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Subject: Re: Extensions problem (maybe)

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 07:10:25 08/18/01

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On August 18, 2001 at 09:23:13, Alvaro Jose Povoa Cardoso wrote:

>I think the problem might be related with extensions.
>I use fractional extensions that may be diferent for each move at this node.
>At the top of the search I don't have all the information I need to compute the
>extension for the hash move.
>For example, I use the number of moves at this node in a formula to compute the
>extensions for every move I search, since I don't have that at the top of the
>search I cannot calculate the extension value for the hash move.
>I think I have to rethink the extensions in my program.
>
>By the way, can some one explain how does it work in crafty.
>If I'm not mistaken it only uses a single bit in the hash table to tell if we
>should extend or not. The question is how much I should extend? A full ply?
>I so that is not consistent because Crafty uses fractional extensions, right?
>
>Thank you all,
>Alvaro Cardoso

In crafty, the "extend" bit is for threat extensions dealing with mate.  I use
the approach that if the null-move search returns "mated" then this is a
special-case position such that if I do nothing I get mated, if I do something
I don't.  That means there is a strong mate threat on the board.  When I store
the entry in the hash table, I store a single bit as well, so that when I do
the search here, I will remember to do the mate threat extension as well.  Note
that the hash table can also say "no need to try a null-move search here" which
would turn off the mate threat detection without this bit.

This "flag" is _only_ for the mate threat extension, so the fractional ply
extensions don't cause problems.   Only one is triggered by this flag... the
mate threat extension.



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