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Subject: Re: Revisiting WCSAC #398

Author: Tord Romstad

Date: 08:56:42 08/22/03

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On August 22, 2003 at 10:54:17, Steven Edwards wrote:

>The following position is #398 from _Winning Chess Sacrifices and Combinations_:
>
>[D]2qrr1n1/3b1kp1/2pBpn1p/1p2PP2/p2P4/1BP5/P3Q1PP/4RRK1 w - - 0 1
>
>It has been referenced in a number of CC papers over the past three decades
>including the description of the NWU program Chess 4.x by Slate and Atkin.  It
>was also a test position for the MacLisp Paradise program by David Wilkins at
>SRI.
>
>The position is a mate in ten.  My old program Spector, moribund for seven
>years, picks the key move 1. Qh5+ at iteration eight as "obviously winning" and
>sees the full mate PV on iteration nine.
>
>PV: Qh5+ Nxh5 fxe6+ Kg6 Bc2+ Kg5 Rf5+ Kg6 Rf6+ Kg5 Rg6+ Kh4 Re4+ Nf4 Rxf4+ Kh5
>Rg3 Re7 Bg6#
>
>Spector requires over fifty million nodes for the complete search and I'll guess
>that the numbers aren't all that much different for most programs using common
>search techniques.

50 million nodes is a lot.  I think most modern programs (even weak ones)
should solve this a lot faster, and I'm sure Spector would too if you
had continued developing it.

I use MTD(f), but otherwise my search is very common.  I extend at checks
(a full ply), single-reply-to-check (1/2 ply), and mate threats (1/2 ply).
Recursive nullmove pruning (R=3) throughout the tree, static pruning in
the last 3 plies.

My program finds Qh5+ at ply 7 after 403799 nodes, and needs
578145 nodes (still at ply 7) to find the mate.

>BUT, the above mentioned Paradise chess program pulls out the mate PV with a
>search tree containing only 109 nodes.  It solves many other tactical puzzles
>with similarly small search trees.

Where can I find more information about the "Paradise" program?  I am a
Lisp programmer myself, and I would be very interested in reading about
it.

Tord



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