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Subject: Re: Extensions and Hashing

Author: Tony Werten

Date: 02:57:14 10/19/00

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On October 18, 2000 at 09:54:25, Robert Hyatt wrote:

>On October 18, 2000 at 08:06:23, David Rasmussen wrote:
>
>>I was wondering about a potential "bug" or at least "unwanted feature" of the
>>way hashing and extensions affect eachother in, say, Crafty.
>>
>>The problem is basically this:
>>
>>In Crafty, whenever depth is used for other purposes than searching (that is
>>hashing and nullmove), the extension factor isn't included. That means that a
>>search that essentially asked for a depth=5 + extensions=3 == 8 ply search, will
>>return with success from the hashprobe if the draft is just 6 or 7. Shouldn't
>>the depth parameter ALWAYS be used with relevant extensions for the search to be
>>(at least more) theoretically correct ?
>>
>>Am I making sense?
>
>
>You are missing an important point.
>
>Extensions happen _after_ a move is made.  Hashing happens at the start of a
>ply.  If extensions were added in at any previous ply, they are certainly
>factored into the hash probe.  But there is no way to factor in extensions
>triggered by a move, when the hash probe is done _before_ any move is made.
>
>IE if an in-check extension is done, it is added in at the _previous_
>ply, rather than at the current ply.  Which means it is _always_ done.
>The only exception is that the one-reply extension isn't done until crafty
>discovers that there is only one legal move.  But this is perfectly
>consistent...

How about threat extensions.
In the previous search you did a nullmove and found out you're about to be
checkmated and so you get an extension. Next search hashtable lookup >= current
depth so you abort.

I solve this by setting a "got a threat extensions last search" flag.

Tony

>
>Don't forget that the hash entry will be the result of searching _all_
>moves at this ply, which _does_ factor in the extensions for each move as
>appropriate...



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