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Subject: Re: Move Ordering

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 07:55:55 12/26/02

Go up one level in this thread


On December 26, 2002 at 01:34:46, Miguel A. Ballicora wrote:

>On December 25, 2002 at 15:18:29, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>
>>On December 25, 2002 at 10:46:17, Dieter Buerssner wrote:
>>
>>>On December 24, 2002 at 23:05:09, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>
>>>>[...] Why don't you go read Knuth/Moore's paper on
>>>>alpha beta.  There you will find that move ordering does _not_ affect the
>>>>final score, only the size of the tree.  Something every senion-level computer
>>>>science student should know.
>>>
>>>I think, in most modern chess programs, move ordering can affect the final
>>>score. Reasons can be extensions/pruning/hash tables.
>>>
>>>Regards,
>>>Dieter
>>
>>If move ordering affects extensions or pruning, _something_ is broken.  As
>>that violates the basic premise of alpha/beta...
>
>I am really surprised by this statement. Any pruning or extension that depends
>on alpha will be affected by the move ordering. With different move ordering,
>the same position might face different bounds, hence, different extensions could
>be triggered.
>
That is the point.  Do you want to find something by serendipity?  I don't.
I want consistent behavior every time.  And if something is dependent on move
ordering, it is dependent on luck.  IE do you overwrite a position that
eliminates a hash move which eliminates an extensions?

_not_ a good design, IMHO.



>>
>>Hashing _can_ cause quirks, but it actually is more important to search _worse_
>>moves first and then graft those search results on to better searches.  That is
>>how we solve fine 70 faster than we should.  If the tree were ordered
>>perfectly it takes 26 plies, period...
>
>IMHO, faster in plies does not mean faster in nodes (time). With terrible move
>ordering you could solve a position in less plies but it could be in more nodes
>than with good move ordering.


I am talking time to solution.  Fine 70 takes 26 plies with perfect move
ordering.  Most solve it at a considerably shallower depth, and there are no
extensions whatsoever to help, so it is simply an artifact of hashing.  And
the only way hashing can help is as I explained earlier...




>
>Miguel



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