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Subject: Test position software... whats out there already?

Author: Eric Oldre

Date: 14:57:15 04/27/04


My engine (murderhole) has gotten to the point where it's not easy for me to
tell if a given change has helped or hurt more. So I need to come up with a
better, more quantitative way of testing.

Of course I know that the only sure test is lots and lots of games. but i just
don't have the patience, and the results can vary so much.

my idea, and i'm sure you all have thought of something similar, but probably
better (that's why i'm posting) is:

1) create a series of test positions probably small at first (50-100) but would
need to grow later.

2) generate a list of all possible moves from each test position and the
resulting position after the move.

3) have some strong program generate scores for each resulting position, and
therefore a score for the preceeding move.

4) then i could run my program against each position and see how often it picked
the best, 2nd best, 3rd best, etc.

I could store all the test positions and scores in an XML file perhaps.

The only problem is that setting this up would be a pain and spare time is not
something I have lots of these days (like all of us i'm sure) so if i can avoid
some work i'm all for it.. I was hoping someone might have some files for
configuring this stuff publicly available, or maybe it is even a feature of some
commercial program that i don't know of.

Even if only pieces of this are out there it could help. Or something similar.

Any ideas?

Eric Oldre



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