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Subject: Re: Aborting a search

Author: Matthew White

Date: 13:33:29 03/18/03

Go up one level in this thread


On March 18, 2003 at 16:24:32, Robert Hyatt wrote:

>On March 18, 2003 at 16:04:21, Matthew White wrote:
>
>>On March 18, 2003 at 09:59:00, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>
>>>On March 18, 2003 at 04:18:05, Ed Schröder wrote:
>>>
>>>>On March 17, 2003 at 21:54:36, Nathan Thom wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>Im having troubles trying to figure out what to do with my search results when a
>>>>>timeout occurs. eg I could have searched 10 plies fully, and am part way through
>>>>>the 11th ply when time runs out.
>>>>>
>>>>>The simplest thing to do is ditch all results from the last incomplete search
>>>>>and just go with what you had after 10 plies. But this seems a big waste.
>>>>>
>>>>>Thoughts?
>>>>
>>>>Nathan,
>>>>
>>>>It's quite simple, just check the "time_is_up" condition after your "undo_move"
>>>>call and jump to the place where you climb back one ply in the tree (as if there
>>>>are no more moves to search on the current ply).
>>>>
>>>>My best,
>>>>
>>>>Ed
>>>
>>>
>>>This can be a fatal error.  You are at ply=N and have 10 legal moves to search.
>>>The first is horrible, but the second wins everything.  If you quit after
>>>searching the first move and return that score, the previous ply may well like
>>>the move it tried, and since it has now searched every move, it backs the
>>>score up.  And so forth.  But when the game really enters this path, the
>>>first move is not actually played by your opponent, he plays the second, and
>>>the roof falls in.
>>>
>>>You have to _not_ back up things from below the root, once you have decided that
>>>time is up.
>>
>>What if you finished ply N with a lazy eval instead of the full eval. Would that
>>solve the problem?
>>
>>Matt
>
>
>I don't see how. I use lazy eval all the time...
>
>the point is that when time runs out, you can't just stop and back things up as
>you
>have not finished the current root sub-tree you are working on, and the scores
>are
>therefore worthless for this root branch.  But anything else already completed
>is
>certainly good.
I see what you mean. I was just wondering if giving the rest of that ply a quick
"once-over" would give sufficient information to allow the score to stay in the
tree.



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