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Subject: Re: History Heuristic

Author: Vincent Diepeveen

Date: 14:45:49 03/16/04

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On March 16, 2004 at 14:48:14, Robert Hyatt wrote:

>On March 16, 2004 at 13:52:21, Mridul Muralidharan wrote:
>
>>On March 16, 2004 at 13:06:34, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>
>>>On March 16, 2004 at 12:41:55, Sune Fischer wrote:
>>>
>>>>On March 16, 2004 at 12:30:42, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On March 16, 2004 at 12:04:22, Sune Fischer wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>On March 16, 2004 at 11:25:55, Vincent Diepeveen wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>On March 16, 2004 at 11:19:17, Renze Steenhuisen wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>I principally agree with GCP here. I do not understand how in certain software
>>>>>>>HH can work. Must be a bug in their move ordering IMHO.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>If you can't make them work, why do you reply to his post?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>-S.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>Ignorance.  Unabashed ignorance...
>>>>>
>>>>>What else?
>>>>>
>>>>>HH works just fine.  Of course if Vincent can't get them to work, then it is
>>>>>impossible that they will work for anybody.  "proof" enough??
>>>>
>>>>Yes, and this time the poster even gets to contact him personally for more
>>>>information on how NOT to make them work!
>>>>
>>>>I admit I can see his point, precious secrets _like that_ are not to be posted
>>>>in a public forum :)
>>>>
>>>>-S.
>>>
>>>
>>>none of his "precious secrets" should be posted...
>>>
>>>:)
>>
>>Just try this - after the end of a 3 min search from a fairly complicated middle
>>game position (like for example - Nxh6 nolot position) , print out the history
>>values.
>>
>>You will see the junk that is contained in the table.
>
>Do you understand what this "junk" means???

You obviously do not.

you collect about something very general data. that's just *too* general data.

>I don't see how it can be called "junk".  The data simply reflects how useful
>each move was in the search done.

>>
>>If you seriously expect much of information to be obtained from this for move
>>ordering - I dont know what to say.
>
>I feel the same, except in an inverse way.
>
>History works for me.  Turn it off and the tree gets bigger.  A couple of
>samples:
>
>          nodes w history       nodes wo history
>pos1         38,151,984             42,728,175
>pos2        167,685,660            184,874,107
>pos3         81,663,363            124,704,814
>
>Now if you believe those three randomly chosen positions are worse because of
>"random junk" feel free.  The tree size is _remarkably+ smaller on pos 3, and
>significantly smaller on the other two...
>
>
>
>
>>
>>I like some other mentioned here though - clear it x number of ply or y number
>>of seconds - helps to reduce the randomness.
>
>Why would I want to do that?  This data is useful all over the tree.  This is
>the very idea behind it.  Killers are local.  History is global.  Use both.
>
>
>
>>Also Ed's idea is also somewhat better.
>>
>>I have not tried these , so cant comment - but helps in localising the effects
>>to a smaller subtree where the tables could be potentially more relevent.
>>
>>But essentially , history tables in the general sense will detreriorate into
>>random move ordering quiet soon for higher depth when number of nodes increases.
>
>Then explain how my "random move ordering" is way more efficient.  You are not
>understanding what goes on in the history heuristic within the tree...
>
>
>>
>>Is that one of the reasons why you sort and try history scores for only first n
>>(i think 4) number of history moves in crafty ?
>
>Nope.  It is for efficiency.  at ALL nodes ordering is irrelevant.  If, after
>the hash move, good captures, two killers, I can't get a cutoff on one of the
>first four history moves, I give up as I probably won't get a cutoff at all.
>
>
>
>
>>
>>Maybe this could be an optimisation reason also - i dont know.
>
>It isn't anything but performance based...
>
>
>>
>>But if there is a possibility of hitting a better move earlier on using history
>>tables , then shouldn't crafty not be trying it for all the moves ? - the gain
>>could be potentially exponential in case of earlier cutoff !
>
>I _do_ try it _everywhere_....
>
>
>>
>>Mridul



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