Computer Chess Club Archives


Search

Terms

Messages

Subject: Re: Ponder in chess engines

Author: Bahram Namjou

Date: 12:29:20 02/19/06

Go up one level in this thread


On February 19, 2006 at 15:14:10, Harald Lüßen wrote:

>On February 19, 2006 at 13:59:36, Bahram Namjou wrote:
>
>>I asked this question before but with no comments so I post it again!
>>
>>when the ponder is on and chess engine thinks and evaluates a position, all of
>>the further evaluations are only based on one predicted move that considered to
>>be the opponent best next move however never this predicted move will change
>>during "thinking time" no matter this "thinking time" is 5 seconds or 50
>>minutes...can anyone explain this why?...thanks, bn
>
>I know two ways of pondering.
>
>When an engine makes a move emg_move1 it is the first move
>in the principle variation: eng_move1 opp_move1 eng_move2 opp_move2 ...
>
>a) The engine now assumes the opponent will play opp_move1. Internally it
>makes the move and starts thinking (pondering) about its own answer,
>obviously beginning with eng_move2.
>pro: when the opponent really plays opp_move1 the engine can answer
>immediately or just use the time advantage and the hash Table and the
>so far calculated depth.
>con: when the opponent makes another move the search has to start
>from the begining. This is like 'no ponder' if there is not just
>a simple transposition. Off course it has to correct its internal move
>on the board.
>
>b) The engine starts thinking for the opponents move, beginning with
>opp_move1. There could be a better move opp_move1a. There is always
>a new principle variation and most important there are new entries
>in the hash table.
>pro: when the opponent makes the move opp_move1a the pv and the
>hash table are full with information to answer this move.
>If the opponent plays a move opp_move1b chances are good that it was
>considered too and there are some infos in the hash table.
>With this strategy a huge thinking time can be used better.
>con: If the opponent plays move opp_move1 the hash table entries
>with the information belonging to this move may have been overwritten
>and we lost a half move of depth.
>
>There are engines for both strategies.
>Many experts say strategy a) is better. At least for good engines
>which predict the right move anyway.
>
>Harald

Thank you Herald...can you also compare the infinite analysis with pondering and
why the best predicted move doesn't change during pondering in many top
engines?...regards...bn



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.