Computer Chess Club Archives


Search

Terms

Messages

Subject: Re: How are EGTB files accessed so quickly?

Author: gerold daniels

Date: 17:00:12 03/25/05

Go up one level in this thread


On March 25, 2005 at 09:50:57, Dieter Buerssner wrote:

>On March 25, 2005 at 08:51:52, Anson T J wrote:
>
>>Does anyone know how they are accessed at such high speeds? Some of the files
>>are very large, how does the engine know exactly where to look inside the TB for
>>the position of interest without searching the whole database?
>
>The position (in the sense of offest, "the 215th byte") in the database is
>calculated from the chess position. A very simplified example, take KR vs. K.
>We enumerate the squares on the board from 0 (a1) to 63 (h7). The formula for
>the position in the database can be:
>
>offset = square(white K)*64*64 + square(black K)*64 + square(white R)
>
>You should see, that every position gives a different offset. You may also see,
>that some offsets don't have any legal position. For example the above formula
>reserves offset 0 for all 3 men on a1. Offset 1 would be wK and bK on a1 and wR
>on a2 - again no valid position.
>
>This can be avoided by a more sophisticated formula. Also, the symmetry of the
>position can be take into account, to reduce the number of stored positions.
>Other things, like the fact that there never will be 2 kings on neighboring
>squares can be used. But the principle will be the same -> feed the position
>into some sort of formula and calculate a unique (and not too huge) offset from
>it.
>
>At the calculated offset in the database file, you will find the game
>theoretical result of this position. It could be draw, mate in 5, etc. All such
>results will be translated to one value of a byte (0 - 256).
>
>Additionally, the whole database can be compressed.
>
>Regards,
>Dieter

i don,t understand that part. if the database is compressed how do can you
access it.

gerold.



This page took 0 seconds to execute

Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700

Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.