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Subject: Re: New(?) search idea.

Author: Bruce Moreland

Date: 09:17:37 01/22/98

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On January 22, 1998 at 08:16:35, Robert Hyatt wrote:

>On January 22, 1998 at 02:30:48, Bruce Moreland wrote:

>>I don't know exactly why the PV (first) move takes so long to resolve,
>>but I can guess.  I think that it takes a while to resolve because the
>>window is wide, and the value will probably be within the window.
>>
>
>Think about ply=2.  For a non-first move, you search one move there.
>That
>is enough to refute the ply=1 move.  For the first move,  you have to
>search *every* ply=2 move since there is no bound to cut off against
>yet.
>
>For the first move, as you advance down the left-side of the search
>tree,
>assuning it is drawn so you search left-to-right, *every* left-most node
>must have every alternative searched.
>
>For non-first moves, in a perfectly ordered tree, every even-ply
>position
>only has to search one move.

I want to point out that we aren't arguing, in case I am wrong and we
really are.

The fact that you are within the window is *why* you aren't cutting off,
right?

>>From experience it seems like you get a faster result if you have a
>>narrow window and the move fails low.  If someone wants to prove this,
>>cool, there is probably an easy proof for the mathematically inclined.
>
>
>this is written up in a technical report by Jonathan Schaeffer, and was
>referred to as "the minimax wall".  As long as alpha/beta are below the
>true value of the search result, searches run like the blazes, because
>the entire tree is searched as though it had *no* best move and
>everything
>at the root gets refuted by the first move at ply=2  and so forth for
>all
>even/odd plies.

Do you mean instead that alpha and beta are *above* the true value of
the search?

bruce



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