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Subject: Recapture Extension

Author: Peter McKenzie

Date: 12:34:02 03/28/00


[D]3qkbr1/1b1n1p1p/4pp2/rB6/P2p1B2/5N2/1P3PPP/R2Q1RK1 b - -

The above position is number 30 from the GMG2 test suite (positions from a
Larsen book), and causes my program's search to explode.

Node counts for Lambchop 9.50, without recapture extension:
6ply: 82K, 7ply: 193K, 8ply 1262K

Node counts for Lambchop 9.50, normal version with recapture extension:
6ply: 186K, 7ply: 2997K,  this is a branching factor of about 15!!

Does anyone else have a similar problem with this position?

I'm not exactly sure why the search explosion happens because the recapture
extension fires at only about 0.7% of all nodes.
I restrict it to the following conditions:
- don't allow 2 recapture extensions in a row
- previous move must have been a swap (eg. BxN, RxR etc)
- current move must be a capture by a lesser piece, or piece
being captured must be unguarded.
- material balance after the current move must be between -2 pawns and
+2 pawns.

Note: the recapture extension extends a whole ply.
Perhaps my recapture conditions aren't very good, or maybe I just have a bug...
input welcome!

I also hacked together a version of LambChop using partial ply.

Node counts for Lambchop 9.50, using 0.75ply recapture extension:
6ply: 68K, 7ply: 159K, 8ply 1328K

So maybe partial play (crafty does similar I believe) is a good solution.  More
testing required...



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