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Subject: Re: The key to improving a program

Author: Tord Romstad

Date: 09:33:43 05/26/04

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On May 25, 2004 at 22:12:04, Tom Likens wrote:

>On May 25, 2004 at 20:45:08, Tord Romstad wrote:
>
>>2. Write a function to compute a mirror image of the position on the board
>>   (i.e. black and white sides interchanged).  Find a big file of EPD
>>   positions, and let your engine parse the file and evaluate each position
>>   and its mirror image.  This helps you find asymmetry bugs in the evaluation
>>   function.  This test should be done almost every time you do a change in
>>   the eval.  It is surprising how easy it is to introduce new asymmetry bugs.
>
>This is a great way to catch asymmetry bugs.  Don't forget that you can
>mirror the board top-to-bottom *and* left-to-right.  If you carry this
>out you will get three additional boards to compare against (four if you
>count the original position).
>
>1. original position
>2. T-2-B
>3. L-2-R
>4. T-2-B followed by L-2-R

In my case, the evaluation function isn't left-to-right symmetric.  For
instance, I have a penalty for a knight on c3/c6 blocking the c pawn in
the opening, but no corresponding evaluation term for the king's knight.

Tord



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