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Subject: Re: Pondering ("think on opponent's time")

Author: Uri Blass

Date: 09:04:03 11/11/02

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On November 11, 2002 at 10:28:33, Robert Hyatt wrote:

>On November 11, 2002 at 01:10:23, Uri Blass wrote:
>
>>On November 10, 2002 at 23:53:19, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>
>>>On November 10, 2002 at 22:38:03, Jeremiah Penery wrote:
>>>
>>>>On November 10, 2002 at 21:29:43, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On November 10, 2002 at 21:15:07, Jim Bumgardner wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>Which of these strategies for "think on opponent's time" makes more sense?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>A) To only search the top-move from the principle variation.  If
>>>>>>the opponent makes that move, continue searching, otherwise reset and
>>>>>>search again.
>>>>>
>>>>>This is the _only_ way to do it.  I've explained this many times, but it
>>>>>is probably time to go it again...
>>>>
>>>>For the general case.  But it shouldn't be hard to find situations where it's
>>>>very easy to tell the ponder move is probably wrong.  In those cases, it's
>>>>obvious, IMO, that switching to a different ponder move would help.
>>>>
>>>>One possible scenario is when the ponder move keeps failing high - either the
>>>>ponder move is wrong, or you ponder some other move and you'll find the
>>>>fail-highs again anyway if they play the original ponder move.  Otherwise,
>>>>you'll have a better chance of pondering on a better move.  You could always
>>>>save the result of the first ponder search just in case.
>>>
>>>
>>>That is a good point of course.  If you get the fail high _before_ using the
>>>"target time" then you can safely switch to pondering something else, knowing
>>>you will have time to find the "fail high" again, if the opponent makes the
>>>expected move.
>>>
>>>The bad side might be that you don't fail high until you are beyond your target
>>>time, so that if you start pondering something else, you might not be able to
>>>find the fail high for real if the opponent actually makes that move...
>>
>>You assume here that you are going to forget the fail high.
>>
>>You can rememeber the move that you want to play against the expected move in
>>case of fail high and continue to search other moves and when the opponent plays
>>the expected move you can play the move that you remember in 0 seconds.
>
>Yes, although I am trying to adhere to the KISS principle here.  The above
>would work well, but it would introduce additional complexity and the
>opportunity for bugs.  But it might be worth it too...
>
>>
>>I also believe that the best strategy is not to ponder only on one move but to
>>have a lot of threads(for every legal move of the opponent a different thread)
>>and to give different priority for different moves.
>
>How about some math to show how the above is going to be better than pondering
>one move that is correct over 50% of the time.  I don't see any way to improve
>except in special cases such as a terrible fail-high that lets you know your
>opponent probably won't play that move...

I admit that there is not a big improvement but if you want some math then here
is is:

What is better?

Case A:You ponder the expected move 60% of the cases and ponder another move in
40% of the cases

case B:In the same 60% of the cases you use 90% of the time for the expected
move.
In the rest of the 40% of the cases you use 30% of the time for the move that is
going to be played.

0.6*0.9+0.4*0.3=0.66>0.6


Uri



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