Author: Robert Hyatt
Date: 04:19:36 02/23/05
Go up one level in this thread
On February 23, 2005 at 00:51:25, Matthew Hull wrote: >I've noticed that GNUChess ponders from the very first move of the game, even >though it is still in book. Is this a usual practice? > >Does this give some advantage to the search when the game drops out of book, >since the hash table may have some relevant entries? I have done' this for a long time, starting back in the days of Cray Blitz. The idea is this... You just played a book move, and now it is the opponent's turn. Generate all of his legal moves, and look each one up. If you have a book move for one of his moves, delete his move from the list. Now you have the set of all possible moves he could play that you don't have a book move for. Do a short search to find what you believe is the best one, then use that as the move to "ponder". Chances are good that if your opponent plays a non-book move, it will be the one you are pondering. If he plays a book move, you find and play a response instantly since you had that in your book. In crafty, this is turned on in "tournament mode" only... It's just another opportunity to save some time and also to maybe get into a good "ponder-hit-ponder-hit" cycle with your opponent where you always think on his time and move quickly, saving your clock time...
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