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Subject: Re: Phhhbt

Author: Tom Kerrigan

Date: 08:27:34 04/25/00

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On April 25, 2000 at 09:12:12, Robert Hyatt wrote:

>On April 25, 2000 at 00:50:50, Tom Kerrigan wrote:
>
>>On April 24, 2000 at 22:13:10, Bruce Moreland wrote:
>>
>>>On April 24, 2000 at 18:49:04, Tom Kerrigan wrote:
>>>
>>>>On April 24, 2000 at 15:56:37, Dann Corbit wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On April 24, 2000 at 15:43:24, Tom Kerrigan wrote:
>>>>>[snip]
>>>>>>Here's my question. If pondering=off cripples Crafty so badly to the point that
>>>>>>Bob Hyatt has to write dozens of posts about it, why doesn't he just do
>>>>>>something to fix it? I mean, surely the time spent writing all those posts could
>>>>>>have been put to better use.
>>>>>
>>>>>That makes a great deal of sense if Dr. Hyatt were writing crafty to make people
>>>>>happy who want to play engine verses engine matches on a single machine.
>>>>>However, he does not play it that way and it is contrary to his purposes.
>>>>>
>>>>>Do you alter your programs to make them do what others wish even when it does
>>>>>not coincide with your desires?
>>>>
>>>>Yes.
>>>>
>>>>-Tom
>>>
>>>If your point is that Bob should do this or that, I think that Bob should be the
>>>one who decides what Bob does.  It's great to suggest improvements in
>>>functionality or support, but if Bob wants to do it his own way, that's fine.
>>
>>Decisions are influenced by your surroundings.
>>
>>Right now, Bob is surrounded by people who do matches between Crafty and ___
>>with no pondering. Consequently, Bob has to do a tremendous amount of damage
>>control. Here are the options, as I see them:
>>
>>1) Continue to waste time by doing massive damage control
>>
>>2) Simply remove the ponder switch from Crafty, so Crafty can't be crippled
>>
>>3) Un-cripple Crafty
>>
>>Personally, I would not like to _continually_ make excuses for my program, i.e.,
>>option 1. I think option 2 is a hack, but still better than option 1.
>>Personally, I would go with option 3.
>>
>>I don't really see what the problem is with option 3. If Crafty is using too
>>much time in the opening and middlegame, just make it use less time. Multiply
>>some number by 75% or whatever. It may not be a "fine tuned" solution, but at
>>least the program won't lose all its games.
>>
>>-Tom
>
>
>Once you add some sophistication to your time control logic, you will see that
>the above is a very 'superficial' suggestion.  Base time allocation is but one
>part of the problem.  How much time can you use (extra time) when you get a
>positional fail-low, not a material one?  How much extra time can you use on a
>fail low for a single pawn?  For a piece?  What if you do a 12 ply search, and
>the first 11 plies show you winning a pawn.  At depth=12, after the first move,
>you discover that move doesn't win that pawn.  How much extra time do you use
>there to see if the pawn win was real, or just a deep tactical plan by your
>opponent that made the pawn a "phantom"...

Why can't you just multiply all this stuff by 0.75?

Anyway, I don't understand how pondering directly affects any of this. What is a
situation where the 0.75 thing fails because pondering=off? And what's the
"correct" thing to do in said situation?

-Tom



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