Author: Amir Ban
Date: 03:58:26 12/21/99
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On December 20, 1999 at 20:18:55, Greg Lindahl wrote: >On December 20, 1999 at 19:55:33, Robert Hyatt wrote: > >>Remember that there are at _least_ as many that spend less time in the eval >>than I do. And that I doubt if anybody is as high as 90%. > >I know of one example which spends 90% in eval. And as you know, if eval becomes >cheaper, it might behoove you to use more of it. > >>DB didn't, but belle did, and hitech did, and so forth. > >I disagree. You can't prove that no other approach produces a really fast >engine. It's logically impossible with the data that you have in hand. > >> There is no one >> piece you can pick out and make execute in zero time, and produce any big >> performance boost. > >Other than an engine which spends 90% of its time in eval. They tell me that >this is a religious issue in the chess world -- how smart of an evaluation >function to use, how clever you can be picking moves, etc etc. What you're >asserting is that you know every possible permutation, algorithm, and factor. >Quite a strong claim. I wish I was that smart in the field that I specialize in. > I believe there are engines that take 90% for eval, but I'm pretty sure that no first-rank engine does. This means that you have 10% left for all the rest, and you have at least a 5-to-1 handicap in search speed against other engines. There's no way to successfully compete with this kind of handicap. Doing the evaluation in h/w will improve this program a lot, and will probably put it in the top ranks, but that's a poor reason for doing such an effort. Obviously you are not going to do this project to enable a mediocre engine to be competitive, but to build something that will have a clear advantage over any s/w-only approach. My program takes less than 20% on evaluation, by the way. Another objection to your eval-only chip is that there are s/w-only methods to drive evaluation costs way down. They have their problems and drawbacks for sure, but no so much as to justify a hardware solution. Amir
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