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Subject: forward pruning for underpromotions

Author: Steffen Jakob

Date: 23:09:30 09/19/99


Hi all!

I still try to improve the playing skill of Hossa in pawn endgames (which is not
very difficult because he plays them very badly). About underpromotions: I know
that Amir Ban doesn't generate underpromotions in the search tree. I don't like
that very much. What I am doing now is to reduce the search depth for
underpromotions (one ply). It helps a lot in some positions, e.g. in the pawn
endgame position where crafty saw that mate in 4 although it is a mate in 6. As
you can see below I need 158616 nodes to see the mate without pruning and 135713
with underpromotion pruning. I think about reducing the depth by two plies for
bishop underpromotions (can someone please give me some positions where the
winner move is to promote the pawn to a bishop?). What are you thinking about
this? Are there other ways to prune underpromotions? E.g. if you are sure that
queen promotions are searched before underpromotions and alpha > xxx then it
might be useless to try those moves (at least rook and bishop promotions).

analysis without forward pruning:
---------------------------------

  +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
8 |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
  +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+    Black: Hossa v1.63 (C) (0)
7 ||P||   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
  +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+    Black material: 4
6 | P |   |   |   |   |   ||P||   |
  +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
5 |   |   |   |   |   |   |   ||P||
  +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+    White to move
4 |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | P |
  +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+    8/p7/P5p1/7p/7P/4kpK1/8/8 w
3 |   |   |   |   ||K|||P|| K |   |
  +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+    White material: 2
2 |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
  +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+    White: opponent (0)
1 |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
  +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
    a   b   c   d   e   f   g   h


 depth   value    time    nodes pv
    1    -5.23    0.00        2 1.g3h3
   <1>   -5.23    0.00        3 1.g3h3
    2    -5.35    0.00       38 1.g3h3 f2 2.h3g2
   <2>   -5.35    0.00       48 1.g3h3 f2 2.h3g2
    3    -5.37    0.00       84 1.g3h3 f2 2.h3g2 e3e2
   <3>   -5.37    0.00       90 1.g3h3 f2 2.h3g2 e3e2
?   4  -510.92    0.01      194 1.g3h3 f2 2.h3g2 e3e2 3.g2g3 f2f1Q
?  <4> -510.92    0.01      207 1.g3h3 f2 2.h3g2 e3e2 3.g2g3 f2f1Q
    5  -510.92    0.01      322 1.g3h3 f2 2.h3g2
   <5> -510.92    0.01      335 1.g3h3 f2 2.h3g2
    6  -510.92    0.01      531 1.g3h3 f2 2.h3g2 e3e2 3.g2g3 f2f1Q
   <6> -510.92    0.01      552 1.g3h3 f2 2.h3g2 e3e2 3.g2g3 f2f1Q
    7  -510.92    0.02     1182 1.g3h3 f2 2.h3g2 e3e2 3.g2h2 f2f1Q
                                4.h2g3
   <7> -510.92    0.02     1203 1.g3h3 f2 2.h3g2 e3e2 3.g2h2 f2f1Q
                                4.h2g3
    8  -510.98    0.05     2817 1.g3h3 f2 2.h3g2 e3e2 3.g2h2 e2f3
                                4.h2h3 f2f1Q 5.h3h2
   <8> -510.98    0.05     2867 1.g3h3 f2 2.h3g2 e3e2 3.g2h2 e2f3
                                4.h2h3 f2f1Q 5.h3h2
    9  -510.97    0.09     5587 1.g3h3 f2 2.h3g2 e3e2 3.g2g3 f2f1Q
                                4.g3h2 f1f2 5.h2h3 e2f3
   <9> -510.97    0.09     5644 1.g3h3 f2 2.h3g2 e3e2 3.g2g3 f2f1Q
                                4.g3h2 f1f2 5.h2h3 e2f3
?  10  -512.01    0.24    14405 1.g3h3 f2 2.h3g2 e3e2 3.g2g3 f2f1Q
                                4.g3h2 e2e3 5.h2g3 f1xa6
? <10> -512.01    0.24    14556 1.g3h3 f2 2.h3g2 e3e2 3.g2g3 f2f1Q
                                4.g3h2 e2e3 5.h2g3 f1xa6
   11  -512.03    0.64    41493 1.g3h3 f2 2.h3g2 e3e2 3.g2g3 f2f1Q
                                4.g3h2 e2e3 5.h2g3 f1xa6 6.g3g2
  <11> -512.03    0.65    41840 1.g3h3 f2 2.h3g2 e3e2 3.g2g3 f2f1Q
                                4.g3h2 e2e3 5.h2g3 f1xa6 6.g3g2
?  12      #-6    2.11   158616 1.g3h3 f2 2.h3g2 e3e2 3.g2g3 f2f1Q
                                4.g3h2 g5 5.h4xg5 e2f3 6.g6 f1g2
? <12>     #-6    2.12   159367 1.g3h3 f2 2.h3g2 e3e2 3.g2g3 f2f1Q
                                4.g3h2 g5 5.h4xg5 e2f3 6.g6 f1g2


analysis with forward pruning:
------------------------------

 depth   value    time    nodes pv
    1    -5.23    0.00        2 1.g3h3
   <1>   -5.23    0.00        3 1.g3h3
    2    -5.35    0.00       38 1.g3h3 f2 2.h3g2
   <2>   -5.35    0.00       48 1.g3h3 f2 2.h3g2
    3    -5.37    0.00       84 1.g3h3 f2 2.h3g2 e3e2
   <3>   -5.37    0.00       90 1.g3h3 f2 2.h3g2 e3e2
?   4  -510.92    0.01      194 1.g3h3 f2 2.h3g2 e3e2 3.g2g3 f2f1Q
?  <4> -510.92    0.01      207 1.g3h3 f2 2.h3g2 e3e2 3.g2g3 f2f1Q
    5  -510.92    0.02      322 1.g3h3 f2 2.h3g2
   <5> -510.92    0.02      335 1.g3h3 f2 2.h3g2
    6  -510.92    0.03      531 1.g3h3 f2 2.h3g2 e3e2 3.g2g3 f2f1Q
   <6> -510.92    0.03      552 1.g3h3 f2 2.h3g2 e3e2 3.g2g3 f2f1Q
    7  -510.92    0.03     1182 1.g3h3 f2 2.h3g2 e3e2 3.g2h2 f2f1Q
                                4.h2g3
   <7> -510.92    0.03     1203 1.g3h3 f2 2.h3g2 e3e2 3.g2h2 f2f1Q
                                4.h2g3
    8  -510.98    0.04     2726 1.g3h3 f2 2.h3g2 e3e2 3.g2h2 e2f3
                                4.h2h3 f2f1Q 5.h3h2
   <8> -510.98    0.04     2776 1.g3h3 f2 2.h3g2 e3e2 3.g2h2 e2f3
                                4.h2h3 f2f1Q 5.h3h2
    9  -510.97    0.08     5403 1.g3h3 f2 2.h3g2 e3e2 3.g2g3 f2f1Q
                                4.g3h2 f1f2 5.h2h3 e2f3
   <9> -510.97    0.08     5460 1.g3h3 f2 2.h3g2 e3e2 3.g2g3 f2f1Q
                                4.g3h2 f1f2 5.h2h3 e2f3
?  10  -512.01    0.16    12077 1.g3h3 f2 2.h3g2 e3e2 3.g2g3 f2f1Q
                                4.g3h2 e2e3 5.h2g3 f1xa6
? <10> -512.01    0.16    12228 1.g3h3 f2 2.h3g2 e3e2 3.g2g3 f2f1Q
                                4.g3h2 e2e3 5.h2g3 f1xa6
   11  -512.03    0.46    33004 1.g3h3 f2 2.h3g2 e3e2 3.g2g3 f2f1Q
                                4.g3h2 e2e3 5.h2g3 f1xa6 6.g3g2
  <11> -512.03    0.46    33351 1.g3h3 f2 2.h3g2 e3e2 3.g2g3 f2f1Q
                                4.g3h2 e2e3 5.h2g3 f1xa6 6.g3g2
?  12      #-6    1.71   135713 1.g3h3 f2 2.h3g2 e3e2 3.g2g3 f2f1Q
                                4.g3h2 g5 5.h4xg5 e2f3 6.g6 f1g2
? <12>     #-6    1.72   136462 1.g3h3 f2 2.h3g2 e3e2 3.g2g3 f2f1Q
                                4.g3h2 g5 5.h4xg5 e2f3 6.g6 f1g2


Best wishes,
Steffen.



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