Computer Chess Club Archives


Search

Terms

Messages

Subject: Re: Why not store both a lower and an upper bound in a hashtable?

Author: Bo Persson

Date: 13:22:49 12/07/00

Go up one level in this thread


On December 07, 2000 at 05:34:08, Leen Ammeraal wrote:

>On December 07, 2000 at 04:23:48, Andrew Williams wrote:
>
[...}
>>
>>My program uses MTD(f). It stores an upper bound and a lower bound
>>for each position in the table (these are set to +HUGE and -HUGE in
>>empty entries). It also stores a draft for each bound in the same
>>hash entry (these are both set to -100 or something in an empty record).
>>
>>Cheers
>>
>>Andrew
>
>
>Andrew, thanks.
>I had just come to the same conclusion: storing
>two bounds requires storing a depth (or draft) for
>each, and I have already been implementing this
>and am now testing it.
>I still fail to see why this should only be useful
>for MTD(f), not for alpha/beta or negascout.
>
>Leen


Yes, I have been doing like this since I started trying out MTD(f), about a year
ago. Having both bounds is useful for negascout as well (accidentally
tried that in an intermediate program version...), but absolutely *essential*
to get any performance from MTD(f) re-searches, as it might swing back and forth
at the end of the search (closing in on the final score with a slight
overshoot in each direction).

Contrary to what Bob says in another part of the thread, I think that storing
both bounds in the same entry actually *saves* space, as you otherwise would
have empty best moves in the upperbound nodes.


Bo Persson
bop@malmo.mail.telia.com



This page took 0 seconds to execute

Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700

Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.