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Subject: Re: null-move failure detection

Author: Peter Fendrich

Date: 16:06:08 11/19/98

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On November 19, 1998 at 17:35:20, Will Singleton wrote:

>
>On November 19, 1998 at 16:03:58, Peter Fendrich wrote:
>
>>On November 19, 1998 at 15:43:56, Will Singleton wrote:
>>
>>>All,
>>>
>>>I am using a null-move error finder that works like this: if a null move causes
>>>a beta cutoff, I set a flag instead of returning the null move score.  If the
>>>regular search then doesn't cause a cutoff, it's a failure.
>>
>>I hope I understood this right:
>>You are using this function as a "debugging" tool and not in your ordinary
>>search engine, or...?
>
>Yes, as a debugging tool.
>
>
>>>
>>>This happens in several of the wac positions, causing problems.  One solution
>>>I've heard of is to disallow null moves in the principle variation.  Since I
>>>generally ignore the pv during the search, I'd have to do a fair amount of
>>>coding to test this.
>>>
>>>Does restricting null moves in the pv guard against null-move failures?
>>
>>No it doesn't. A null move error might be the reason why a variation didn't
>>became the pv in the first place and that doesn't change with this restriction.
>
>Right, I had just figured this out.
>
>
>>Another problem with this is that the pv and it's branches take up most of the
>>search time. The null move approach is most valuable right here!
>>
>
>That's another good point.  btw, I don't do a zugzwang test, just disallow null
>moves in the endgame.  How about you?
>
>Will

The only thing I do is to generate at least one legal move before doing a Null
move cutoff. But only in endgame situations and only when beta >= DRAWSCORE. I
don't know if it's worth the extra time spent but it makes me feel better...

An article about Zugzwang is:
  Plenkner, S. (1995).
  A Null-Move Technique Impervious to Zugzwang.
  ICCA Journal, Vol. 18, No. 2, pp. 82-85. (N)
The proposed method didn't appeal to me at that time for some reason that I
don't remeber, so I didn't even try it out.
Maybe later on... :)
//Peter








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