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Subject: Re: developing Junior (and other pro programs)

Author: Bo Persson

Date: 12:12:10 09/03/02

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On September 03, 2002 at 12:03:24, Dave Gomboc wrote:

>On September 03, 2002 at 11:49:42, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>
>>On September 03, 2002 at 11:30:35, Gian-Carlo Pascutto wrote:
>>
>>
>>I worked on trying it for about three months.  I didn't go "all the way" and
>>add both upper/lower scores/moves into the hash table entries, as mtd(f) really
>>needs.  But I had to do so many re-searches that I didn't deem it worthwhile to
>>worry with that...  I did spend a lot of time trying to limit the number of
>>re-searches.  But if you do three or more, you begin to lose to straight PVS
>>in the general case...
>>
>>and you are going to be forced to do at least two searches in the best case...
>
>Well, I do think you need to at least make that switch (to storing both upper
>and lower bounds) to give it a fair shot.  If you don't, the algorithm can
>ping-pong like crazy with the "right" input :-)
>
>Dave

Yes, you might want to try adding two bounds anyway. I started by modifying the
hash table, and then accidentally forgot to include the MTD(f) code, but got a
pretty good improvement anyway. Having two bounds helps reduing the alpha-beta
windows from both sides.

On the other hand, I have tried MTD(f) for a lot longer than 3 months, and still
have this "fast, fast, fast, hit-the-wall" effect, where 10 plies takes less
than a second and ply 11 takes forever.



Bo Persson
bop2@telia.com



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