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Subject: Re: Can opponent's thinking time be a search/eval parameter?

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 15:10:51 10/17/02

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On October 17, 2002 at 10:07:41, ujecrh wrote:

>When two human players play each other, if one takes a lot of time for a move
>usually the opponent also takes this in account for his next move as it is often
>a sign of a critical step in the game (tactically or positionnaly).
>
>This is somewhat used by chess programs because they ponder but isn't this worth
>implementing in a chess engine?
>
>We can track opponent's thinking time and, without trying to match it, add some
>time or search extensions when an unusual delay has occured.
>
>Ujecrh


Crafty used to do this.  Mike Byrne wrote the code for it, in fact.  It has its
plusses and
minuses...  To move quickly just because your opponent moves quickly is
dangerous in
the extreme, because _his_ move might be easy to see while yours is very complex
to
analyze.

To move slowly when your opponent moves slowly does the opposite, you may well
burn
time just because the opponent is in a "deep think / planning" stage, not
because he is in
trouble or sees a deep combination against you that you should spend time on
hoping you
see it...




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