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Subject: Re: new thoughts on verified null move

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 08:05:24 11/24/02

Go up one level in this thread


On November 24, 2002 at 07:01:46, Omid David Tabibi wrote:

>On November 23, 2002 at 23:33:39, Tony Werten wrote:
>
>>On November 23, 2002 at 23:14:52, Omid David Tabibi wrote:
>>
>>>On November 23, 2002 at 22:25:02, Tony Werten wrote:
>>>
>>>>On November 23, 2002 at 22:14:27, Omid David Tabibi wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On November 23, 2002 at 21:50:01, Tony Werten wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>On November 23, 2002 at 21:24:08, Omid David Tabibi wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>On November 23, 2002 at 21:09:36, Tony Werten wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>On November 23, 2002 at 20:52:01, Omid David Tabibi wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>On November 23, 2002 at 20:00:15, Tony Werten wrote:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>On November 23, 2002 at 11:11:16, Christophe Theron wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>On November 23, 2002 at 09:22:37, jefkaan wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>oops, wasn't finished yet..
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>are done by using the results of the positional eval
>>>>>>>>>>>>>to prune the q-search,
>>>>>>>>>>>>and there using only material eval
>>>>>>>>>>>> (haven't tried it out yet, and wouldn't
>>>>>>>>>>>>know how to do it, but it's only an idea,
>>>>>>>>>>>>you know.. to explore options of
>>>>>>>>>>>>more effective branch factor reducements
>>>>>>>>>>>>and efficient programming (besides
>>>>>>>>>>>>lousy solutions as inline assembler
>>>>>>>>>>>>and bitboards..
>>>>>>>>>>>>:)
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>Yes Chess Tiger does much more pruning than known (published) techniques.
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>I think other top programs do it also.
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>I still fail to see why the efficiency of an algorithm depends on what your
>>>>>>>>>>>QSearch does.
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>If your pruning algorithm is good, it will increase the strength of the program
>>>>>>>>>>>regardless on how good your QSearch is.
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>If your QSearch is smart, then it will increase the strength even more.
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>I don't like the idea that some algorithms that have almost nothing to do with
>>>>>>>>>>>each other would have such an influence on each other. It is indeed possible and
>>>>>>>>>>>it probably happens all the time, but it's hard to work with such hypothesis in
>>>>>>>>>>>mind.
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>I think it's better to first assume that the kind of QSearch you do will not
>>>>>>>>>>>interfere with the quality of the pruning algorithm used before the QSearch.
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>If your QSearch sucks, it's not because you are doing a lot of pruning in the
>>>>>>>>>>>"full width" part of the search. It's because it sucks.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>The paper does prove that the more your (q)search sucks, the better your pruning
>>>>>>>>>>algoritm seems. But that's not really news.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>Does it prove that?! No, it's just my impression based on the data gathered so
>>>>>>>>>far. Maybe a reduction of 2 (instead of 1) in case of fail-high report, will
>>>>>>>>>work better in programs with heavy extensions and quiescence.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>A reduction of 20% seems to be working best in XiniX ( heavy qsearch).
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>What do you mean by 20%? (you used a reduction of 1 or 2 in case of fail-high
>>>>>>>report?)
>>>>>>
>>>>>>In case of a fail high I reduce the depth with 20%. ( doesn't work in your silly
>>>>>>program :)
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>Anyway, no matter what the reduction is, you are using verified null-move
>>>>>pruning, which is good :-) In my paper I just gave a new null-move pruning
>>>>>framework; feel free to play with the values that best fit your program.
>>>>
>>>>It's a no brainer to implement. If it's not bad then it's worth investigating.
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>Even better values do exist. I've been working on them for some time and will
>>>>>publish them in near future.
>>>>
>>>>If I might give an advice. For first reviews, send them it to some active
>>>>chessprogrammers, and not to academic has beens. It will save you a lot of
>>>>typework. ( you have been quite active on this forum lately )
>>>>
>>>
>>>I will. However, after posting a new method, several days of "heavy presence"
>>>will always be needed to clear things up and answer the questions...
>>
>>Yes, that's good.
>>
>>I just think that sending your algoritm to Robert (I think we were using this in
>>74 ), Gian Carlo ( Can't work, just implemented it in 3 seconds ) and me (
>>didn't crash my program, must be a good idea ) would have given you some "real"
>>input.
>>
>
>Yes, I agree. At least I would have changed my too optimistic comment "it can be
>implemented by merely adding a few lines of code"! It is a few lines of
>pseudo-code, but practically needs some more tuning to find the best reduction
>values...
>
>

It wasn't really "too optimistic".  But it is probably easier for me than
most, as I am already using internal iterative deepening, which means I can
call search recursively for the same position/ply, without wrecking things.

That simplifies the code in that I don't do the little block of verification
code plus a goto that you used, I simply recursively call search when the
null-move search fails high and the "ok-to-verify" flag is set.  However, to
be efficient, I wanted to modify my "do_null" flag I pass to each successive
search() call, so that it would include "do_null & verify" to avoid adding a
new search parameter.  That was a bit messier than I originally thought and
that is the only thing that caused my initial attempt to produce errors, in that
I simply blew the two flags out at times and did extra verification searches
when I shouldn't have due to the bug.

BTW, when I get this working, I have a huge cluster of quad xeons.  I can
certainly re-run all your test positions with Crafty, and let 'em run 32 at
a time to depth 12, 13, and 14 to see what happens...  If you want to send me
your positions, I should probably re-run the 9, 10 and 11 tests as well to get
a baseline comparison between crafty and your program also...  but I have plenty
of machine time to run deeper tests...




>>Tony
>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>BTW last time we mailed I concluded your last name was David, were does the
>>>>Tabibi come from ?
>>>>
>>>
>>>My full name has always been Omid David Tabibi. But I usually use just David as
>>>my last name in informal occasions. After ICGA put my name as "O.D. Tabibi" on
>>>their cover, I thought it would be a good idea to use my full name here to avoid
>>>confusion.
>>>
>>>
>>>>Tony
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>In XiniX I have partial extensions (PLY is 32).
>>>>>>The addition to your idea is to give big reductions when there is still a lot of
>>>>>>searchdepth remaining. So fe when there is 12 ply left I give more reduction
>>>>>>than when there's 6 ply left (with a minimum of 1 ply ) That's 6*0,2 is 1,2 ply
>>>>>>more. For XiniX that seems to make the difference between a good and a bad new
>>>>>>idea.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Tony
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>I'm
>>>>>>>>interessed in your idea. It's commented out in my program now, but not deleted.
>>>>>>>>I still have to play with it some more.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>Despite of the negative comments you had, I don't think it's a bad idea. I'm
>>>>>>>>just not convinced yet it's a good one.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>It took me several months of experiments to get convinced. After a little more
>>>>>>>tuning and playing with different reduction values (1 or 2), I believe you will
>>>>>>>be convinced too ;-)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>Tony
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>Tony
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>    Christophe



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