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Subject: Re: Nullmove crap

Author: Rolf Tueschen

Date: 18:35:27 12/18/02

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On December 18, 2002 at 21:16:53, Bruce Moreland wrote:

>The idea behind null-move forward pruning is that you ask yourself, "Even if I
>give my opponent a free move, am I still winning if I let my opponent make a
>short search here?"
>
>If the answer is yes, you are probably winning pretty big, so you can discard
>this variation without doing long searches of all your legal moves.
>
>An example of this is if in a line you just took the opponent's queen, then the
>opponent made a nonsense move, if it was your move now you could ask yourself
>this question *now*.
>
>The answer would probably be, "I'm safe", so it would be safe to assume that the
>line is bad.
>
>In practice, a huge number of crap variations can be thrown away like this.
>
>You get into trouble when you are safe for the moment, but the computer has a
>longer term threat that you can't escape.  The short depth null-move search
>won't detect the threat.
>
>You also get into trouble if you are in zugzwang, when the compulsion to move is
>what kills you.
>
>bruce

Thanks. Now you give the two exceptions as if you could forget them. But exactly
the LONGER plans are characteristic for good GM, so, how about a rethink of the
whole trick? - Would you try to hold it up or is it just one of these tricks to
let LOOK a prog quite good while it has still the known weaknesses?

Therefore my idea to start a new chapter with real knowledge.

To me it looks as if programmers are always looking for another trick to pretend
something that is _knowingly_ not there. Isn't that simply impostering, Bruce? -
Or is it in a (anyway) helpless situation, like Huebner already stated in the
seventies after he visited the MIT? Is your only chance the hardware?

Rolf Tueschen



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