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Subject: Re: The number of nodes of critical trees?

Author: leonid

Date: 05:24:51 11/02/00

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On November 01, 2000 at 13:20:41, Robert Hyatt wrote:

>On November 01, 2000 at 13:13:09, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>
>>On November 01, 2000 at 12:22:31, Ernst A. Heinz wrote:
>>
>>>> On November 01, 2000 at 00:17:29, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>>
>>>>I should add that the quoted within 30% of optimal seems wrong.  I recall
>>>>Hans Berliner doing a test like this and I believe he quoted 100%.  IE the
>>>>searched tree was about twice as big as the optimal tree, which is _still_
>>>>very good since we can't possibly have perfect move ordering.
>>>
>>>I am sorry to say so, Bob, but you are _dead wrong_ here.
>>>
>>>Ebeling and Berliner always mentioned 40% overhead for HITECH
>>>as compared to the critical tree in their publications. See
>>>page 102 in "Computers, Chess, and Cognition" for example.
>>>
>>>Tony Marsland provides a nice comparison of the various search
>>>and move-ordering enhancements with respect to the critical
>>>tree in Figure 8 of "Computer Chess and Search" published in
>>>the "Encyclopedia of AI (2nd ed.)". There we see 20% to 30%
>>>overhead at depths of 2 to 6 plies for the combination of all
>>>those enhancements (including PVS, best hashed move, and
>>>history heuristic).
>>>
>>>Last but not least, Rainer Feldmann mentions the 20% to 30%
>>>overhead in his Ph.D. thesis about the sequential version of
>>>ZUGZWANG.
>>>
>>>I am really surprised that you do not seem to remember these
>>>numbers because I am sure that you know the publications I
>>>refer to above.
>>>
>>>=Ernst=
>>
>>
>>Sorry... You are correct and my memory did fail.  I think the 2x came from
>>an older paper by Tony where he defined "strongly ordered game tree" as a
>>tree where the best move is searched first 90% of the time or more.  If
>>you do the math, that is a factor of 2 in nodes.  My percentage seems to hover
>>around 92% or higher, which would pull it down a bit.  And I think it also
>>matters a great deal whether we talk about a game, or a _position_.  A position
>>is harder.  In a game, hash information carries across searches to assist in
>>move ordering.  In a position, you start off blind.
>>
>>I believe the 2x figure came from positions, but I don't have time to dig up
>>the paper to check it.
>
>I also forgot to add, that I think the 'simpler' the program, the better it
>will do.  I change my mind at the root at _least_ 20% of the time.  Which means
>that for those cases, I search at _least_ 2x the nodes I would normally search.
>If I change my mind twice, that is 3x.  And actually is more as this only counts
>the root sub-trees that are done.
>
>I am going to run this experiment myself one of these days, just to get a hard
>number for myself.  20-30% seems too low, IMHO, unless the test positions are
>tactical and easy, like WAC.  If you find the right move quickly, then of course

Please, whatever you will find on the subject, come here to say your result.
I am, at least, one person that watch discussion on this subject with great
interest.

Leonid.


>you search the optimal tree (or nearly so).  The right test is a series of
>consecutive positions from a game, without a clearly "right" move.



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