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Subject: Re: Detecting stalemate with a pseudo-legal movegenerator?

Author: Frederik Tack

Date: 12:24:19 11/17/05

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On November 17, 2005 at 02:31:43, Tony Werten wrote:

>On November 16, 2005 at 15:18:56, Frederik Tack wrote:
>
>>
>>I actually followed you advice and tested it out. I am surprised in the sense
>>that it happens a lot less than you and me thought.
>>
>>In a typical opening position the result was +- 0,5% of the nodes.
>>In a typical midgame position (with king still in the center of the back row)
>>the result was +- 1%.
>>In a typical endgame position (with the king exposed in the center of the board
>>and enemy rook, bishop and knight and 3 pawns on the board) the result was +-
>>3%.
>>
>>When i think of it, these low percentages aren't so surprising at all, since the
>>king captures are always put at the end of the movelist by my move generator, so
>>in most cases, they are cut-off during alpha-beta search.
>
>I'm puzzled. Capturing a king gives an immediate cutoff. It should be searched
>first.
>Searching it last means you have wasted a lot of nodes.
>
>When you move the kingcapture forward, and then count, you will get about 25%.
>It means (since you only count kingcaptures in 3%) that in 22% you have searched
>part of a tree that you could have avoided.
>
>To me this sounds like you basicly doubled your branchingfactor, to save you
>from doing InCheck.
>
>But maybe I'm not getting it.
>
>Tony
>
What i meant by king captures is the king capturing a piece, not the king being
captured by a piece. I use a static exchange evaluator during move generation,
so if a king captures a piece but will be captured on the next move by an enemy
piece, the move is put at the end of the list by the SEE.
The non-capture moves i also generate in a specific order (pawn moves first,
king moves last (except for castling moves, since i have tested for checks in
that case)). Of course moves where a piece captures a king will be sorted at the
beginning of the list.

Fred





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