Author: José Carlos
Date: 13:06:31 04/29/02
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On April 29, 2002 at 15:52:32, Scott Gasch wrote: >On April 29, 2002 at 14:01:23, Joe McCarro wrote: > >>If I were playing someone over the board and they seemed to give me a >>possibility to play Bxa1 snatching the rook I would think long and hard before >>doing that. I'd figure as long as this isn't a trap I will win the game. Let me >>take my time to just make sure its not a trap. I wonder if this couldn't be >>programmed in. Anytime the other player makes what on the surface appears to be >>a blunder (e.g., drops over a pawn) the computer could spend extra time working >>out the position before moving. If it ended up it was in fact just a blunder >>presumably the computer should still be able to win despite the extra time spent >>looking for the tactical shot. If it found it wan't a blunder the computer >>might avoid taking the poison. Do the programmers do anything like this? Would >>this in fact be helpful or would it have disadvantages as well? > >This idea could certainly be programmed. But there's a problem. Let's assume >the engine is playing a blitz game and has allocated itself 10 seconds to think >about a move. In 10 seconds it gets to depth d and realizes that the move it >wants to make seems to "win". To get to depth d+1 will a long time, maybe 10 >more seconds or so. To get to depth d+2 may take 10 + 20 more seconds >(sometimes more). > >So my point is, to say "this position is important, I should think about it a >bit more" is fine... but to think about it even just a little bit more may take >a really long time. The question is whether its a good use of the engine's >allotted time. Maybe. > >Personally, I do some tricks with time allocation but nothing as direct as the >idea you suggest. I consider it just too expensive, especially at fast time >controls. > >Scott Some time ago I (Averno) was playing Hossa on ICC. Hossa took a long time to reply a quite normal move and Steffen told me Hossa extended time when there was a big jump (up or down) in the score, exactly with the above stated idea. I'm not quite sure about it, but it'd be certainly interesting if Steffen himself could tell us his experience with that time extension. José C.
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