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Subject: Re: Root Position

Author: Severi Salminen

Date: 11:57:24 01/05/01

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>  There're many possibilities here, and the best one can do is try them all.
>What I do in Averno is:
>  - The first time, I sort with my normal criteria (wining captures, etc...)
>  - After that, every fail high at the root makes that move become the first of
>the list so, after, several fail highs, at the beggining of the list I have the
>last fail highs, the most recent first.

Could you or have you compared this with the "node" method? Which one gave you
the better results? I like the node approach because it gives a priority number
for each move in root node "looks" like a sound method.

>>>What is the best way adjust alpha and beta at the root after each iteration?
>>
>>First I do a 1 ply search. Then I do search with 1 pawn wide window.
>
>  Aspiration search usually uses the value from the previous search, istead of
>this 1 ply search.
>  My AS window is 25 centipawn.

I meant that first I do 1 ply search and the I allways use the score from
previous iteration. So the 1 ply search is done with infinite window.

>>If I fail
>>high or low I do a research: score-1, INF (fail high) or -INF,score+1 (fail
>>low). The score is the score returned from the search that failed low or high >in
>>the first place.
>
>  I do an intermediate try, adding/substracting 150 centipawns and only if that
>fails high/low again, use +INF/-INF.

Maybe I should also not give an infinite window at first place but try a wider
window first. Well, I try to make my program play so that it improves its
position 0.50 pawns on every move so I don't have to re-search ;)

>>Notice those +1 and -1. Without those you'll get fail lows and
>>highs again. I use fail soft and this means that you have to be sure what to
>>return from search, qsearch and evaluate. A wrong value returned from (say)
>>futility pruned node means problems. The point is that if you fail high or low
>>in the first search you have to be sure that the score returned is the other
>>bound of the true score.
>>
>>>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.
>>
>>Well, we are all morons, so that can't be an explanation. But yes, it must be a
>>bug.
>
>  Hashing and null move can very well cause this behaviour, not necessarily a
>bug.

Ok, I don't do hashing yet.

Severi



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