 5. Qe5 Qa7 6. Nb5 Qb7
               12     1:03   0.27   1. Bh3 Qc6 2. Nd4 Qh1+ 3. Ke2 Qd5 4.
                                    Bb3 Qh5+ 5. Qf3 Qxf3+ 6. Kxf3 Bb6 7.
                                    Nb5 Nc6 8. Bf5 Bg7
               12->   1:17   0.27   1. Bh3 Qc6 2. Nd4 Qh1+ 3. Ke2 Qd5 4.
                                    Bb3 Qh5+ 5. Qf3 Qxf3+ 6. Kxf3 Bb6 7.
                                    Nb5 Nc6 8. Bf5 Bg7
               13     2:18   0.34   1. Bh3 Qc6 2. Nd4 Qh1+ 3. Ke2 Qa8 4.
                                    Nb5 Qd5 5. Ba4 Qh5+ 6. Kf1 Bh6 7. Nd6+
                                    Kf8 8. Qd3 Qd5 9. Qxd5 Nxd5 10. d4
               13->   2:49   0.34   1. Bh3 Qc6 2. Nd4 Qh1+ 3. Ke2 Qa8 4.
                                    Nb5 Qd5 5. Ba4 Qh5+ 6. Kf1 Bh6 7. Nd6+
                                    Kf8 8. Qd3 Qd5 9. Qxd5 Nxd5 10. d4
               14     5:56   0.40   1. Bh3 Qxe3 2. dxe3 Ba5+ 3. Kf1 Bg7
                                    4. Ba4 Nc6 5. Kg2 Ke7 6. Bf5 Bb6 7.
                                    Kg3 <HT>
               14->   7:34   0.40   1. Bh3 Qxe3 2. dxe3 Ba5+ 3. Kf1 Bg7
                                    4. Ba4 Nc6 5. Kg2 Ke7 6. Bf5 Bb6 7.
                                    Kg3 <HT>
               15    12:09   0.41   1. Bh3 Qxe3 2. dxe3 Ba5+ 3. Kf1 d5
                                    4. Ba4+ Kd8 5. Bb3 Bh6 6. Ng3 Bb6 7.
                                    Ke2 Kc7 8. Nf5 Nxf5 9. Bxf5 Kc6 10.
                                    Kf3
              time=16:39  mat=0  n=1230558683  fh=92%  nps=1.23M
              ext-> chk=91056010 cap=3089816 1rep=4459212 mate=190814
              predicted=0  nodes=1230558683  evals=870169208  50move=0
              endgame tablebase-> probes=10  hits=10
              SMP->  split=0  stop=0  data=0/32  elap=16:39
White(1):



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