Author: Christophe Theron
Date: 09:15:43 09/20/99
Go up one level in this thread
On September 19, 1999 at 17:17:27, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>On September 19, 1999 at 15:04:53, Christophe Theron wrote:
>>I think it's a very bad idea to target for a given speed. Sorry, but I see no
>>reason to do this. When I make a change in Tiger I make various tests on
>>different computers to be sure that nothing is broken. These tests include blitz
>>games against Genius5 on my 386sx20 and longer games on a 300MHz computer.
>>
>>I think that making sure that the strength is unaffected at very different
>>speeds is a way to make sure that you are going into the right direction. At
>>least I think it works for me...
>>
>>
>> Christophe
>
>
>I personally believe that doing this is impossible. IE I can't imagine a
>program that plays equally well if it searches to 6 plies or to 10 plies. I
>had this problem for years as my Cray Blitz development was mainly done on a
>VAX, and then we would run on the Cray for tournaments. And on occasion, it
>was very obvious that things that were helping at 6 plies were killing us at
>10...
This kind of problem can be solved. Generally I use the same algorithms whatever
the speed is, but in some cases I adapt. IE there are things I do in the first
iterations I don't do anymore at deeper depths.
>just my opinion, of course. But you certainly can't get away with null move
>R=2 on a 386.
That's right. Null move is the kind of algorithm that reduces the branching
factor, and needs at least 5 or 6 plies of depth to begin to be really
effective.
That's why I have other selective algorithms that are designed to work even at
depth 2-4 (and they keep working very well at deeper depths BTW).
> It will be so blind to king-side attacks that a good expert will
>eat it alive.
OK, I would not play a grandmaster on a 386 anyway...
The problem is to be equal or better than the best software running on the same
computer. I don't mean I achieved this, but I think that trying to do it helps a
lot to go into the right direction.
Christophe
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