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Subject: Re: Some questions about chess programming

Author: Bruce Moreland

Date: 08:47:25 07/29/01

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On July 29, 2001 at 09:45:19, Ferdinand S. Mosca wrote:

>Hi everybody,
>
>How much strength by elo points is gained by adding evaluation functions to a
>program, i.e the current publicly released version of TSCP?
>
>What are the factors that influence the high number of search depth of a
>program?

Branching factor, modified by move ordering, pruning, extensions, et. al.

>Does search depth really matter?

Yes, it matters a whole bunch against computers.  I think it matters a little
less against humans, because rather than using it to win material you use it to
try to avoid positional blunders and attacks until the human makes a five-ply
mistake.

>What is the average search depth of Ferret in middle game?

I have no idea.  It hasn't actually played a game at slower than G/30 in a few
years.  Since Ferret isn't public, nobody else can look, and since I don't look,
nobody knows.

It doesn't go particularly fast compared with Fritz and Junior, and it doesn't
go particularly deep, either.

>Does it help to reduce branching factor by considering moves that influence king
>safety first, or moves that influence center control first?

I used to use as a secondary term the piece-square delta, which tended to try
centralizing moves first.  I found that this didn't have any effect, so I took
it out.

>In a queen and pawn ending, which is more important search depth or more
>evaluation functions?

Interesting question.  My bet is evaluation, because passed pawns are so
important, and there are enough legal moves for each side that branching factor
is high enough that you can't really see anything.

bruce

>
>Regards,
>Dinan



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