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Subject: Re: Why not tablebases.

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 12:24:26 10/09/98

Go up one level in this thread


On October 09, 1998 at 15:17:43, blass uri wrote:

>
>On October 09, 1998 at 14:56:46, José de Jesús García Ruvalcaba wrote:
>
>>On October 09, 1998 at 13:04:53, John Coffey wrote:
>>
>>>On October 09, 1998 at 09:38:35, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>
>>>>On October 09, 1998 at 02:11:19, Jouni Uski wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>I have feeling, that using 3-5 pieces tablebases don't give any measurable
>>>>>rating gain - may be 2-10 points maximum = no real gain.
>>>>>
>>>>>Jouni
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>I would disagree here, as I see KRP vs KR regularly.  In fact, in long
>>>>games on ICC, I'd bet I see this about every 10 games or so.  Lonnie
>>>>can comment because he has played against Crafty a lot.  And it is quite
>>>>often for two computers to end up a pawn up or down, in the ending, and
>>>>if one knows about this, it will win more, or draw when it should lose,
>>>>than without them.
>>>>
>>>>ditto for endings like KRB vs KR...  where it knows to trade into that
>>>>when it can be drawn...
>>>
>>>Fritz5 has KRP vs KR and KQ vs KR.  Not sure if it has anything else.
>>>
>>>I wanted to create a tablebase with all the possible K + 2 pawns (or less)
>>>vs all the K + pawn positions.  I figured that the number of possible positions
>>>is around 489 million, but if I were to store it 2 bits per position
>>>(win/loss/draw/unknown) then I could get it in 128 megs.
>>>
>>>John Coffey
>>
>>To make a tablebase, you need all of its descendants first. The direct sons of
>>KPPKP are:
>>KPKP (black captures one white pawn)
>>KPPK (white captures the black pawn)
>>KQPKP (white promotes to a queen)
>>KRPKP (white promotes to a rook)
>>KBPKP (white promotes to a bishop)
>>KNPKP (white promotes to a knight)
>>KPPKQ (black promotes to a queen)
>>KPPKR (black promotes to a rook)
>>KPPKB (black promotes to a bishop)
>>KPPKN (black promotes to a knight)
>>	And each one of these has its own sons, which must be calculated first, until
>>you reach KK, KBK or KNK (which are drawn). So, your storage requirements might
>>be a little higher.
>>	With so many pawns, a tablebase with little information (like the one you want
>>to make), could be  useful, as you can search only the branches which do not
>>decrease the exact score for the side to move.
>
>I think that practically you can do some assumptions to decrease the number of
>endings.
>for example KQPKP if white to move and the black only P is not close to be a
>queen is a win for white.
>
>white promotes only to a queen and not to a rook,bishop or knight
>practically the cases when white is winning this endgame by underpromotion are
>very rare.
>
>Uri


This doesn't matter however, because *every* possible position must be accounted
for, with an exact distance to mate for the side on move with that specific
piece configuration.  So they *all* have to be computed to build the next one
after them...



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