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Subject: Re: singular extension

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 09:17:14 09/15/04

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On September 15, 2004 at 09:53:53, Stuart Cracraft wrote:

>Hi,
>
>Anyone know of some code somewhere that implements
>at least part (or all) of the originally described
>singular extension and/or any modifications to it that
>have proven worthwhile (if any)?
>
>I am curious what mediocre (or better) results people
>have gotten with singular extension. Originally Anantharaman
>hypothesized that it wouldn't be good at the slower
>speeds of most programs at the time and would require
>fast speeds to show effect.  Has this proven true or
>false in the intervening 15 years?
>
>Is singular extension now generally discredited as a
>non-reproducible singularity in and of itself?
>
>Thanks,
>
>Stuart


It worked in Cray Blitz for the last two years it competed.  How much it
improves overall chess skill is debatable.  Early on the DB guys claimed very
significant improvements.  Later more thorough testing showed that there was
definitely an improvement, but not as large as originally thought.

I have not really spent a lot of time doing this in Crafty although there is a
SE version roaming around that I released, but it didn't do SE like the DB guys
did.  Their implementation is not a 2 week deal.  Expect to spend a year getting
it working as they did, if not more.

Some commercial programs use variants.  IE Wchess used the PV-singular part of
singular extensions, but not the fail-high part the DB guys defined.



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