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Subject: Re: Fast way to sort moves in movelist ?

Author: KarinsDad

Date: 20:43:09 10/16/99

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On October 15, 1999 at 23:49:13, Robert Hyatt wrote:

>On October 15, 1999 at 15:51:13, KarinsDad wrote:
>
>>On October 15, 1999 at 15:31:21, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>
>>[snip]
>>>
>>>
>>>Just remember that this is right in the heart of the 'chess loop'.  Anything
>>>you do here, you do once for every node in the tree, which means _often_.
>>>
>>>you could set up 7 linked lists and add moves to the end of the right list.
>>>but when you analyze chess trees, you see why it doesn't work... because _so_
>>>many positions in the tree only search one move and exit.  Why do all that
>>>work?  when 1/2 of the time it is absolutely wasted?
>>
>>Well, the simple answer is that you don't do it.
>>
>>The complex answer is that you could do it depending on the position and score.
>>
>>If you could predict with a high level of certainty whether you will get a
>>cutoff or not, you could reduce the amount of branching by creating a sorted
>>move order for those positions which should cutoff (note: I did not say that all
>>moves had to be sorted) and by not creating a move order at all for those that
>>should not cutoff. The problem boils down to coming up with a prediction
>>technique that is relatively accurate.
>>
>>Any ideas on how to do that Robert?
>>
>>KarinsDad :)
>
>
>It is partially doable.  I did this pretty well in Cray Blitz, to predict where
>to do a parallel 'split' for the parallel search stuff.  You want to split at
>ALL nodes (where all moves must be searched), not at a CUT node (where hopefully
>only one move is searched, but sometimes 2-3-4 before the cutoff is found).
>
>But in general, it is difficult.  And when you are changing your mind anywhere
>in the tree, _all_ move ordering becomes backward as CUT nodes become ALL nodes
>and vice-versa.  And that blows you out of the water.

That's something I have not yet experienced, so I would have never even
considered it (even though you have said that this happens in the past). I'll
keep an eye out for it.

KarinsDad :)



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