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Subject: Re: Position-Based

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 18:38:29 06/02/98

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On June 02, 1998 at 17:05:55, Komputer Korner wrote:

>On June 02, 1998 at 15:24:35, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>
>>On June 02, 1998 at 14:02:13, Roberto Waldteufel wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>On June 02, 1998 at 08:09:12, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>
>>>>On June 02, 1998 at 03:21:38, Stuart Cracraft wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>So what I hear is that having position-based "learning"
>>>>>is something like saving the position after a really bad
>>>>>drop in the iteration of a score in the hash table with
>>>>>a special flag. When the game ends, write out all
>>>>>such entries to a disk based file. When restarting
>>>>>the program, read in the disk based file into the
>>>>>hash table and set the flags. When searching, if
>>>>>the position turns out to be one of those positions,
>>>>>then what?
>>>>>
>>>>>I could dig out my Slate (one or the other forgot which)
>>>>>article in ICCA on the "Mouse" program -- is that essentially
>>>>>what this Position-Based "Learning" is that some
>>>>>programmers are using to create artificial wins against
>>>>>other programs? If so, any big refinements to Slate's method
>>>>>for the current crop? If no, what are the major differences
>>>>>between Slate's method and the current vogue?
>>>>>
>>>>>Thanks,
>>>>>--Stuart
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>all you have to do is write the hash entry out when the score drops, and
>>>>reload it before each move from then on, or (as I do) load them once and
>>>>flag them as "permanent".  That is all you do.  Hashing will take care
>>>>of
>>>>the rest, and you will see the "trouble" several plies earlier the next
>>>>time you play the same game, and you will play a different move to avoid
>>>>reaching the position where the score is going to drop.
>>>
>>>
>>>Can you clarify this for me - do you keep a permenant file of "bad"
>>>positions that you add to with each game played? if so, is there not a
>>>risk that eventually the file of permenant positions may become so large
>>>as to clog up the hash table with positions that may be irrelavent to
>>>the current game? Or is the nimber of stored permenant positions too
>>>small to present any problem of this kind. Also, if you make a
>>>modification or improvement to the program, then do you have to start
>>>from scratch with the permenant positions, or do you just assume that
>>>the improved version of the program will misjudge the same positions
>>>that it misjudged before, and so leave the permenant position file
>>>unchanged?
>>>
>>
>>my position file has 65536 entries, and is "wrap-around" once it fills
>>up in a FIFO ring buffer.  However, I *never* let it fill up, because I
>>delete it regularly.
>
>
>why isn't this larger?
>
>--
>Komputer Korner

two reasons.  #1 crafty does *not* suffer from many fail-lows.  On a bad
day it may lose 3-4 games.  out of several hundred played.  So it
doesn't
happen very often.  #2 these things become permanent hash table entries,
yet they are almost *never* seen.  I don't want the hash table to be
overflowed with crap that will almost never be seen again...




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