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Subject: Re: Ponder on/off

Author: Peter Berger

Date: 10:11:27 06/19/02

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On June 19, 2002 at 13:03:13, Robert Hyatt wrote:

>b)  ponder=on can cause problems.  Most of the time both engines will compute
>100% of the time.  And get 50% of the cpu.  But suppose one engine is not so
>sophisticated and fails (on occasion) to have anything to "ponder"?  It will
>sit idle, giving the other program 100% of the cpu and a 2:1 time advantage
>for that search.
>

This is the _major_ problem with ponder=on matches on single CPU IMHO . There
are several very strong engines that will have no ponder move quite regularly in
critical phases of the game (after fail-highs for example) - this looks like a
design decision. It looks like a rather principal problem for Ponder=On-matches
on a single CPU to me.


With time management and ponder=off - this looks like a lesser issue in
comparison IMHO ( for example for Crafty it was tested by Volker Pittlik and the
difference in strength wasn't measurable). This might be different for other
engines though.

Peter

Peter



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