Computer Chess Club Archives


Search

Terms

Messages

Subject: Re: Question: Where do you set your null move threashold?

Author: Vincent Diepeveen

Date: 04:29:16 11/15/99

Go up one level in this thread


On November 14, 1999 at 22:58:19, James Robertson wrote:

>On November 14, 1999 at 22:16:33, Will Singleton wrote:
>
>>On November 14, 1999 at 21:45:26, William Bryant wrote:
>>
>>>I recently found that my null threashold is set to low, and I am experimenting
>>>with different level.
>>>
>>>I am curious what other people have found works for them.
>>>
>>>Do you count pieces or pieces and pawns?
>>>
>>>How may pieces or pieces and pawns must be present for the side on move
>>>to allow a null move?
>>>
>>>Thanks in advance.
>>>
>>>William
>>>wbryant@ix.netcom.com
>>
>>I originally had a threshold of around 3 pieces per side, but now I allow
>>endgames as long as someone has a piece.  This is further modified by a
>>blocked-pawn term, which disallows null if most pawns are blocked.  I think.
>>So, I don't detect zug like some others attempt to do.
>>
>>I only use R=2, but I know others alternate between 2 and 3 depending on the
>>situation.
>>
>>Will
>
>What are the advantages/disadvantages of alternating between R=2/3? Does having
>some entries with R=3 cause problems with the hash table?

The difference between R=2 and R=3 is marginally, however for DIEP
R=2 needs a lot more nodes than R=3.

Something interesting though is what happens the last few ply.

At R=2 you are tempted prune the last 3 ply with quiescencesearch.

At R=3 you are doing the last 4 ply, which means that you prune
2 moves of your opponent.

For some programs that don't detect much in qsearch this might be
a problem.

Everyone has to figure out whether R=2 is better for him or whether
he can do R=3 too.

Some alternatives is using a combination: first nullmove R=3 and
all nullmoves after the first one R=2.

I am no longer doing that though. I use everywhere R=3 now.
Bad luck for a few positions in LCT test and bs2830 testset!

Obviously a nullmoving program with R=3 needs 3 ply more than
with R=2 to find Kh2-g3!!

I guess everyone has to figure out his own reduction based upon
node reduction. If R=3 gives you a time reduction of 50%, then
i bet it's a good idea to use R=3 instead of R=2 !

>James

Vincent



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.