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Subject: Re: Test Set Results From Fritz7 With And Without Futility Pruning

Author: Torstein Hall

Date: 02:52:26 02/07/02

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On February 06, 2002 at 19:48:13, Eran wrote:

>
>The interesting comparative results of the MATS test set (The MAstricht Test
>Set) are shown below.
>
>Fritz7 with futility pruning (selected):
>Result 18 out of 24 = 75%  Average time = 18.05s / 163.09s
>
>Fritz7 without futility pruning (deselected):
>Result 19 out of 24 = 79%  Average time = 25.08s / 145.04s
>
>Fritz7 with latest update (version 7.0.0.6 - January 22, 2002)
>MATS test set contains 24 positions in total
>
>For more information about MATS test set, please click below
>
>http://www.cs.rulimburg.nl/~uiterwyk/icca/mats.htm .
>
>Also, the test set in epd format can be downloaded from there.
>
>I tried to compare how well Fritz7 played with and without futility pruning.
>Please see the comments as follows below.
>
>Firstly, based on the test Fritz7 without futility pruning seemed to solve more
>positions than with futility pruning. The only game number 10 in the test set
>was solved by Fritz7 without futility pruning only. The rest were the same but
>with futility pruning Fritz7 searched a bit faster. That indicated that without
>futility pruning Fritz7 seemed to play better in positional games. Obviously,
>with futility pruning Fritz7 overlooked it because futility pruning was an
>aggressive, faster and deeper search that might miss some good moves. Secondly,
>Fritz7 without futility pruning seemed to search slower than with futility
>pruning but overlooked less.
>
>Conclusion: I believe that Fritz7 with futility pruning is better in
>time-control games in tournament such as rapid chess, sudden death and any
>tactical-oriented games. On the other hand, if you want to let Fritz7 analyze a
>position or a game for a long time, futility pruning should be turned off since
>time is not very important.
>
>What is futility pruning?  According to the information from the Fritz7 online
>help as follows below.
>
>Futility pruning: This is an aggressive method of narrowing down the search. It
>allows the program to go much deeper, but it also increases the possibility that
>it will oversee something.
>
>Selecting and deselecting Futility pruning feature is available inside the
>Fritz7 engine parameters dialog box.
>
>Eran

As futility pruning is pruning lines that looks futile, I would guess it is
getting a lower score in tactical test sets. But I belive it will perform better
in most normal positions in a chess game.

Torstein




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