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Subject: Re: Connecting the Dots, and finding new opening variations

Author: Dave Gomboc

Date: 17:56:01 06/21/99

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On June 21, 1999 at 20:39:05, Dann Corbit wrote:

>On June 21, 1999 at 20:27:02, Paul Richards wrote:
>
>>On June 21, 1999 at 14:02:36, Dann Corbit wrote:
>>
>>>I have gone over all the pathways calculated in C.A.P. for the position in
>>>question (the one I thought was a blunder at first blush).  It turns out that by
>>>examining the results at subsequent plies you can find better alternatives.
>>>This points to (I think) the necessity of doing the "connect the dots"
>>>experiment.  It also has generated a fascinating hypothesis of mine, which is
>>>"The Chess Analysis Project will reinvent all the great chess openings by post
>>>processing."
>>>And a corollary:
>>>"The Chess Analysis Project will invent new openings superior to any in
>>>existance."
>>
>>Had to change the title. :)  By the first hypothesis do you mean you will
>>simply rediscover what is accepted opening theory?
>That is pretty much unavoidable, since all positions from classical openings are
>in the database.  When you examine single entries, they don't always follow the
>classical lines, but when you string them together they tend to.
>
>>Or that you will
>>determine which lines are soundest?
>That also.  In addition, the lines will be depened, and some will find clear
>refutations.
>
>>How exactly does this sort of solving work anyway?  I mean, I can see it
>>in general terms, but I'm not sure of the details.  Suppose you're at a
>>certain position, and you see that you have five moves from that point
>>in your database.  They have centipawn values of +50, -75, +123, +64, and
>>+10 for the side on move.  What is the value of your current position?
>>An average?  If you assume that your opponent makes the best move then I
>>suppose the value must be the least, or -75 in this case.  If you apply
>>this to each point in the database, you should develop long variations
>>based on this "least" (best move for the other guy) value at each point.
>>Is that about right?  And does it matter where you start, or can you
>>locate the "ends" of each variation?  Then you have to consider how to
>>add new data into a "solved" database.  Or make a correction.  Suppose
>>you do a longer analysis and a new point has the least value. I suppose each
>>point can have a "raw" original data value and a "solved" value, both of which
>>could be updated as needed.  Interesting
>>stuff anyway.
>How it works is pretty simple.  Consider some position x.  From x, we have 20
>choices, of which 7 are in the database.  Currently, for x we have a computer
>estimated ce of y.  Now, we examine those 7 subsequent positions we already
>have.  Considering now as the opponent, we let the opponent "do their worst" and
>create an estimated ce and pv from that (leaving the originals intact).  We
>continue with this process, reversing roles from ply to ply, all the way to the
>end of the database.  Then we repeat the process (perhaps 1000 times).  The
>reason we repeat it is that each position in the database gets updated in pass
>one.  Now, looking at our revamped estimates of the worth of a position, what
>was our best choice last time may no longer be the best choice.  We may also
>find that choices extrapolated to be the best have never been attempted.  So we
>might calculate them and add these in for subsequent runs.  Using techniques
>like this, we can actually form strategic plans, since we could be looking
>dozens of full moves into the future.

You already have the leaf values computed, so the proposed algorithm is
inefficient.  Simply do a depth-first search (with cycle detection) and backup
scores in a minimax fashion.  Now it takes one pass through the items.

Dave



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