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Subject: Re: How much time to spend searching?

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 14:36:42 02/01/98

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On February 01, 1998 at 17:32:35, Brian McKinley wrote:

>I am writing my first chess program, and am at the point where I need to
>determine how much time to spend in the search.  Is there a common
>formula?
>
>-Brian




hard to answer question.  Simple formula for normal time controls
might be:

  target=(time_left-safety_fudge)/moves_remaining;

safety-fudge is some amount of time you "save" to be sure you don't
overstep the time control.

you can get more sophisticated by noticing that you will predict the
opponent's move a lot and save time, so you might want to anticipate
this
extra time and use it before you actually save it up...

you should also notice when you are in a difficult position (eval has
dropped significantly from last search) and allow extra time.

You might find an old ICCA Journal issue with an article "Using time
wisely" that I wrote.  This was about 15 years ago, however, maybe a
little
more than that...



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