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

Author: Eran

Date: 08:34:44 02/07/02

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On February 07, 2002 at 05:52:26, Torstein Hall wrote:

>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

Well, I am sure futility pruning has both advantage and disadvantage. Please see
below.

Advantage: It searches faster and finds best moves earlier.

Disadvantage: It may overlook some best moves.

Therefore, this is a fine balance between time-control games and long time
analysis. The decision of whether to select futility pruning or not is up to
you. It is not perfect.

Eran



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