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Subject: Re: What to do when hash table returns a Mate value?

Author: Dave Gomboc

Date: 00:29:23 01/20/03

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On January 18, 2003 at 22:32:29, Robert Hyatt wrote:

>On January 18, 2003 at 20:40:25, Dave Gomboc wrote:
>
>>On January 17, 2003 at 17:27:22, Dieter Buerssner wrote:
>>
>>>On January 17, 2003 at 17:08:11, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>
>>>>Remember that the mate scores in the search are "mate in N from the _root_
>>>>position."  When you store a mate score in the transposition table, you have to
>>>>correct it so that it is "mate in N from the current ply".  Once you do that,
>>>>you
>>>>can use the scores easily as when you get an EXACT mate score from the table,
>>>>you know it is mate in N from the current ply, so obviously it is mate in N+
>>>>something from the root position.  Adjust it correctly and you are done.
>>>
>>>I agree - of course.
>>>
>>>>You can see how I do this in crafty if you look at hash.c...
>>>
>>>Last time I looked, you were just throwing valuable information in this regard
>>>away. Crafty didn't store mate bounds due to the method you explained above, but
>>>rather stored all mate bounds as some "Mate in very many moves". I am convinced,
>>>that the adjustment to a mate score from root cannot be worse, and often will
>>>ahve advantages (more cutoffs, faster search, ...).
>>>
>>>Regards,
>>>Dieter
>>
>>I thought Bruce Moreland recommended this once, for non-PV cases where the root
>>score is much less than mating (the idea being that since the line is just going
>>to get cutoff anyway, why do the adjustment work for nothing?)
>>
>>Dave
>
>
>I'm doing this once again.  The point is that it can make the tree smaller
>if you are searching thru a forest of varying depth mates...

For clarity: you are updating the bound, or you are using a fixed bound?

On ICC during CCT Dieter mentioned to me that he thought updating the bounds, if
done properly, was never a loss and sometimes a win, which would contradict
Bruce's idea -- that is, if I remembered Bruce's idea correctly to begin with.

Dave



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