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Subject: Re: Question to Steve Lopez re: Analysis Search Depth Setting

Author: Steve Lopez

Date: 07:00:36 01/18/00

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On January 17, 2000 at 11:31:21, Joe T. Pangilinan wrote:

>    One question though, in one of your articles, you suggested a search depth
>setting of 11 ply for Analyis of "most positions", and 9 ply for positions that
>are " not too tough". Now, in previous Computer Chess reports Articles, they ran
>tests of Dedicated Chess Computers, and found that most of them can find
>solutions to Problem Test positions within 6 - 7 plies depth.
>    Would you agree then, that a 7 ply depth search would be good enough setting
>in analyzing Non-Master Games, and 11 ply depth for GM Games?

When I run analysis of my own games (or anyone else's), I prefer a 9-11 ply
depth. This has nothing to do with the strengths of the players, it's just a
question of processor speed/RAM and how long it will tie up the computer to run
a deeper analysis.

Whenever I suggest a 13-ply depth, I end up getting tons of letters from readers
with Pentium 120/32 Mb RAM boxes who complain that it takes 20 hours to analyze
a 100-move Alekhine game with lots of play in the middlegame. So I generally
suggest shallower depths in my articles these days to take these people into
account. However, if you've got the latest AMD RocketBoy5000/566 Mhz Killer
Cobra dual processors and 512 Mb RAM, crank the search depth on up.

It's really more a question of hardware than one of who played the game. I just
try to keep things as simple as possible in my articles for those readers who
respond to the question "How much RAM do you have?" with "Huh?"

-- Steve Lopez

The Chess Kamikaze Home Page: http://www.geocities.com/ludekdudek/
The Chess Kamikaze Club: http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/chesskamikazes



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