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Subject: Re: Want tips and tricks on tablebase CONSTRUCTION

Author: Bob Green

Date: 19:51:33 10/07/01

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On October 07, 2001 at 19:30:46, Bruce Moreland wrote:

>On October 07, 2001 at 17:34:46, Bob Green wrote:
>
>>I am working on a non-chess game.
<snip/>
>>I am asking for some tips and tricks in construction of tablebases.
<snip/>

>Endgame database construction is pretty simple, but there are some gotchas that
>might not be the same for your game as for chess.
>
>The first pass you identify conversion cases (cases where the are exactly two
>pieces mapped to exactly one square) and resolve them.

Ok, I don't get this.  Example?  Are you talking checks for symetry?  If so, I
have that covered.

>You also identify cases
>where one side has won due to what in chess is checkmate.
>

I read this as:

   1. Find all positions where the king is checkmated
  or
   2. Find all postitions where the king is stalemated

These are the starting points.  Do halfboard/diagonal rotates to remove
symetrical cases.

Right?

>You then proceed to move backwards from there.

I read this as follows:

   3.a move one of your pieces from the checkmate position
   3.b for each possible opponent piece, move it
   4. reapeat 3a/3b for all your pieces legal to move

Right?

>Can one side achieve a position
>that is known to be won?  If so, this position is resolved.  Next, can one side
>not avoid a position that is lost?  If so, this position is resolved.

Have to admit I'm a little less clear here as to why this would happen.
Probably some problem w/ 3a/3b.

>You keep
>going until there aren't any new positions resolved, at which point you are
>done.
>
>If you are making a DTM chess database

WTF is a DTM database, BTW?

>, there are problems because you can't
>simply mark a position as won if you can attain a won case.  If you can convert
>to a mate in 19, you can't say that this is mate in 20, because there might be a
>mate in less than 20 case out there if you are still working on the "natural"
>mates in less than 20.
I'm actually not that keen for the "best mate."  Any mate would be ok.
>
>Also, you might not make progress on a particular pass, but you still have to
>continue, because conversions cause some gaps.

The above sentance is not clear.

>In some endings, there are no
>mates in 90, but there are mates in 100, because of conversions to very
>difficult won cases.
>
>I'm not sure what else you are looking for, but since I'm one of the few people
>that has done this, I figured that I should say something.
>
>bruce

As always, I appreciate your guidance Mr. Moreland.

Best regards,

Bob Green



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