Computer Chess Club Archives


Search

Terms

Messages

Subject: Re: Why set Ponder=off in a comp to comp match?

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 20:12:47 10/07/02

Go up one level in this thread


On October 07, 2002 at 18:48:45, Peter Berger wrote:

>On October 07, 2002 at 18:33:43, Jeremiah Penery wrote:
>
>>On October 07, 2002 at 18:29:35, Uri Blass wrote:
>>
>>>On October 07, 2002 at 18:19:29, Jorge wrote:
>>>
>>>>This may be a dumb question, but could someone tell me the reason for setting
>>>>Ponder=off in comp to comp matches? If two computers with the same hardware with
>>>>different, each with a program playing each other, why set ponder off?
>>>>
>>>>thnx,
>>>>jorge
>>>
>>>Usually the people who play games with ponder off use only one computer and not
>>>2 computers.
>>
>>Why set ponder off with one computer?
>
>Apart from OS issues (not sharing ressources consistently or evenly) there is
>the problem of one of the programs not having a ponder move at some moment in
>the game. This can happen to many programs in case of fail highs or lows.
>
>In this case the other program doesn't only have the (fair) advantage of being
>able to search while the other one sleeps, but even worse it can think with
>doubled CPU powers now - as the normal 50-50 suddenly becomes a 100-0 . As fail
>lows and fail highs seem to happen more often in critical stages of the game it
>becomes even worse.
>
>Peter


This is certainly an issue, but it is fixable.  IE Crafty will _never_ find
itself with no move
to ponder...

But even if that is fixed, there are other potential problems as well...



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.