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Subject: Re: Some questions about Verified Null-Move Pruning

Author: Uri Blass

Date: 07:47:00 11/22/02

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On November 22, 2002 at 03:46:06, Tony Werten wrote:

>On November 22, 2002 at 03:31:37, Uri Blass wrote:
>
>>On November 22, 2002 at 02:59:34, Tony Werten wrote:
>>
>>>On November 22, 2002 at 02:44:52, Tony Werten wrote:
>>>
>>>>On November 21, 2002 at 17:01:11, Omid David Tabibi wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On November 21, 2002 at 16:55:04, Tony Werten wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>On November 21, 2002 at 16:19:17, Omid David Tabibi wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>On November 21, 2002 at 16:05:45, Tony Werten wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>On November 21, 2002 at 13:52:33, Omid David Tabibi wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>On November 21, 2002 at 13:05:28, Uri Blass wrote:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>On November 21, 2002 at 09:16:09, Omid David Tabibi wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>On November 21, 2002 at 08:34:36, Uri Blass wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>1)I do not find in the pseudo code in figure 3 undo null move.
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>I assume that it should be before if value>=beta and after value=-search(...)
>>>>>>>>>>>>Am I right?
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>That is why it is called *pseudo*-code :-)
>>>>>>>>>>>You have to fill in the obvious parts by yourself...
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>2)What is the value of the research for tactical strength?
>>>>>>>>>>>>Should it help significantly relative to searching to reduced depth when
>>>>>>>>>>>>value>=beta without research (even when we get value that is less than beta).
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>I didn't understand the question. Dp you mean doing a shallow search even when
>>>>>>>>>>>we don't have a fail-high report?!
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>I meant to ask what is the tactical value of the research(You suggested people
>>>>>>>>>>to start with doing it without the research first and only after it works to do
>>>>>>>>>>it with the research)
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>The re-search is needed only in zugzwang positions. Such zugzwang positions
>>>>>>>>>occur very rarely in midgames; so you can forgo the zugzwang detection re-search
>>>>>>>>>and still benefit all the improved tactical performance.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>I was quite surprised to see them from the starting position at a rate of 5 per
>>>>>>>>second. Not impressive, XiniX searches 400 Kn/s there, but still surprising.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>The rate of what, was 5 per second?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>"Zugzwang positions" or rather, positions where nullmove would have given a
>>>>>>cutoff but that after reducing depth and searching gave a score < beta.
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>You mean you got an average of 5 zugzwang indications per second in middle
>>>>>game?!!! Then your program has instabilities which cause a huge number of
>>>>>needless re-searches due to false zugzwang alarm. Turn off your zugzwang
>>>>>detection at once!
>>>>
>>>>I'm quite interested in finding out what is happening so I'll leave it in for a
>>>>while. I think it has something to do with tempo. XiniX doesn't use futility
>>>>pruning so I'm quite curious to know if programs that do, have a bigger false
>>>>zugzwang count.
>>>
>>>Think I found it. Your algoritm doesn't seem to work correctly with threat
>>>detection, causing instabilities. Maybe your testprogram didn't use it ?
>>
>>I do not understand
>>
>>Can you explain?
>>
>>I did not find something strange with the 5 "Zugzwang" per second in the opening
>>position because I assume that it is all about the horizon effect and not about
>>real zugzwang positions".
>
>Yes, and R=3 gets the horizon closer than R=2. Threats fe get found easier with
>R=2.
>
>Tony

I now checked with movei and counted 63 horizon effects in the first 10,000,000
nodes.

Uri



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