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Subject: Re: Reducing node count

Author: Dan Honeycutt

Date: 08:34:51 06/16/04

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On June 16, 2004 at 06:09:08, Matthias Gemuh wrote:

>On June 15, 2004 at 19:28:36, Andrew Wagner wrote:
>
>>I've heard it said before that it's not good to compare node counts between
>>engines, and that node counts aren't a good indication of strength. So, I've
>>been staying away from that a lot.
>>
>>The other day, I was chatting with my good friend Jaime Benito de Valle Ruiz. We
>>see each other a lot on ICC and compare notes on our engines. We decided to play
>>a fixed-depth game between our engines, to test eval strength. In the process of
>>the game, he noticed that my node count was ridiculously higher than his. For
>>example, in one position, where I was getting 277k nodes, he was getting like
>>11k. Other engines varied, but no more than about 50k nodes.
>>
>>So we started doing some tests. For him, he got a huge node reduction by using
>>some sophisticated aspiration windows. So, my question is three-fold:
>>
>>1.) Do most engines get a similarly large reduction in nodes by using aspiration
>>windows?
>>
>>2.) What other techniques reduce node counts at a fixed depth?
>>
>>3.) To what extent are node counts reliable for determining engine strength?
>
>
>
>
>To reduce node count, I sometimes divide it by two.
>
>/Matthias.

That's good for getting the nodes down but it doesn't ensure that you out search
the other engine.  To do that you need to multiply the depth by two.

Dan H.




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