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

Author: Andreas Stabel

Date: 09:10:55 11/11/02

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On November 11, 2002 at 12:04:03, Uri Blass wrote:

>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

The math here is wrong - it should be:
0.6*0.9 + 0.4*0.1*0.3 = 0.54 + 0.012 = 0.0552
or if you assume you hit the right move every time you ponder the next best
move:
0.6*0.9 + 04.*0.1 = 0.54 + 0.04 = 0.58 which is still less than 0.60 !

Best regards
Andreas Stabel



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