The main idea is that illegal moves influencing search or
qsearch obviously can't be any sort of good. The only reason
why initially legality checks for search and qsearch were done
after they actually can influence some heuristics is because
legality check is expensive computationally. Eventually in
search it was moved to the place where it makes sure that
illegal moves can't influence search.
This patch shows that the same can be done for qsearch + it
passed STC with elo-gaining bounds + it removes 3 lines of code
because one no longer needs to increment/decrement movecount
on illegal moves.
passed STC with elo-gaining bounds
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/60f20aefd1189bed71812da0
LLR: 2.94 (-2.94,2.94) <-0.50,2.50>
Total: 61512 W: 4688 L: 4492 D: 52332
Ptnml(0-2): 139, 3730, 22848, 3874, 165
The same version functionally but with moving condition ever earlier
passed LTC with simplification bounds.
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/60f292cad1189bed71812de9
LLR: 2.98 (-2.94,2.94) <-2.50,0.50>
Total: 60944 W: 1724 L: 1685 D: 57535
Ptnml(0-2): 11, 1556, 27298, 1597, 10
closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/3618
bench 4709569
This patch removes the UCI option for setting Contempt in classical evaluation.
It is exactly equivalent to using Contempt=0 for the UCI contempt value and keeping
the dynamic part in the algo (renaming this dynamic part `trend` to better describe
what it does). We have tried quite hard to implement a working Contempt feature for
NNUE but nothing really worked, so it is probably time to give up.
Interested chess fans wishing to keep playing with the UCI option for Contempt and
use it with the classical eval are urged to download the version tagged "SF_Classical"
of Stockfish (dated 31 July 2020), as it was the last version where our search
algorithm was tuned for the classical eval and is probably our strongest classical
player ever: https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/tags
Passed STC:
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) <-2.50,0.50>
Total: 72904 W: 6228 L: 6175 D: 60501
Ptnml(0-2): 221, 5006, 25971, 5007, 247
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/60c98bf9457376eb8bcab18d
Passed LTC:
LLR: 2.93 (-2.94,2.94) <-2.50,0.50>
Total: 45168 W: 1601 L: 1547 D: 42020
Ptnml(0-2): 38, 1331, 19786, 1397, 32
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/60c9c7fa457376eb8bcab1bb
closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/3575
Bench: 4947716
This patch restricts LMR extensions (of non-transposition table moves) from being
used when the transposition table move was extended by two plies via singular
extension. This may serve to limit search explosions in certain positions.
This makes a lot of sense because the precondition for the tt-move to have been
singular extended by two plies is that the result of the alternate search (with
excluded the tt-move) has been a hard fail low: it is natural to later search less
for non tt-moves in this situation.
The current state of depth/extensions/reductions management is getting quite tricky
in our search algo, see https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/3546#issuecomment-860174549
for some discussion. Suggestions welcome!
Passed STC
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/60c3f293457376eb8bcaac8d
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) <-0.50,2.50>
Total: 117984 W: 9698 L: 9430 D: 98856
Ptnml(0-2): 315, 7708, 42703, 7926, 340
passed LTC
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/60c46ea5457376eb8bcaacc7
LLR: 2.97 (-2.94,2.94) <0.50,3.50>
Total: 11280 W: 401 L: 302 D: 10577
Ptnml(0-2): 2, 271, 4998, 364, 5
closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/3546
Bench: 4709974
The Tempo variable was introduced 10 years ago in our search because the
classical evaluation function was antisymmetrical in White and Black by design
to gain speed:
Eval(White to play) = -Eval(Black to play)
Nowadays our neural networks know which side is to play in a position when
they evaluate a position and are trained on real games, so the neural network
encodes the advantage of moving as an output of search. This patch shows that
the Tempo variable is not necessary anymore.
STC:
LLR: 2.94 (-2.94,2.94) <-2.50,0.50>
Total: 33512 W: 2805 L: 2709 D: 27998
Ptnml(0-2): 80, 2209, 12095, 2279, 93
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/60a44ceace8ea25a3ef03d30
LTC:
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) <-2.50,0.50>
Total: 53920 W: 1807 L: 1760 D: 50353
Ptnml(0-2): 16, 1617, 23650, 1658, 19
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/60a477f0ce8ea25a3ef03d49
We also tried a match (20000 games) at STC using purely classical, result was neutral:
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/60a4eebcce8ea25a3ef03db5
Note: there are two locations left in search.cpp where we assume antisymmetry
of evaluation (in relation with a speed optimization for null moves in lines
770 and 1439), but as the values are just used for heuristic pruning this
approximation should not hurt too much because the order of magnitude is still
true most of the time.
closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/3481
Bench: 4015864
This patch increases lmrDepth threshold for continuation history based pruning in search.
This part of code for a long time was known to be really TC sensitive - decreasing
this threshold easily passed lower time controls but failed badly at LTC,
on the other hand it increase was part of a tuning that resulted
in being negative at STC but was +12 elo at 180+1.8.
After recent simplification of special conditions that sometimes
increase it from 4 to 5 it was logical to overall test at longer
time controls if 5 is better than 4 with deeper searches.
reduces strenght on STC
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/60a3a8bbce8ea25a3ef03c74
ELO: -2.57 +-2.0 (95%) LOS: 0.6%
Total: 20000 W: 1820 L: 1968 D: 16212
Ptnml(0-2): 68, 1582, 6836, 1458, 56
Passed LTC with STC bounds
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/60a027395085663412d090ce
LLR: 2.93 (-2.94,2.94) <-0.50,2.50>
Total: 175256 W: 6774 L: 6548 D: 161934
Ptnml(0-2): 91, 5808, 75604, 6034, 91
Passed VLTC with LTC bounds
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/60a2bccce229097940a037a7
LLR: 2.96 (-2.94,2.94) <0.50,3.50>
Total: 65736 W: 1224 L: 1092 D: 63420
Ptnml(0-2): 5, 1012, 30706, 1136, 9
closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/3473
bench 3689330
- Comment for Countemove pruning -> Continuation history
- Fix comment in input_slice.h
- Shorter lines in Makefile
- Comment for scale factor
- Fix comment for pinners in see_ge()
- Change Thread.id() signature to size_t
- Trailing space in reprosearch.sh
- Add Douglas Matos Gomes to the AUTHORS file
- Introduce comment for undo_null_move()
- Use Stockfish coding style for export_net()
- Change date in AUTHORS file
closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/3416
No functional change
This patch broadens and simplifies definition of PvNode that is likely to fail low.
New definition can be described as following "If node was already researched
at depth >= current depth and failed low there" which is more logical than the
previous version and takes less space + allows to not recompute it every time during move loop.
Passed simplification STC
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/609148bf95e7f1852abd2e82
LLR: 2.93 (-2.94,2.94) <-2.50,0.50>
Total: 20128 W: 1865 L: 1751 D: 16512
Ptnml(0-2): 63, 1334, 7165, 1430, 72
Passed simplification LTC
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/6091691295e7f1852abd2e8b
LLR: 2.94 (-2.94,2.94) <-2.50,0.50>
Total: 95128 W: 3498 L: 3481 D: 88149
Ptnml(0-2): 41, 2956, 41549, 2981, 37
closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/3455
Bench: 3933037
We introduce a metric for each internal node in search, called DistanceFromPV.
This distance indicated how far the current node is from the principal variation.
We then use this distance to search the nodes which are close to the PV a little
deeper (up to 4 plies deeper than the PV): this improves the quality of the search
at these nodes and bring better updates for the PV during search.
STC:
LLR: 2.96 (-2.94,2.94) {-0.25,1.25}
Total: 54936 W: 5047 L: 4850 D: 45039
Ptnml(0-2): 183, 3907, 19075, 4136, 167
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/6037b88e7f517a561bc4a392
LTC:
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) {0.25,1.25}
Total: 49608 W: 1880 L: 1703 D: 46025
Ptnml(0-2): 22, 1514, 21555, 1691, 22
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/6038271b7f517a561bc4a3cb
Closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/3369
Bench: 5037279
The idea of this patch can be described as follows: if we are in check
and the transposition table move is a capture that returns a value
far above beta, we can assume that the opponent just blundered a piece
by giving check, and we return the transposition table value. This is
similar to the usual probCut logic for quiet moves, but with a different
threshold.
Passed STC
LLR: 2.94 (-2.94,2.94) {-0.25,1.25}
Total: 33440 W: 3056 L: 2891 D: 27493
Ptnml(0-2): 110, 2338, 11672, 2477, 123
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/602cd1087f517a561bc49bda
Passed LTC
LLR: 2.98 (-2.94,2.94) {0.25,1.25}
Total: 10072 W: 401 L: 309 D: 9362
Ptnml(0-2): 2, 288, 4365, 378, 3
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/602ceea57f517a561bc49bf0
The committed version has an additional fix to never return unproven wins
in the tablebase range or the mate range. This fix passed tests for non-
regression at STC and LTC:
STC:
LLR: 2.93 (-2.94,2.94) {-1.25,0.25}
Total: 26240 W: 2354 L: 2280 D: 21606
Ptnml(0-2): 85, 1763, 9372, 1793, 107
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/602d86a87f517a561bc49c7a
LTC:
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) {-0.75,0.25}
Total: 35304 W: 1299 L: 1256 D: 32749
Ptnml(0-2): 14, 1095, 15395, 1130, 18
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/602d98d17f517a561bc49c83
Closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/3362
Bench: 3830215
Do not decrease reduction at pv-nodes which are likely to fail low.
The idea of this patch can be described as following: during the search, if a node
on the principal variation was re-searched in non-pv search and this re-search got
a value which was much lower than alpha, then we can assume that this pv-node is
likely to fail low again, and we can reduce more aggressively at this node.
Passed STC
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/6023a5fa7f517a561bc49638
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) {-0.25,1.25}
Total: 70288 W: 6443 L: 6223 D: 57622
Ptnml(0-2): 239, 5022, 24436, 5174, 273
Passed LTC
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/6023f2617f517a561bc49661
LLR: 2.94 (-2.94,2.94) {0.25,1.25}
Total: 105656 W: 4048 L: 3748 D: 97860
Ptnml(0-2): 67, 3312, 45761, 3630, 58
Closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/3349
Bench: 3766422
