Author: Russell Reagan
Date: 15:47:10 12/01/01
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On December 01, 2001 at 16:35:31, Mike S. wrote: >After reading the Gandalf-GT 2 match discussion below (partially about problems >recognising that RN-R, RB-R are usually draws), I'd like to ask what you think >is the best recommendable (sub-)set of the table bases for practise including >engine matches. > >I'm aware most people will say "use all 5 men tbs", but large experiments have >been made showing that the slowdown effect and other effects from using the tbs, >often result in *worse* performances in practical positions, than without the >tbs. Misjudgement of continuations which keep the game out of tbs material, is >one of these effects, which i.e. can make the win unecessarily easy for the >opponent (which may - without tbs - fail to win if the best defense in played). > >I use the complete 3- and 4 piece-tables *plus* krnkr, krbkr, because these are >very important draws. These two should not create an "incomplete" problem >because they do not contain pawns. > >What do you think? > >Regards, >M.Scheidl I have never understood why the advantages of using tablebases are outweighed by the slowdown it causes. Here's my thinking; maybe someone can point out my error. As I see it, if you have the complete n-man tablebases and their subsets, then you can just keep track of how many pieces are remaining on the board and if a position has n pieces remaining or fewer, then you play whatever move the tablebase says, since that is the best line. I don't see how this slows down anything, unless you're talking about incorporating probing the tablebases into your search and evaluation of many positions. I hope someone will explain this to me, because I've never implemented tablebases into my own program and I plan to eventually, so I'm sure this will be something I'll need to know eventually. Russell
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