Computer Chess Club Archives


Search

Terms

Messages

Subject: Re: thinking on opponent's time

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 19:09:14 02/12/99

Go up one level in this thread


On February 12, 1999 at 12:18:29, James B. Shearer wrote:

>On February 12, 1999 at 10:19:27, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>
>     <snip>
>
>>it has a definite strength advantage.  Because if you predict well, and
>>50% of your moves are 'zero time moves' then the program has become 2x
>>faster, because it gets twice as long to search.  And 2x is a measurable
>>speed increase...
>
>      That should be 1.5 times faster.  You are effectively using .5 of your
>opponents time as well as yours.  Your argument above is wrong because you only
>get twice as long to search for half your moves.
>                           James B. Shearer


not if you do it right.  IE if I _know_ I am thinking on my opponent's time,
I can use that time before I save it.  As I do right now in fact, because
I don't want to get to move 40 (time control) with a lot of time left over,
and I don't want to have 30 minutes to burn on move 40 when that is usually
an endgame position.

But think about the simple math.  If on 1/2 of the moves, I get a reply
instantly, that really boosts my time, by 50% if I only predict 50%.  Against
computers I usually get more like 75%.  But when I mis-predict, they usually
get it right so they start saving time and not me... as even when I predict
right, I have to use the normal amount of time overall...



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.