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Subject: Re: History based pruning question

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 20:11:18 08/26/05

Go up one level in this thread


On August 26, 2005 at 21:03:07, Uri Blass wrote:

>On August 26, 2005 at 17:50:32, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>
>>On August 26, 2005 at 17:21:57, Uri Blass wrote:
>>
>>>On August 26, 2005 at 17:08:52, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>
>>>>On August 26, 2005 at 16:58:21, Uri Blass wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On August 26, 2005 at 14:54:32, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>On August 26, 2005 at 14:21:34, Alvaro Jose Povoa Cardoso wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Hi,
>>>>>>>some of you compare the number of times a move failed high to the number o times
>>>>>>>the same move failed low in order to decide if a move can be reduced one ply.
>>>>>>>I've tested this and also tested using the actual values of the history table
>>>>>>>(using of course another history table for fail lows).
>>>>>>>I couldn't reach a conclusion though.
>>>>>>>What is your experience on this?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>best regards,
>>>>>>>Alvaro
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>My first thought is that the number of "fail lows" is irrelevant.  What you
>>>>>>really want to avoid is a reduction on a move that might fail high.  Any move
>>>>>>will fail low in some situations, but you want to handle the "typical" case
>>>>>>correctly and not reduce if there is a reasonable chance the reduction will hide
>>>>>>something.
>>>>>
>>>>>I think that it is relevant.
>>>>>
>>>>>If a move was never tried and never had an option to fail low then you do not
>>>>>want to reduce it.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>Chances of that happening is about zero.  There are only a finite (and small)
>>>>number of different possible moves in the game.  "All the right moves" (PhD
>>>>thesis by Ebeling) illustrated this.
>>>
>>>I agree that there is a finite number of moves but
>>>I am sure that there are moves that are never tried during the first seconds of
>>>a search simply because you need many moves to make them legal.
>>>
>>>It does not mean that in the first time that they are legal they should be
>>>pruned.
>>>
>>>For example
>>>[D]r1b3k1/1pp5/8/8/8/8/6PP/4KB1R w - - 0 1
>>>
>>>I doubt if you will find a move like Kf6-g7 at small depths but it does not mean
>>>that the move should be pruned and this move can be logical in supporting passed
>>>pawns.
>>>
>>>Uri
>>
>>
>>by the time I get to _that_ position I could guarantee you every move has been
>>tried millions of times. :)
>
>Even if you use statistics about all the game and not only about specific search
>I do not think that every move has been tried millions of times because white
>king from f6 to g7 is not something that you try in the opening when the white
>king is at e1 or g1 and stupid lines when the king go forward to the direction
>of g7 usually pruned by null move pruning.
>
>Uri


Most don't do history like that.  Usually it is just a 12 bit index <from><to>.
So it doesn't differentiate between a king move from f6 go g7, and a
bishop/queen move from f6 to g7...




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