Computer Chess Club Archives


Search

Terms

Messages

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

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 19:48:42 11/24/02

Go up one level in this thread


On November 24, 2002 at 12:00:00, Ulrich Tuerke wrote:

>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

They published something prior to the 1989 WCCC event.  We used their idea
there in fact...  They did publish something in Schaeffer's book...




This page took 0 seconds to execute

Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700

Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.