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Subject: Re: Recapture Extension

Author: Andrew Williams

Date: 13:32:37 03/28/00

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On March 28, 2000 at 15:34:02, Peter McKenzie wrote:

>[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...

Mine extends a full ply, but only if the recapture is of the same value and
on the same square. I had forgotten putting in this last condition, so I tried
it without it as well. Here are my results:

ONLY EXTEND IF RECAPTURING ON SAME SQUARE (normal postmodernist):
6ply=144k, 7ply=509k, 8ply=1147k

EXTEND EVEN IF NOT RECAPTURING ON SAME SQUARE:
6ply=179k, 7ply=612k, 8ply=1425k

NO RECAPTURE EXTENSION AT ALL:
6ply=88k, 7ply=313k, 8ply=729k

Hope this is helpful

Andrew



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