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Subject: Re: In chess we will reach diminishing returns just like in Checckers 1

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 07:45:49 10/30/03

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On October 30, 2003 at 09:54:05, Vincent Diepeveen wrote:

>On October 29, 2003 at 09:01:28, Anthony Cozzie wrote:
>
>>On October 29, 2003 at 04:47:31, Daniel Clausen wrote:
>>
>>>On October 29, 2003 at 03:15:23, Jorge Pichard wrote:
>>>
>>>>"Experiments in Chinook show that there comes a point where increased search
>>>>depth provides diminishing returns."
>>>
>>>Many chess programmers agree that the search- and the eval- part of an engine
>>>have to be tuned so they work optimal together. (like you can throw out certain
>>>parts in the eval since they're now covered with a better/faster search etc)
>>>
>>>Now you take an engine, which is optimized for todays hardware to reach a
>>>certain depth in typical middlegame positions and make the experiment of
>>>increasing search depth. Why can't the effect of "diminishing returns" not be
>>>explained by the fact that search and eval are no longer working together
>>>optimal?
>>>
>>>It seems to me that in all these experiments which try to prove the effect of
>>>deminishing returns, the errors bars are bigger than the effect they want to
>>>prove.
>>>
>>>Sargon
>>
>>One experiment that both Hyatt and Heinz did was to run their programs through a
>>"deep" (14 ply) search and record the frequency of new moves, that is, what % of
>>the time the program changed its mind.  Their conclusion was that we still
>>haven't reached the point of diminishing returns.  Of course, this was some time
>>ago, and evals/pruning/extensions/etc have all improved since then . . .
>
>This experiment was imperfect of course, most likely driven by a desire to
>publish without having done proper research. 'new moves' don't need to be
>better. basically it was just the odd/even depth considerations and in many
>positions more than 1 move are equally good after which odd/even searchline
>depths are very important as a decision factor.
>
>Any chess knowledge to take a look at the positions was not used at all.
>
>Already a lot better are the experiments performed by Don Dailey who clearly
>showed that evaluation quality is more important than extra search depth at
>these depths and later investigations done after this phenomena. Note that Heinz
>was involved in those later investigations and concluded the opposite of the
>Crafty goes deep experiment.

I don't know what you read, but in the JICCA article he found _exactly_ the
same thing as Newborn and myself in "Crafty goes deep" (also published in
the JICCA).

I can give you the exact quote from his conclusions if you need to be
reminded...

He even went one ply deeper, as he did his tests about 2-3 years after we had
done ours.  And his conclusions were the same.  Another ply is always better.

>
>>anthony



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