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Subject: Re: Why not tablebases.

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 07:47:07 10/11/98

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On October 11, 1998 at 03:07:04, blass uri wrote:

>
>On October 11, 1998 at 00:42:55, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>
>>On October 10, 1998 at 00:56:05, blass uri wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>On October 09, 1998 at 22:54:49, Roberto Waldteufel wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>>On October 09, 1998 at 18:46:36, David Eppstein wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On October 09, 1998 at 15:24:26, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>>>>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...
>>>>>
>>>>>You don't need distance to mate if you are searching from a non-tablebase
>>>>>position trying to reach a tablebase position (and aren't worried about the 50
>>>>>move rule, but you must not be since you're using distance to mate).
>>>>>
>>>>>If the actual game reaches a won tablebase position, you need some way to force
>>>>>progress, but it doesn't have to be distance to mate.  If you can always search
>>>>>deeply enough to find a conversion (capture or pawn move), you can use distance
>>>>>to conversion, and only store win/loss/draw in the tablebase. In any KXP-KP or
>>>>>KX-KPP endgame, searching deeply enough to find a conversion should be easy
>>>>>(there are fewer than a million distinct positions in which at most one pawn has
>>>>>moved, so you can load just that part of the tablebase into memory and use the
>>>>>hashtable to do the search quickly no matter how deep it is).
>>>>>
>>>>>But I agree with your main point, that the heuristics suggested by the poster
>>>>>you were responding to aren't good enough -- the information needs to be exact,
>>>>>and you need to compute lots of other tablebases before you can think about
>>>>>KPP-KP.
>>>>
>>>>Even if the search were too deep to be feasible, eg an ending like KBBKN, it is
>>>>still possible to reduce memory access requirements during the search by storing
>>>>only win/loss/draw information, if we maintain a separate tablebase (not used in
>>>>the search) which simply contains the best move
>>>
>>>You need memory to store the best move for example in KBBKN for the stronger
>>>side the maximal number of legal moves is 8+13+13=34 legal moves
>>>and you need 6 bits for a move so I think you do not save memory by this.
>>>If you have a good order of moves and always 1 of the first 32 moves is best you
>>>can need only 5 bits
>>>
>>
>>
>>I don't want to sound "harsh" but let's not get rediculous.  Exactly *how*
>>can we generate moves and *guarantee* that the best move is in the first
>>32?  That is completely *impossible* to do, and discussing it makes no sense
>>at all.
>>
>>Also, in databases, we *do* *not* store "moves".  That is a misconception of
>>some sort.  Moves are not stored, only the status of each possible position.
>
>I know that we store a number for every position and the numbers represent moves
>but I understand that the idea of roberto is to to store numbers that represent
>moves and to store the result(only in win,draw,loss) instead of storing numbers
>that represent exact results
>
>In KBBvs KN we can do for every position a list of legal moves such that the
>moves that lose a bishop without giving the oppoent to mate in 1 or causing the
>distance of the kings to be longer are in the end of the list.
>
>If in all the positions there is a best move from the 32 first moves in the list
>we can store the right move by 5 bits.



but that's the problem and that's where this falls into oblivion.  *if* I could
do this, I would be doing forward pruning in the tree, because I would "know"
that the first 32 moves contains the best move...  But neither I nor anyone
else knows how to do this.  If I did, I would improve the algorithm to ensure
that the best move is #1 in the list, and then I'd avoid searching anything.


>>
>>
>>
>>
>>>If you store distance to conversion with my idea you need only 5 bits
>>>for 1-2,3-4,...49-50,draw,loss
>>>You need to do a search but I do not think there is a problem with small search.
>>>
>>>Uri
>>
>>
>>this kind of statement isn't helping, either.  "I do not think..." is not
>>a convincing argument.
>
>you need to search only to improve the score.
>and if 2 plies are not enough you search for 4 plies
>
>  "I implemented this and can prove that it will work"
>is
>>going to convince me a lot quicker.
>
>I did not try to implement it but I see no problems with the idea.

I see lots of problems.  Alpha/Beta needs a way to compare positions
accurately.  I want to know which position is best, not which group of
positions are "equal"...







>
>  "thinking" doesn't cut it here.  It *has*
>>to be right or it will certainly be wrong...  And wrong we can't stand, because
>>we trust these results *perfectly*...
>
>I agree it has to be right but I do not see a reason why it is wrong
>The algoritam is simple and the only problem I can see is a problem of time but
>I understand that 1000 hits on the tablebases per position is not a problem and
>you do not need more to search 4 plies(for most of the lines you need only 2
>plies and 4 plies are only for best defences of the loser).
>
>Uri


but what about all the probes way out in the tree?  this is what makes the
databases work, *not* just probing at the root.  Because probing at the
root means you take pot-luck on the position you end up in...



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