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Subject: Re: Feng-Hsiung Hsu's talk at Microsoft

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 13:28:39 10/08/02

Go up one level in this thread


On October 08, 2002 at 15:11:56, Uri Blass wrote:

>On October 08, 2002 at 14:33:05, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>
>>On October 08, 2002 at 13:26:52, Uri Blass wrote:
>>
>>>On October 08, 2002 at 13:16:22, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>
>>>>On October 08, 2002 at 12:22:30, Uri Blass wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On October 08, 2002 at 12:10:41, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>On October 08, 2002 at 10:55:29, Uri Blass wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>On October 08, 2002 at 10:50:20, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>On October 08, 2002 at 07:08:51, Uri Blass wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>On October 08, 2002 at 00:52:38, Eugene Nalimov wrote:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>Wrong.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>Today I visited the talk by Feng-Hsiung Hsu he gave at Microsoft. Here are some
>>>>>>>>>>points from memory:
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>They used forward pruning in the hardware, and according to Hsu it gives them
>>>>>>>>>>5x-10x speedup. He wrote about that in the book, too, but without any details.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>Can you ask him if 12(6) really means 12 plies in the software and 6 plies in
>>>>>>>>>the hardware?
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>A second question is if the plies in the hardware were selective search from the
>>>>>>>>>first ply.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>In the talk he named that pruning as "analogy cutoff" and mentioned that "if the
>>>>>>>>>>move is useless in some position, it is also useless in the similar position".
>>>>>>>>>>In the book he writes "it can be done in the hardware as long as it does not
>>>>>>>>>>have to be 100% correct".
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>They used null-move thread detection, as well as not only singular extension,
>>>>>>>>>>but also extension on only 2 or 3 good replies. They used fractional extensions.
>>>>>>>>>>He also says that their Q-search is much more powerful than the one that is
>>>>>>>>>>usually used in the software-only programs.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>Hsu gave some details why they don't use null-move:
>>>>>>>>>>(1) He thinks that singular extensions and null-move gave more-or-less the same
>>>>>>>>>>rating difference (100-200 points IIRC).
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>I think that he underestimates null-move pruning.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>I believe that for long time control null move pruning gives more than 100-200
>>>>>>>>>points.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>People may try Fritz with selectivity=0 to find it's rating without null move.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>Uri
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>I can assure you it doesn't.  Several of us ran this experiment in the past.  It
>>>>>>>>produced a 50-100
>>>>>>>>point improvement at most.  Bruce ran it first.  I then repeated it to see if
>>>>>>>>his result held for me
>>>>>>>>as well.  50-100 is nothing to sneeze at of course...  But that is all it will
>>>>>>>>give...
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>What was the time control and the hardware.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>I believe that the improvement is bigger
>>>>>>>at slower time control.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>If the experiment was some years ago and
>>>>>>>in time control that is faster than 120/40
>>>>>>>then the results may be different today.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Uri
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>I don't know about Bruce.  I used 40 moves in one hour followed by 20 moves in
>>>>>>30 minutes,
>>>>>>with no sudden-death at all.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>I ran it on several computers here for several weeks...
>>>>>
>>>>>We have a factor of 2 in the time control.
>>>>>
>>>>>What was the hardware that was used?
>>>>>If the games were played 5 years ago then today we have clearly
>>>>>faster hardware.
>>>>>
>>>>>Uri
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>Pentium pro 200's.  I played 2 games at a time on my quad, plus more games in a
>>>>linux lab we
>>>>had set up.
>>>>
>>>>yes hardware is faster.  No I don't believe that going deeper and deeper
>>>>eliminates all the problems
>>>>with null-move.  I only saw bad problems at depths of 5-6-7-8.  I _never_ saw
>>>>them pop up at
>>>>depths of 12 and beyond, which Crafty could reach in the pentium pro at 1 minute
>>>>a move...
>>>>
>>>>R=2 used to gain at most 2 plies.  Yet the overall performance improvement from
>>>>my testing
>>>>was in the 50-60 point range.  Far less than what you would normally expect from
>>>>gaining 2
>>>>plies.  The conclusion?  You aren't _really_ gaining two plies of search depth,
>>>>just two plies
>>>>reported in the output...
>>>
>>>I did not say that you get 2 plies of search depth from 2 plies of output but
>>>only that I believe that the difference is bigger than 100-200.
>>>
>>>It may be interesting to repeat the experiment today
>>>(you use R=2/3 and not R=2 and it is also important).
>>>
>>>Uri
>>
>>
>>
>>OK...  that means that you think that a null-mover will win 3 of every 4 games
>>vs a non-null-mover,
>>_everything_ else being the same?
>>
>>I can run that test.
>>
>>I'll let you pick the time control.  Pick something that xboard/winboard will
>>like and I'll fire it up on
>>a quad and let it play two games at a time using one processor for each side)
>>for a while...
>>
>>How about 40 moves every 60 minutes or something similar, repeated until the
>>game is drawn or
>>ends normally...
>
>I guess that even Crafty(R=3) is good enough to get 75% at 60 minutes/40 moves
>against Crafty(R=0) (I think that programs that do checks in the qsearch like
>Tao can get even better results).
>
>My guess is based on my experience with movei when my results suggest that the
>latest movei earn more from time relative to the public movei when one of the
>differences is that I use R=3 in the latest version when the public version is
>using R=2.
>
>I admit that I did not do comparison of only R=2 against R=3 except test suites
>when R=3 scored better.
>
>Uri


OK.   I have a quad free and am playing two games at a time using two copies of
xboard,
one crafty has normal null-move (2/3) the other has none (sel=0/0).  I will
report as I get
results...




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