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Subject: Re: Check Extension not Nullmove is the kley for 141

Author: Stuart Cracraft

Date: 11:23:45 09/30/04

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On September 30, 2004 at 11:13:28, Joachim Rang wrote:

>On September 30, 2004 at 02:53:16, Stuart Cracraft wrote:
>
>>The null move killed, win-at-chess 141, has itself
>>finally been killed, vanquished with the help of
>>two board contributors whose combined suggestion
>>led to a 17-fold reduction in time-to-solve.
>>
>>This posting announces those winners. First the
>>stats!
>>
>>Now solved in 5.49 seconds on a P3 @ 1ghz it would be
>>solved in under 2 seconds on more modern equipment.
>>Formerly it took 95 seconds to solve.
>>
>>That's good enough for me. And it's good enough to win
>>the $50 contest posed recently since it broke the
>>10-second-and-under-barrieras posed in the contest
>>posting.
>>
>>The search:
>>
>>Alpha=-1332 Beta=-531 Maxdepth=9999999 MaxTime=99999
>> 1/ 9  g2f1  0.00 -953      511 g2f1 f4d5
>>                                g2f1 f4d5
>> 2/ 9  g2f1  0.01 -953      884
>>                                g2f1 f4d5 c1g5
>> 3/12  g2f1  0.06 -953    11929
>>                                g2f1 f4d5 c1g5 d5f6
>> 4/16  g2f1  0.39 -953    72781
>>                                g2f1 f4d5 b3d5 c6d5 f1g2 d6e7
>> 5/24> g2f1  3.83 -552   978925
>>                                g2f1 b5b4 b3a4 f4d5 f6g5 d5e7
>> 5/25  c1f4  5.49 2260  1420038 c1f4 d6f4 h4h5 g6h5 h1h5 f4h6 h5h6 c7g3 g2g3 d7d
>>6
>>                                c1f4 d6f4 h4h5 g6h5 h1h5 f4h6 h5h6 c7g3 g2g3 d7d
>>6
>> 6/25  c1f4  6.06 2260  1519145
>>                                c1f4 d6f4 h4h5 g6h5 h1h5 f4h6 h5h6 c7g3 g2g3 d7d
>>6
>>
>>And with it the announcement -- because of the contribution
>>of Will Singleton in indicating that null move should be
>>avoided before leaves in the main search (and the sense
>>of a comparison in an old commented out section of the
>>code associated with disabled null move verification having been
>>intended to do what Will suggested but having been miscoded
>>by me and then #ifdefed out months ago) and Uri Blass'
>>comments about my recaptures being too free and easy,
>>the program went from a total of 95 seconds
>>for wac 141 to 5.49 after these two suggestions were
>>implemented.
>>
>>So Will and Uri are the winners, if they wish to accept,
>>of the divided $50 prize. Because Will's contribution was
>>more significant but less work for him and Uri's contribution
>>was less significant but with more work for him, but in either
>>case without the change from the other's suggestion the result
>>would not have been as dramatic getting down to <= 10 seconds
>>as stated in the earlier contest challenge a day or two ago,
>>the award has been divided in half for the 2 winners.
>>
>>Will and Uri are welcome to send me, and only if they wish
>>to collect, their postal mail addresses, to cracraft@cox.net
>>and a check for $25 will be sent out to each.
>>
>>In the future, more contests will be held like this whenever
>>I run into a huge roadblock but I see none looming presently,
>>including a rather unusual one that I am not ready to announce.
>>
>>Thanks everybody for the help on 141 -- and thanks to Will
>>Singleton and Uri Blass.
>>
>>Stuart
>
>
>Fruit finds it with Nullmove=R3 and disabled Verification Search on depth 8
>after 3 (8 seconds for mate score on depth 9) seconds on Athlon XP 1500 MHz. I
>don't think Nullmove is the problem here. If I disable Nullmove the picture
>doesn't change much (same depth slightly longer search). But if I disable Check
>Extensions and Checks in QS, it takes depth 12 and 57 seconds on Athlon XP 1500
>MHz. On the other hand without check extensions and disabled Nullmove  it takes
>Fruit depth 11 and 37 seconds to find the mate.
>
>So my conclusion would be, if you have check extensions disabling nullmove does
>not help, if you have no Check Extensions it may help.
>
>regards Joachim

I have quasi-infinite check extensions  (99) in main search and quiescence.

Not sure your diagnosis in my regard as confining my null move
additionally by depth >= 1 as well as limiting my unlimited recapture
defined as two back-to-back captures by anything of anything on the same
square to only ply<=iply+1 where iply is the iterative deepning ply,
those two things fixed it with quasi-infinite check extensions.

My maximum ply depth for any search is 99 ply.



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