Author: martin fierz
Date: 13:27:27 05/30/02
Go up one level in this thread
On May 30, 2002 at 12:57:53, Scott Gasch wrote: >Before I search I set two time limits, a soft limit and a hard limit. If >everything goes well I move after the soft limit. But if: > > 1. The root position is "critical" > 2. We've seen many root fail lows > 3. We're just out of book > 4. We're resolving a root fail low / fail high > 5. We're already done searching the first move at this depth (with the > assumption that the rest should come quickly or cause a FL/FH if > interesting, might as well search out the ply). > >then the engine keeps searching until either the condition disappears (for >temporary conditions) or the hard timer is exceeded. The code also has some >provisions for moving before the soft timer has expired in situations like: > > 1. It thinks the root position / move is a simple recapture. Everyone > thinks this is a dumb idea but it has never bitten me. Simple recapture = > there is only one way to recapture a piece > knight and there are no > checks against the enemy king. > 2. I have some code that makes it move faster when time is low in a blocked > position when the move it is considering doesn't unblock the position. I > added this as part of an attempt to "fix" anti-computer play. It also has > been programmed to hate totally blocked positions so hopefully avoids this > >Hope this is helpful for you. Someday I may go back and add a second "harder" >timer... Usually the hard timer is about 2-3x the short timer and I think in sure - this already is much more sophisticated than what i do... >Another thing, why are you not playing the tip of the PV at the time you run out >of time? If you think about when your PV changes (or, better yet, print out a >message) at the root you'll see that playing the first move on the PV when you >are halfway through ply X is the same as playing the move returned by ply X-1 as >long as the PV hasn't changed. If it has, I play the new move. i don't have a reliable PV - i'm using MTD, and there you just have no real PV except whats in the hashtable - and that can always be overwritten :-( aloha martin
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