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Subject: Re: Root Position

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 11:00:58 01/05/01

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On January 05, 2001 at 10:23:26, Gian-Carlo Pascutto wrote:

>On January 05, 2001 at 09:45:47, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>I notice I sometimes when I get a fail low at the root, I do a research, and
>>>then get a fail high! The most likely explanation is that I am a moron and it >>is bug. Can you think of another explanation? Or an easy way to catch this
>>>bug?
>>
>>this is not common, but perfectly normal, and it can't really be avoided.
>
>Since this happens a lot in my program, I spent some time tracking down
>what were the minimal conditions:
>
>- aspiration window (no fail high/low otherwise)
>- null move
>- hash table used for move ordering (not for scores, not even on exact matches)
>
>Now it still isn't making sense to me...how can you produce a different
>_score_ anywhere in the tree by just altering move ordering??

Yes.  It is all about hashing and fail high/fail low...  and if you overwrite
the right (or wrong) thing in the hash table, things fall apart..  I haven't
really noticed condition 3 above being needed.  But using PVS and null-move
will definitely produce fail high followed by fail low and vice versa.

>
>Anybody who knows an explanation here? 'You _must_ have a bug' is acceptable
>too.
>
>--
>GCP

If it is a bug, I have one.  And so does every other PVS/null-move program I
know of...  Going all the way back to Cray Blitz...



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