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Subject: Re: Test position - Dragon

Author: Dieter Buerssner

Date: 12:42:51 06/05/04

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On June 05, 2004 at 12:32:47, Will Singleton wrote:

>On June 05, 2004 at 10:13:35, Anthony Cozzie wrote:
>>OK, as has been pointed out by about 25 people, the mistake is not Nxe4, but
>>Bxh6 (a move which somehow I conviently omitted from the my line).
>>
>>3q1rk1/pp1bppbp/3p2pB/8/3Nn1P1/2P1QP2/P1P5/2KR3R b - - 0 18
>>
>>Even this one is pretty hard for Zappa, it needs 70 seconds to realize Bxh6 is
>>losing and 6 minutes switch to Nf6.
>>
>>1... Bg7xh6 2. Rh1xh6 Ne4-f6 3. Rd1-h1 e7-e5 4. Nd4-f5 Bd7xf5 5. g4xf5 Qd8-a5 6.
>>Qe3-g5 Qa5-a3 7. Kc1-d1 Kg8-g7 8. f5xg6 f7xg6
>> = (0.50)	Depth: 14/31	00:00:46.41	37517kN
>>1 ...Bg7xh6--
>> - (0.25)	Depth: 15/30	00:01:08.74	55010kN
>>1... Bg7xh6 2. Qe3xh6 Ne4-f6 3. g4-g5 Nf6-h5 4. Rh1xh5 g6xh5 5. Rd1-h1 Qd8-a5 6.
>>Rh1xh5 Bd7-f5 7. Nd4xf5 Qa5xf5 8. g5-g6 Qf5xg6 9. Rh5-g5 Rf8-c8 10. Rg5xg6 h7xg6
>> = (-2.83)	Depth: 15/34	00:03:02.47	147329kN
>>1... Ne4-f6 2. Bh6xg7 Kg8xg7 3. Nd4-f5 Bd7xf5 4. g4xf5 Qd8-a5 5. Qe3xe7 Qa5xa2
>>6. Qe7xb7 Qa2-a3 7. Qb7-b2 Qa3-c5 8. f5xg6 f7xg6 9. Rh1-e1 Rf8-c8 10. Re1-e7
>>Kg7-h6
>> = (0.18)	Depth: 15/36	00:05:34.28	269390kN

>The time it takes to find Nf6 after seeing the problem with Bxh6 is rather long
>for some programs.  For example, Crafty (3 min), Ruffian (1:30) and Zappa
>(2:30).  This is because the problem occurs at a high search depth.
>
>Amateur does better in switching to the right move, taking only 10 sec.  It does
>this by "cheating," which is to say, reducing the search depth when a large
>score drop occurs.  I don't really see a downside to this.
>
>Crafty
>14    191   11683 124623699  1. ... Bxh6 2. Qxh6 Nf6
>14     16   30945 341466474  1. ... Nf6 2. Bxg7 Kxg7
>
>Ruffian
>14 -161 10004 121228508  Bxh6 Qxh6 Nf6
>14 -5   18402 223090636  Nf6 Bxg7 Kxg7
>
>Amateur
>16 -243 12517 49364251 Bxh6 Qxh6 Nf6
>13 -243 12517 49364252 Bxh6
>13 87   13581 53146356 Nf6 Bxg7 Kxg7

Yace is much worse, than all of those. Needs almost 3 min, to fail low (3 1/2
min to resolve the fail low to -2 score), and 14 (! :-() minutes to come up with
Nf6. Root move ordering is horrible. Nf6 is 35th out of 39 moves, that is tried.
And now, you search all those 33 moves with a window at -2. Many things that got
pruned away with a window close to 0, will not be prunded away now ...

Another idea, that helps here. Early versions of Yace did not try to resolve the
fail low first, but rather try the other moves first. This also helps
significantly here. Now you try all the other moves with a window close to zero,
and they will fail low with this window much faster, than with the -2 window.
So, even with the same bad root move ordering, instead of 14 minutes, I get 7
minutes. Sure, nothing to be really proud of, but I thought it was worth
mentioning in the context of your idea.

Regards,
Dieter



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