When running more games in parallel, or simply when running a game
with a background process, due to how OS scheduling works, there is no
guarantee that the CPU resources allocated evenly between the two
players. This introduces noise in the result that leads to unreliable
result and in the worst cases can even invalidate the result. For
instance in SF test framework we avoid running from clouds virtual
machines because are a known source of very unstable CPU speed.
To overcome this issue, without requiring changes to the GUI, the idea
is to use searched nodes instead of time, and to convert time to
available nodes upfront, at the beginning of the game.
When nodestime UCI option is set at a given nodes per milliseconds
(npmsec), at the beginning of the game (and only once), the engine
reads the available time to think, sent by the GUI with 'go wtime x'
UCI command. Then it translates time in available nodes (nodes =
npmsec * x), then feeds available nodes instead of time to the time
management logic and starts the search. During the search the engine
checks the searched nodes against the available ones in such a way
that all the time management logic still fully applies, and the game
mimics a real one played on real time. When the search finishes,
before returning best move, the total available nodes are updated,
subtracting the real searched nodes. After the first move, the time
information sent by the GUI is ignored, and the engine fully relies on
the updated total available nodes to feed time management.
To avoid time losses, the speed of the engine (npms) must be set to a
value lower than real speed so that if the real TC is for instance 30
secs, and npms is half of the real speed, the game will last on
average 15 secs, so much less than the TC limit, providing for a
safety 'time buffer'.
There are 2 main limitations with this mode.
1. Engine speed should be the same for both players, and this limits
the approach to mainly parameter tuning patches.
2. Because npms is fixed while, in real engines, the speed increases
toward endgame, this introduces an artifact that is equivalent to an
altered time management. Namely it is like the time management gives
less available time than what should be in standard case.
May be the second limitation could be mitigated in a future with a
smarter 'dynamic npms' approach.
Tests shows that the standard deviation of the results with 'nodestime'
is lower than in standard TC, as is expected because now all the introduced
noise due the random speed variability of the engines during the game is
fully removed.
Original NIT idea by Michael Hoffman that shows how to play in NIT mode
without requiring changes to the GUI. This implementation goes a bit
further, the key difference is that we read TC from GUI only once upfront
instead of re-reading after every move as in Michael's implementation.
No functional change.
And reformat a bit time manager code.
Note that now we set starting search time in think() and
no more in ThreadPool::start_thinking(), the added delay
is less than 1 msec, so below timer resolution (5msec) and
should not affect time lossses ratio.
No functional change.
Code like this is more a case of showing off one's C++ knowledge, rather than
using it adequately, IMHO.
**First loop (std::generate)**
Iterators are inadequate here, because they lose the key information which is
idx. As a result, we need to carry a redundant idx variable, and increment it
along the way. Very clumsy.
Usage of std::generate and a lambda function only obfuscate the code, which is
merely a simple and stupid loop over the elements of a vector.
**Second loop (std::accumulate)**
This code is thoroughlly incomprehensible. Restore the original, which was much
simpler to understand.
**Third loop (range based loop)**
Again, a range based loop is inadequate, because we lose idx! To resolve this
artificially created problem, the data model was made redundant (idx is a data
member of db[] elements!?), which is ugly and unjustified. A simple and stupid
for loop with idx does the job much better.
No functional change.
Resolves#313
Small speed-up in pawn.cpp
Results for 10 tests for each version:
Base Test Diff
Mean 1435636 1445238 -9602
StDev 22576 23189 1848
p-value: 1
speedup: 0.007
No functional change
Resolves#295
If the sum of CounterMoveHistory heuristic and History heuristic is below zero,
then reduce an extra ply in cut nodes
LTC:
LLR: 2.96 (-2.94,2.94) [0.00,6.00]
Total: 6479 W: 1099 L: 967 D: 4413
Bench: 7773299
Resolves#315
Currently if we call it more than once, we crash.
This is not a real problem, because this function is
indeed called just once. Nevertheless with this small fix,
that gets rid of a hidden 'static' variable, we cleanly
resolve the issue.
While there, fix also ThreadPool::exit to return in a
consistent state. Now all the init() functions but
UCI::init() are reentrant and can be called multiple
times.
No functional change.
Profiling shows that resetting attacks table after
a failed candidate magic attempt is the biggest
time consumer, so rewrite the logic avoiding the
memset()
Magics init for rook+bishop goes from 200msecs to
under 100msec.
No functional change.
To sync UI with main thread it is enough a single
condition variable because here we have a single
producer / single consumer design pattern.
Two condition variables are strictly needed just for
many producers / many consumers case.
Note that this is possible because now we don't send to
sleep idle threads anymore while searching, so that now
only UI can wake up the main thread and we can use the
same ConditionVariable for both threads.
The natural consequence is to retire wait_for_think_finished()
and move all the logic under MainThread class, yielding the
rename of teh function to join()
No functional change.
Now that we use spinlocks everywhere and don't put
threads to sleep while idle, we can use the slower
(but no more in hot path) std::condition_variable_any
instead of our homwgrown ConditionVariable struct.
Verified fo rno regression at STC with 7 threads:
ELO: -0.66 +-2.7 (95%) LOS: 31.8%
Total: 20000 W: 3210 L: 3248 D: 13542
No functional change
There's no reason to define it as a Bitboard, so for consistency, use bool.
This is even a speedup on my machine: i7-3770k, using gcc 4.9.1 (linux):
stat test master diff
mean 2,341,338 2,327,998 13,134
stdev 15,765 14,717 5,405
speedup 0.56%
P(speedup>0) 100.0%
No functional change.
Resolves#298
Avoid redundant 'while' conditions. It is enough to
check them in the outer loop.
Quick tested for no regression 10K games at 4 threads
ELO: -1.32 +-3.9 (95%) LOS: 25.6%
Total: 10000 W: 1653 L: 1691 D: 6656
No functional change.
Spinlock must be used instead.
Tested for no regression at 15+0.05 th 4:
LLR: 2.96 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 25928 W: 4303 L: 4190 D: 17435
No functional change.
Resolves#297
Unify the quites moves loop for both cases,
the compiler optimizes away the
if (is_ok((ss-1)->currentMove))
inside loop, so that the result is same
speed as original.
No functional change.
During the search, do not block on condition variable, but instead use std::this_thread::yield().
Clear gain with 16 threads. Again results vary highly depending on hardware, but on average it's a clear gain.
ELO: 12.17 +-4.3 (95%) LOS: 100.0%
Total: 7998 W: 1407 L: 1127 D: 5464
There is no functional change in single thread mode
Resolves#294
Both are the result of a SPSA tuning session with a custom book, 50k iterations each.
After an additional tuning session of the mobility values, tuning the delta values, with following result.
40k games at 9+0.05:
ELO: 4.13 +-2.2 (95%) LOS: 100.0%
Total: 40000 W: 8581 L: 8106 D: 23313
and LTC
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) [0.00,4.00]
Total: 36518 W: 6049 L: 5782 D: 24687
Bench: 8567402
Resolves#284
Fixes reported startup error about missing libwinpthread-1.dll
when the dll is not in the path.
The current -static-xxxx flags, introduced with:
https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/commit/373503f4a9a990054b5
Only take in account standard libraries, but not thread
library.
No functional change.
Resolves#289
Idea and original implementation by Stephane Nicolet
7 threads 15+0.05
ELO: 3.54 +-2.9 (95%) LOS: 99.2%
Total: 17971 W: 2976 L: 2793 D: 12202
There is no functional change in single thread mode
Spend much less time in positions where one move is much better than all other alternatives.
We carry forward pv stability information from the previous search to identify such positions.
It's based on my old InstaMove idea but with two significant improvements.
1) Much better instability detection inside the search itself.
2) When it's time to make a FastMove we no longer make it instantly but still spend at least 10% of normal time verifying it.
Credit to Gull for the inspiration.
BIG thanks to Gary because this would not work without accurate PV!
20K
ELO: 8.22 +-3.0 (95%) LOS: 100.0%
Total: 20000 W: 4203 L: 3730 D: 12067
STC
LLR: 2.96 (-2.94,2.94) [-1.50,4.50]
Total: 23266 W: 4662 L: 4492 D: 14112
LTC
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) [0.00,6.00]
Total: 12470 W: 2091 L: 1931 D: 8448
Resolves#283
Introduce a counter move history table which additionally is indexed by the last move's piece and target square.
For quiet move ordering use now the sum of standard and counter move history table.
STC:
LLR: 2.96 (-2.94,2.94) [-1.50,4.50]
Total: 4747 W: 1005 L: 885 D: 2857
LTC:
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) [0.00,6.00]
Total: 5726 W: 1001 L: 872 D: 3853
Because of reported low NPS on multi core test
STC (7 threads):
ELO: 7.26 +-3.3 (95%) LOS: 100.0%
Total: 14937 W: 2710 L: 2398 D: 9829
Bench: 7725341
Resolves#282
Use Mutex instead.
This is in preparaation for merging with master branch,
where we stilll don't have spinlocks.
Eventually spinlocks will be readded in some future
patch, once c++11 has been merged.
No functional change.
minKingPawnDistance is used only as local variable in one place so we don't need it to be part of "Pawns::Entry" structure.
No functional change.
Resolves#277
This change in the Makefile restores the possibility to compile
Stockfish on Mac OS X 10.9 and 10.10 after the C++11 has been merged.
To use the default (fastest) settings, compile with:
make build ARCH=x86-64-modern
To test the clang settings, compile with
make build ARCH=x86-64-modern COMP=clang
Beware that the clang settings may provide a slightly slower (6%)
executable.
Backported from master.
No functional change
Resolves#275
This change in the Makefile restores the possibility to compile
Stockfish on Mac OS X 10.9 and 10.10 after the C++11 has been merged.
To use the default (fastest) settings, compile with:
make build ARCH=x86-64-modern
To test the clang settings, compile with
make build ARCH=x86-64-modern COMP=clang
Beware that the clang settings may provide a slightly slower (6%)
executable.
No functional change
Resolves#275
