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Subject: Re: Move Ordering and PV

Author: Tom Kerrigan

Date: 10:26:51 05/05/00

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On May 05, 2000 at 11:16:34, Pat King wrote:

>It seems clear to me that you need pretty good move ordering for PV to pay off
>vs. plain AB. But how good? One could use only the pvmove[][] structure to
>implement it (although I use just the hash, and probe it to find the PV). Is
>this enough to make it pay? Are history tables and killer moves more effective
>w/ PV than AB?
>
>Thanks.
>
>Pat

I think you're confusing PV and PVS, which are two totally different things.

PV is the Principal Variation, i.e., your best line. This is stored in the
pvmove[][] array that you mention, and can be used with any type of search,
including plain old alpha-beta. You obviously want to order the PV high at the
start of a search. Assuming that the PV will be stored in your hash table is
just fine, as long as you have a reasonably large hash table and a good
replacement scheme.

PVS is Principal Variation Search, which (I believe) is also known as
null-window search. It's a method used to decrease the size of the alpha-beta
windows within the search. It really has nothing to do with Principal
Variations, except at the conceptual level, because it requires good move
ordering to be effective.

-Tom



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