Author: Robert Hyatt
Date: 16:45:18 07/26/04
Go up one level in this thread
On July 26, 2004 at 13:19:37, J. Wesley Cleveland wrote: >On July 26, 2004 at 11:10:09, Robert Hyatt wrote: > >>On July 26, 2004 at 07:39:42, Bas Hamstra wrote: >> >>>>>I basically try to calculate number of expected moves to finish the game or >>next time control and use this information to decide about target time and I >>>>>also use the time of the last iteration to decide if to do another iteration >>>>>usually try to finish iteration in most cases with the idea that after >>>>> finishing >>>>>an iteration there is a smaller chance to change my mind when the main >>>>> exception >>>>>are cases when the program pondered enough time). >>>> >>>>Bad idea. Start the next iteration even if you don't think you will have time >>>>to finish it. You might fail low. Wouldn't that be nice to know? :) >>> >>>On the other hand there, have you ever summed up the total time that is wasted >>>at the first move? >> >>Sure. Near zero. Because of the transposition table. Interrupt the search >>after 30 seconds, make a move, and re-start the search and it will jump back >>almost to the same point where it was interrupted... >> >> >>> Suppose your target time is 60 seconds and you have just >>>finished an iteration, which took 50 seconds. There won't be enough time to >>>calculate the first move of the next iteration, so you might as well save 10 >>>seconds. >>> >> >>But there is plenty of time for the first move to fail low, which will then take >>you into an over-time phase of your time management hopefully. >> > >Would it make sense to stop the search after the first move if it does not fail >low and there is not enough time to finish the ply? Or stop the search if the >first move fails high without resolving the fail-high and there is not enough >time to finish the ply? The idea I (and most others BTW) have used since the late 70's is to simply search until time expires, make the move, and continue searching via ponder. If, when time has expired, the score has dropped, I continue anyway. One other cute trick is that once time expires, you abort the search after searching the current root move, because you might be about to change your mind to a new best move and it makes sense to give it a little more time.
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