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Subject: Re: Exiting a Search with Mate

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 09:17:47 04/17/00

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On April 17, 2000 at 10:42:33, William Bryant wrote:

>On April 16, 2000 at 09:53:15, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>
>
>>Crafty stops at the right point, _unless_ given a sd=N command.  It uses the
>>rule of "search to 2*N=1" when it finds a mate in N, just to be sure there
>>isn't a shorter mate.    In the position you gave, it stopped after 4 plies
>>as that is the minimum depth it will normally search to, regardless of the
>>mate found...
>>
>
>I'm not sure I understand you rule to exit a search with a mate score.
>
>Do you search to 2 times the depth of the mate, ie 4 ply for a mate in 2?
>
>William
>wbryant@ix.netcom.com


For crafty, it requires 2*N-1 plies to find the shortest mate in N.  IE to
find a mate in 2, I stop after 3 plies.  Since the last move must be a check,
and since I extend on checks in the basic search, the check at depth 3 extends
1 ply where I find that the opponent is mated.  I often find mates in 10 with
a 5 ply search or so, but I rarely find the _shortest_ mate unless I go to the
above depth.  Many mate compositions have _every_ move but the last move as a
non-checking move, to make them hard to find.



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