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Subject: Re: How to manage search depth in limited time?

Author: Miguel A. Ballicora

Date: 08:04:01 03/16/01

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On March 16, 2001 at 08:51:52, Robert Hyatt wrote:

>On March 16, 2001 at 00:23:21, Pham Minh Tri wrote:
>
>>Hi,
>>
>>Suppose the time for searching a move is limited in T minus. And a program has
>>just finished the iterative loop of depth N. My question: How to decide that the
>>time left is enough for the next loop (depth N+1) or not?
>>
>>(Some books suggested me to continue searching next depth and interrupt when
>>time is over. But I don't like this method because of wasting time.)
>>
>>Any suggestions would be very appreciated.
>>Pham
>
>
>Just start the next iteration period. If you don't have time to get a move
>back, you still have time to fail low, which can signal you to use more time
>to find a better move.  When you run out of time and make the move, the
>"ponder search" will pick up where you stopped due to everything being saved
>in the hash table...

This is an idea that I haven't had time to try (of course, most probably it
was tried before by somebody else...).
Suppose this scenario: I have alloted 30 s for the move, I finish one iteration
at 20 s so most probably I won't be able to finish the next one on time.
Would it be useful to go to the next iteration searching with alpha, alpha+1
just to test if the pv_move fails low? If it doesn't, I just return that move.

Regards,
Miguel




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