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Subject: Re: Help needed: too many Q-nodes after implementing Nullmove

Author: Rafael Andrist

Date: 11:59:13 06/03/01

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On June 02, 2001 at 15:29:36, Tony Werten wrote:

>On June 02, 2001 at 14:52:56, Rafael Andrist wrote:
>
>>I've implemented a Nullmove-heuristic in my alpha-beta-search (full window). But
>>now the number of nodes in Q-search explodes. Before, the number of Q-nodes was
>>approximately the double of the normal nodes. Now it's 10x or more. This causes
>>the problem that I need the same time for the same search depth as before, but I
>>get a less accurate result.
>>Is maybe my Nullmove implementation incorrect or is this "normal" and should I
>>use futility pruning or something similar to reduce my Q-Search?
>
>No, there is something wrong. You should get at least 1 ply deeper in the same
>time.
>
>Did you reduce depth with 3 ? ( R=2 and the normal 1 reduction ) Or even 4 ?

The total reduction of remaining depth is 3 (compared to 1 in a normal subtree
search)

>Did you check not to do nullmove if you have no more depth left ?

If there is no more depth left (remaining depth - 3 <= 0) a nullmove is made and
a qsearch applied. If I disabled this and do the nullmove-search only if there
is a positive remaining depth after the reduction, then I have practically
disabled the nullmove, because I let my program normally search 7 or 8 plies
deep and don't nullmove near the root (starting at depth 3).

>
>cheers,
>
>Tony>


Rafael B. Andrist



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