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Subject: Re: bench test positions?

Author: Marc-Olivier Moisan-Plante

Date: 03:05:35 09/04/05

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On September 03, 2005 at 16:28:07, David Dahlem wrote:

>I'm currently using the same positions for my bench test as Crafty. And i'm
>thinking about changing to different positions. What criteria should i use in
>selecting good bench positions? All middlegame position, or a mixture of
>opening, middlegame, endgame, quiet positions, non-quiet positions, etc.?
>
>Also any specific positions would be appreciated. :-)
>
>Regards
>Dave

Hi David,

First I want to say I'm no expert in this (testing). Are you a member of the
Winboard forum also? http://www.volker-pittlik.name/wbforum

If you are, I would recommend you search the archives with <nunn and test>: your
second result should be a thread named "Best method to test?". There is plenty
of explanations here, although they might not directly answer your question
about which positions should be in the test.

If I can say, I think that the is no perfect positions: even a test of 20
positions (so 40 games as each program gets white then black in turn) could be
"biased". For example if there are a lot of opposite-side castling positions, it
could be that an attacking program gets the better of it in this test, but if
most of the positions are "quiet" then maybe the more positional program will
prevail.

Among other things to considers there is the time control (apparently 10min/mate
on a 2Ghz is equivalent to a 20min/mate on a 1Ghz - from what I read), and if
there is book learning or some other sort of learning (some program learn even
out of the book). Also the opening book is, of course, something we should think
about. As posted lately on this forum a bad book (i.e. one side is almost
winning after the opening) will tend to drive the match result toward 50%.

Good luck,

PS If you find relevant information about this just let me know.



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