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Subject: Re: Aborting a search

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 19:57:21 03/18/03

Go up one level in this thread


On March 18, 2003 at 16:33:29, Matthew White wrote:

>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.


It would be hard.  IE how do you compare a move searched normally to a move
"glanced over quickly" if you want to choose between them?




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