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Subject: Re: mtdf

Author: Will Singleton

Date: 21:59:49 05/13/99

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On May 14, 1999 at 00:24:38, James Robertson wrote:

>On May 13, 1999 at 23:12:41, Dan Homan wrote:
>
>>
>>I've tried the mtdf algorithm a few times with no luck.  It was
>>always noticably slower than pure PVS.  (For reference: mtdf is
>>an algorithm which uses a series of null-window searches from the
>>root to narrow in and find the true score of a position.)
>>
>>Today I tried mtdf again, but this time with more determination.
>>It is an easy change to my program because all I need to modify
>>is the loop that calls my PVS function from the root.  Again, I found
>>that it was much slower than normal PVS at first.  However,
>>by modifying the algorithm to use an adaptive step-size (meaning that
>>I don't try neighboring (+/- 1 point) windows for re-searches but
>>rather try to bound the score more efficently) and by
>>reducing my score resolution from 1/100 th of a pawn to 1/25 th of
>>a pawn, I got better results from mtdf than from pure PVS.
>>
>>I went from 277 correct solution on the WAC test set (5 sec limit on a
>>Cel 400) to 281 correct solutions with mtdf.  My rms solution time for
>>both runs (with and without mtdf) were nearly the same.  Of course,
>>these tests are not really conclusive...  For example I don't know how
>>pure PVS will do with 1/25 th of a pawn scoring rather than 1/100 th.
>>What this does indicate to me is that mtdf is a viable solution.  Previously,
>>I had assumed it would be very difficult to implement effectively.
>>
>>If I decide to commit to mtdf, there are (presumably) more optimizations
>>I could take advantage of.  What kind of experience do other programmers
>>have with mtdf?
>>
>> - Dan
>
>Where can I find out more about mtdf?
>
>James

One good place to look is the computer resource center -> links -> programming
methods and studies -> mtd(f).

Amazing how much stuff is in there.

Will




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