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Subject: Re: how to use qsearch in incremental search?

Author: James Swafford

Date: 18:46:07 11/21/00

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On November 21, 2000 at 10:23:04, Brian Richardson wrote:

>On November 21, 2000 at 09:00:16, Rafael Andrist wrote:
>
>>Normally, quiescence search is used at the end of a tree. It seems to me, that
>>it makes only sense to do qsearch after the last increment. But if there is a
>>time limit and after the last increment is no time to do a qsearch (or you must
>>stop in the middle of the search), the program can have a completly wrong
>>evaluation. How is this handled in chess programs?
>>
>>Rafael B. Andrist
>
>Most programs use iterative deepening, so the principal variation (and a best
>move so far) is always known from the prior (last) completed iteration.  If the
>qsearch or the "full width" search does not complete before a time limit I think
>the results of that incomplete iteration are generally discarded.  For example,
>the search (and qsearch of each leaf node) finishes for iteration at depth n.
>Depth n+1 does not finish.  The best move from the depth n search is used.


I don't think you need to complete the iteration, just the move.
Let's say at iteration n your best move was m1. During iteration n+1,
move m1 is the first root moved searched and gets a score.  Then
m2 is searched (and is finished) and gets a score s2.  Let's say the
time expires while searching m3 and you abort the search - so only
two moves were completely searched in iteration n+1.
If s2 > s1, I'd say choose move 2.

Maybe that's what you meant; I'm not sure. :-)

--
James




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