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Subject: Re: What do you do in your q-search

Author: Ulrich Tuerke

Date: 09:00:00 11/24/02

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On November 24, 2002 at 11:10:17, Robert Hyatt wrote:

>On November 24, 2002 at 10:08:06, Ulrich Tuerke wrote:
>
>>On November 23, 2002 at 00:57:57, Anthony Cozzie wrote:
>>
>>>The discussion on verified null move pruning has got me thinking about my
>>>qsearch.  Right now zappa does simple-stupid qsearch: captures and recaptures,
>>>and I'm thinking about adding some things.  If I have a better q-search it may
>>>be possible to move to straight R=3, which would be faster than the current
>>>R=2/3 (Heinz). So I am considering adding:
>>>
>>>1. Pawn Promotions. It would be very easy to add some sort of "generate white
>>>pawn promotions".  Usually there would be none, but this could be determined
>>>quickly by a bitboard and (for those of us smart enough to use bitboards . . . .
>>>hehehe)
>>>
>>>2. Check evasion.  Right now if one of the captures puts the King in check in
>>>qsearch, zappa just stops.
>>>
>>>3. A Horizon zone.  For example, Search() would call horizon() which would call
>>>QSearch().  In the horizon zone, Zappa would also search checks and killer
>>>moves.
>>
>>How about
>>4. Check generation. For example, you could generate checking moves in
>>quiescence provided some conditions are fullfilled (e.g. close enough to
>>horizon, checked king standing risky, ...).
>>
>>
>>>
>>>Secondly, what are people's opinions on SEE versus futility pruning in QSearch?
>>>I was using SEE up until recently, when I did some experiments and decided
>>>Qsearch was working better.  Of course, I may just have bugs in my SEE.
>>>
>>>I'll probably try most or all of this stuff anyway, but I'm curious what other
>>>people's views on this are.
>>>
>>>anthony
>
>
>I've mentioned this before, but in Cray Blitz, and some very early crafty
>versions, I had a three-zone search, rather than the current two-zone search.
>
>Zone one was normal.
>
>Zone two was selective and included mainly tactical moves such as checks,
>captures, moves that contain some sort of threat (found by null-move search)
>and so forth.
>
>Zone three was q-search, although in CB and early Crafty I did do check evasion
>if the same side was in check in all q-search plies so that any mate found would
>be forced...  In Cray Blitz we also generated checks in certain cases, but not
>nearly as many as we generated in zone two, the "connector" between a normal
>search and the pure quiescence search...

Oh yes. I remember your article in "Computers, Chess & Cognition" a long time
ago. IIRC, it was the same proceedings, where Goetsch and Campbell had presented
their null move (for the 1st time ?)  .

Uli



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