Computer Chess Club Archives


Search

Terms

Messages

Subject: Re: Depth vs Time

Author: Steve Coladonato

Date: 15:53:24 06/24/02

Go up one level in this thread


On June 24, 2002 at 13:56:59, Gian-Carlo Pascutto wrote:

>On June 24, 2002 at 13:52:45, Steve Coladonato wrote:
>
>><snip>
>>>
>>>You can compare plies of the same program and if a program searches deeper then
>>>in most cases you can expect a bigger part of it's pv to be correct.
>>>
>>
>>Thanks Uri
>>
>>So given the "standard" definition of ply, why can't I compare the time it takes
>>program X to get to ply M vs. program Y?  By definition of ply, the time it
>>takes to get to evaluation at ply M should be comparable regardless of what is
>>going on behind the scenes.
>
>What is the definition of ply?

I don't know what the technical definition is but a ply is a half move, i.e. a
move made by one side.  1.e4 is one ply.  1.e4 e5 is two ply.
>
>I wonder what you consider 'comparable'. There's no guarantee
>they'll be similar whatsoever.

That was not a well formed statement on my part.  What I meant was that for a
given ply depth, the evaluation that program X comes up with should be
comparable to the evaluation that program Y comes up with if both programs are
fairly equal in overall strength.  Therefore, if the algorithms/heuristics that
program X uses allow it to get to ply M faster than program Y, then program X
should win if the time allowed constrains how much time each program can use for
analysis at that depth.  For example, if program X can get to ply 11 in 30 secs
and program Y takes 1 min 30 secs to get there, the overall analysis that
program X can generate during a game should be better than that generated by
program Y and program X should win.  So it seems that the efficiency of the
algorithms/heuristics will determine the overall strength of a program.

>
>>Program X's variation at ply M may be inferior to
>>program Y's, but at ply M that is what each is saying is the best
>>move/variation.
>
>Yes. (Is there a point?)
>
>--
>GCP



This page took 0 seconds to execute

Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700

Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.