Author: Robert Hyatt
Date: 14:48:28 09/18/01
Go up one level in this thread
On September 18, 2001 at 13:05:08, Gian-Carlo Pascutto wrote: >Like many others here, I use a standard testset >for testing improvements and doing regression >testing to my engine. > >So far WAC has been adequate, but as you all >know it has two annoying problems, namely that >over 2/3 of the problems are solved by 2 ply >searches and hence useless, and the level of >most of the others isn't very hard either with >nowadays CPU's. > Here is what I would like to see in a test suite: 1. tactical positions. Not impossibly hard (like nolot positions) so that tactics can be tested from time to time without taking 2 days to run the test. I want these positions to have an 'avoid move' or a 'best move', but hopefully not several of either. And I want the best move to be a move that leads to a _significantly_ better score than any _other_ possible move. And 'avoid moves' should lead to _significantly_ worse scores than any other possible moves. These positions should have some sort of goal, or at least be constructed such that positional considerations can't lead to the right move for the wrong reason. IE winning a queen is one goal that can be verified by the score. Winning 1/2 of a pawn is not so obvious. 2. positional positions. These should be posions that are solvable without requiring huge depth. And they should have one right move that has clear reasons for being the _only_ reasonable move (and it must not be a tactical reason.) IE xx leads to a won ending or yy gives black a weak pawn. Too many "positional" test cases have more than one best move which makes them worthless. Some have tactical shots that also render them useless. Some nice cases would be positions where (say) black has one move to make to avoid a wrecked kingside. Or a weak pawn. Or else black has one move to do that to white or else white will defend. WAC is at least tactical, and I use it a lot because I can do the entire test in a few minutes. And all I care about is "did I break something, or did I make something a bit better/faster?" Positional test positions are harder to come by...
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