Author: Jeremiah Penery
Date: 21:58:08 10/17/02
Go up one level in this thread
On October 17, 2002 at 23:48:27, Robert Hyatt wrote: >On October 17, 2002 at 19:57:41, Uri Blass wrote: > >>On October 17, 2002 at 18:12:02, Robert Hyatt wrote: >> >>>On October 17, 2002 at 16:34:08, Murray wrote: >>> >>>>On October 17, 2002 at 10:07:41, ujecrh wrote: >>>> >>>>>(snip) >>>>>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. >>>>> >>>> >>>>But humans also ponder when the computer is thinking. It could be argued that if >>>>the human is having to spend a long time thinking in a difficult position, the >>>>computer should play just as quickly or quicker than normal, to reduce the >>>>human's chance of seeing through the complications. >>>> >>>>Murray Cash >>> >>> >>>If the computer had any _idea_ about what makes up a complex/hard-to-analyze >>>position, >>>this would be a good plan. But it doesn't have a clue about whether the >>>opponent has an >>>easy or difficult position to play, and trying to play games with time usage >>>will more often >>>than not blow up in your face.... >> >>The computer may ponder about all the possible moves but use different time for >>different moves(I remember that I read that this idea is used by aristarch). >> >>If based on the scores it can see that there is a forced move it can give it >>almost all of the time but if it see 5 moves with almost the same score it can >>continue to analyze them and use almost 1/5 of the time for everyone of them. > >This idea is simply no good. I have explained why a dozen times or two, over >the past 10 years... It doesn't work now. It didn't work 20 years ago. It >won't >work 20 years from now either. > >The _best_ way to ponder is to pick the best move and go with it, unless the >program >is so bad it can't predict right even 50% of the time, which is very low... I still think that if the opponent is taking a VERY long time, or if the ponder move keeps failing high, it might be good to try pondering a different move, because in those cases it's much more likely you're pondering wrong. At least in the second case, I'm sure it would be better - I'd be interested to see statistics about the percentage of correct ponder moves when the opponent thinks for a very long time compared to the normal percentage. If it's significantly lower, it probably won't hurt to switch to a different pondering move in those cases either.
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