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Subject: Re: CM8k (& Rebel) Personality (Selectivity) Question

Author: Brian Kostick

Date: 17:51:38 04/07/01

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On April 06, 2001 at 23:59:55, Tina Long wrote:

>Hi guys,
>I've done all this before with Rebel Century, I worked for weeks, never formed a
> conclusion, so I went to Japan for some months to forget it all.
>What I say below about CM8k can also be roughly translated to Rebel Century.
>Century has the added benefits (complications) of ONite search syle & the like.
>
>
>Following brief discussion of CM8k personalities in
>http://www.icdchess.com/forums/1/message.shtml?161873
>I tried a little research.
>
>I'm interested in CM8k playing at 1 hour and 12 hours per move (from the old
>Komputer Korner days) on a P3 1ghz computer.
>
>I was using my Personality "CM128" default CM8k with 128m hash.(selectivity = 6)
>
>I then tried the same with selectivity = 12
>I then tried the same with selectivity = 2
>
>At 12:  Depths reached were 1/11, 2/14 & the like.
>At  2:  Depths reached were 7/9  10/12 & the like.
>
>2: for the same positions, looked MUCH deeper at "brute force" and only SLIGHTLY
>shallower at selective depth than 12:.
>
>While most moves chosen were the same, when they differed I considered the 2:
>were more sound (but then I'm just a dumb human) and more likely to agree with
>Hiarcs732 & Tigger14.
>
>What is the opinion of CCC people on the strength of the decisions made, in very
>long time period games or analysis:
>
>Is it better to have low selectivity and have a MUCH larger safer brute force
>search?
>Is it better to have high selectivity to have a SLIGHTLY deeper selective depth
>search?
>What's the benefit of that 1 or 2 extra ply compared to the risk of not checking
>the full width beyond 1 or 2 plys?
>
>I feel the results will differ depending on the particular positions, & I'd be
>inclined to have high selectivity in the Early & Middle Game & lower selectivity
>in the Endgame.
>
>BUT I can quite easily see why just the opposite might be best.
>
>Your Opinions will be appreciated,
>
>See Ya
>Tina Long

Tina, I see Marc has already given some info, which I read with interest. I did
a very simple test, it has no statistical backing... but I post for you to
browse.

I picked a position, random so to speak. I decided to search for Chessmaster's
choice for move 26. xxx  in The Web vs. Chessmaster ( now running at:
http://www.chessbrain.de/cd/ce/ce.html )

  I am willing to dedicate limited time, lets say approx 20 min, 733MHz. I
believe Chessmaster, with default setings, will converge on Qa4 in this time. I
then ran some different Selective Search settings. N/A signifies I didn't wait
to find out...

Total time to ply depth does not mean I let all the ply move finish, but rather
that at least Qa4 at this depth was reached.

SS Setting, Time to Qa4, Ply Reading, Total Time to ply depth
  SS6          3:17        6/12        19:52
  SS12         2:55        1/13        19:52
  SS9          2:56        4/13        25:35
  SS7          3:10        N/A         N/A
  SS8          2:52        N/A         N/A

  In this case I can see that 3 minutes is required to converge on Qa3. If
40/120 time control I might not want to exceed 3 min. and I want a low Selective
Search for a wide base. I quess I'd pick SS8. I can see your point on processor
power, time avaliable, ect...

  Now I'm no computer chess coder and I think I learned something. Selective
Search setting sets the spread between base and deep lines. i.e. in the numbers
given above: SS6 = 6/12 (diff. 6); SS12 = 1/13 (diff. 12);, SS9 = 4/13 (diff.
9), ect...     Maybe that was completely obvious to some...  $0.02 worth, and it
might not be worth that. Regards, BK



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