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Subject: Re: Chess program improvement project (copy at Winboard::Programming)

Author: Dann Corbit

Date: 10:58:48 03/07/06

Go up one level in this thread


On March 07, 2006 at 04:39:52, Uri Blass wrote:

>On March 07, 2006 at 03:47:06, Dann Corbit wrote:
>
>>On March 07, 2006 at 03:02:17, Uri Blass wrote:
>>
>>>On March 07, 2006 at 00:46:27, Dann Corbit wrote:
>>>
>>>>On March 07, 2006 at 00:41:55, Dann Corbit wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On March 07, 2006 at 00:34:48, Stuart Cracraft wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>On March 07, 2006 at 00:31:45, Dann Corbit wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>On March 07, 2006 at 00:27:43, Stuart Cracraft wrote:
>>>>>>>[snip]
>>>>>>>>Very interesting indeed. A clever test.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>If one's results do not rotate approximately as described
>>>>>>>>for the four positions and you say the evaluation is an
>>>>>>>>issue, what kinds of evaluation issues have you seen that
>>>>>>>>could explain it?!?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>The most common thing that I see is something that is good for white being
>>>>>>>counted as positive for black also on the evaluation.  Often, when we are
>>>>>>>writing the eval, we are thinking from the perspective of white. And so if we
>>>>>>>are not very careful, we may invert the sign of some evaluation component and
>>>>>>>count something that is good for white as something that is good for black (or
>>>>>>>vice versa, though the reverse is seen less often for some reason).
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>There are, of course, many other possible causes besides that.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>A good point. I try to avoid that by always doing things from the
>>>>>>side on move, almost always. There are a few in there however with
>>>>>>respect to white and black specifically, but they are then folded
>>>>>>together with the stm variable and stm^1 which translate to white/black
>>>>>>or black/white depending on who's on move. I could try this: rerun
>>>>>>your rotation test with successively less in the evaluation table
>>>>>>until nothing but material and see what happens.
>>>>>
>>>>>Right.  If you have divided off the eval components, you could binary search
>>>>>until you find the problem component.
>>>>>
>>>>>Now, we do not know for sure that it is an eval sign problem.  However, the fact
>>>>>that the records are similar in pairs makes it very suspicious.
>>>>
>>>>I guess that when you have gotten your eval symmetrical, you will miss less than
>>>>ten problems on WAC.
>>>
>>>I think that you are wrong here.
>>>Stuart may have evaluation bugs but his main problem is the search.
>>
>>I think it likely that it is both.
>>
>>Given:
>>5rk1/2p4p/2p4r/3P4/4p1b1/1Q2NqPp/PP3P1K/R4R2 b - - bm Qg2+; id "-rotXTDa.1";
>>1kr5/p4p2/r4p2/4P3/1b1p4/pPqN2Q1/K1P3PP/2R4R b - - bm Qb2+; id "-rotXTDg.1";
>>r4r2/pp3p1k/1q2nQpP/4P1B1/3p4/2P4R/2P4P/5RK1 w - - bm Qg7+; id "-rotXTDc.8";
>>2r4r/k1p3pp/PpQn2q1/1B1P4/4p3/R4P2/P4P2/1KR5 w - - bm Qb7+; id "-rotXTDe.8";
>>
>>When I changed to material only eval, here is the result:
>>
>>st 5
>>ts
>>position file? [wac.epd] rot.epd
>># of test positions to test? 4
>>maxtime = 500
>>Interrupt current ply and return move at timeout
>>Testsuite: rot.epd 4 positions
>>*** Problem   Solution(s): Qg2+ (bm)
>>[D] 5rk1/2p4p/2p4r/3P4/4p1b1/1Q2NqPp/PP3P1K/R4R2 b - - bm Qg2+
>>*** Problem   Solution(s): Qg2+ (bm)
>>-- ** -- ** -- BR BK **
>>** -- BP -- ** -- ** BP
>>-- ** BP ** -- ** -- BR
>>** -- ** WP ** -- ** --
>>-- ** -- ** BP ** BB **
>>** WQ ** -- WN BQ WP BP
>>WP WP -- ** -- WP -- WK
>>WR -- ** -- ** WR ** --
>>mv 1 stage 0, black to move, computer plays black
>>hash=62305c813f5fad4
>>pawnhash=3da7edf6c1ba87ea
>>0 0 0 0 0 0
>>Alpha=-400 Beta=400 Maxdepth=9999999 MaxTime=500 xboard=1
>>Ply Score Time  Nodes PV
>>1.  40     3 12 c6d5 e3d5
>>1.  900     5 74 f3g2 e3g2
>
>Qg2+ is a sacrifice so it is not logical so if the computer choose it at depth 1
>then it means that there is a serious bug.

It may find the result by quiesce().

I think you are probably right about search problems also.

However, having errant terms in his eval, and having search stability problems,
and yet still solving 3/4 of WAC, I suspect he will make rapid progress once he
irons out some simple details.




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