Author: William Penn
Date: 10:33:15 02/08/04
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On February 07, 2004 at 20:52:11, Eric Somao wrote: >Could a specialist explain us what is exactly into this learning file of >Shredder 7 and 8 (shredder.plr). Is it a sort of databse where the program keeps >its mistakes from the precedent games or something else? I'm not a specialist, but nobody else has replied yet, so here's what little I know... I've used Shredder 7 & 8 extensively in infinite analysis mode to analyze a variety of positions since last summer. That's the only way I use it. When I started with a new installation of Shredder 7, the .plr file was 1 kb. After several months the shredder.plr file for Shredder 7 grew to 33 kb. That's where it remains, because I installed Shredder 8 when it arrived, and began using exclusively. Similarly Shredder 8's .plr file has grown from 1 kb to 5 kb in the interim. I don't know if I could have transferred the old Shredder 7 .plr file to the new Shredder 8 installation, so didn't risk it. What effect does it have? What exactly does it store? And how? Good questions. I wish I knew the answers too. My impression is that when you analyze a position, the .plr file stores that information for future use. So when you encounter that position again in future, it doesn't have to start over at the beginning to analyze it. It can take advantage of the prior analysis. Exactly how it does so isn't clear. Ny impression is that it may store the position, depth of analysis, evaluation score, and perhaps 1-2 ply of additional information such as opponent's best reply move (but I'm not sure). The test is to analyze a position with Shredder for a significant amount of time (perhaps an hour or more), then let it make the move on the chessboard. Presumably that information becomes stored in the .plr file thereby. Then reset your computer and see if it takes a shorter time to reach a certain depth of analysis of that same position. It should. I see some strong indications of memory storage of prior analysis when I'm playing around with a position, such as increasing/decreasing the number of lines, moving back & forth in the game score, or perhaps I goofed and lost the analysis. But I'm not sure if those effects are due to the hash tables, or the .plr file. WP
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