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Subject: Re: Branching factor of alpha-beta

Author: Bob Green

Date: 13:55:17 08/23/01

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On August 23, 2001 at 11:47:03, Robert Hyatt wrote:

>On August 23, 2001 at 11:08:54, Sune Fischer wrote:
>

>>If may ask, what algorithm do you people use, is it alpha-beta or negascout
>>or...?
>>Is there a clear answer to what the best search algorithm is?
>>
>>Cheers,
>>Sune
>
>
>
>Most everyone uses negamax as the framework.  Whether you use simple
>alpha/beta on top of that, or something more sophisticated (I use PVS for
>example) doesn't change the look of the basic search that much.

I read a paper by Plaat, Schaefer, et. al. which used the basic negamax
framework to compare AB, negascout, SSS*, DUAL* and MTD(f).  The paper indicated
a dramatic (ok, 5-10%) improvement using MTD(f) when the move ordering was
"good" (i.e. within 10-15% of "best" order.)  There was a flurry of papers on
this algorithm.  Was it ultimately found wanting?

Bob Green

ps. If any other newbies are lurking, the "Yellow Bishop" site has a great set
of papers on tree searching algorithms.  See http://ybishop.cjb.net/



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