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Subject: SEEing it is BLIND

Author: Stuart Cracraft

Date: 20:46:25 08/07/04


So after a lot of input from various people (thanks
Alessandro, Gunther and the others), SEE appears to
be up here and some test results in.

The problem is that the theory looks great but the
practice looks not so great.

The version implemented uses SEE only in
quiescence and only to avoid searching positions
with negative see value. No SEE is used for
move ordering, window-changing, or anything
else anywhere. I tried those and they all gave
much worse results for the second part of
the test below.

Two tests were done. Fixed depth and Fixed time.

First, fixed depth of 8 ply in opening position:

2.02h without SEE:

 1/ 2  e2e4  0.02   35       41 e2e4
 2/ 4  e2e4  0.05    0      149 e2e4 e7e5
 3/ 9  e2e4  0.07   17      450 e2e4 e7e5 f1c4
 4/14  e2e4  0.08    0     2283 e2e4 e7e5 f1c4 f8c5
 5/17  e2e4  0.12   17     7260 e2e4 e7e5 g1f3 b8c6 f1c4
 6/23  e2e4  0.48    0    46344 e2e4 e7e5 g1f3 b8c6 f1c4 f8c5
 7/26  e2e4  1.20   17   119943 e2e4 e7e5 g1f3 b8c6 f1c4 g8f6 b1c3
 8/31  e2e4  6.15    0   699160 e2e4 e7e5 g1f3 b8c6 f1c4 g8f6 b1c3 f8c5
e2e4  6.15    0   699160 e2e4 e7e5 g1f3 b8c6 f1c4 g8f6 b1c3 f8c5
nps=113660 ha=17.00% q=57.0% bc=71% br=NaN% mp=108<>99
pawnx=0 recapx=0 qcheckx=27853 checkx=0 futilx=0 qfutilx=0


2.02i with SEE:


Alpha=-250 Beta=250 Maxdepth=8 MaxTime=9999999
 1/ 2  e2e4  0.00   35       41 e2e4
 2/ 4  e2e4  0.01    0      149 e2e4 e7e5
 3/ 6  e2e4  0.01   17      442 e2e4 e7e5 f1c4
 4/10  e2e4  0.03    0     2101 e2e4 e7e5 f1c4 f8c5
 5/12  e2e4  0.09   17     6248 e2e4 e7e5 g1f3 b8c6 f1c4
 6/20  e2e4  0.37    0    37009 e2e4 e7e5 g1f3 b8c6 f1c4 f8c5
 7/24  e2e4  0.91   17    94959 e2e4 e7e5 g1f3 b8c6 f1c4 g8f6 b1c3
 8/29  e2e4  4.59    0   537608 e2e4 e7e5 g1f3 b8c6 f1c4 g8f6 b1c3 f8c5
e2e4  4.59    0   537608 e2e4 e7e5 g1f3 b8c6 f1c4 g8f6 b1c3 f8c5
nps=117185 ha=18.00% q=51.0% bc=63% br=NaN% mp=97<>99
pawnx=0 recapx=0 qcheckx=7616 checkx=0 futilx=0 qfutilx=0

q is the number quiescence-nodes/total-nodes. Iteration number remains
the same due to fixed depth. Note how maximum depth reached (after the
slash) decreases. Note how q decreased from 57 to 51. quiescent check
extensions decrease by a factor of 4 or so. The final pv is the same.
Total nodes searched drops 23%. Total time taken drops 25%. So all
of this looks really good. Real pleasant.

But now the fixed time result on 300 position problem set...

Columns are version, % correct, correct/total totalseconds totalpositions
averagepositionsperproblem/average seconds per problem/average nps per
problem and the final non-zero number is the number of free check extensions
in quiescence back into the main search.

So thinking that this is great, I give it 300 time-limited problems
(1 second per problem). It should search more deeply as a result and
it should score well.

But this was not to be. SEE is 2.02i. Pre-See is 2.02h.

//  2.02i - 67% 201/300 267.55 57309292 191031/1/214199 0/0/1935723/0/0/0

Pre-See is 2.02h

//  2.02h - 68% 205/300 267.99 62923440 209745/1/233764 0/0/3901373/0/0/0

So I am not too impressed yet.

Is SEE, like so many things for real play, not as good at problems?
I really don't want something that reduces tactical effectiveness!!!
Anywhere!

Stuart



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