Probcut is a heuristic that wasn't changed a lot in past years,
all attempts to change it using information / writing info to transposition table failed.
This patch has a number of differences that can be summarized as follows:
* For TT write/read we use depth - 3. Because probcut search is depth - 4 but we actually do the move prior to it so effectively we do depth - 3 search;
* In any case of depth of eval from transposition table being >= depth - 3 we either produce cutoff or refuse to even do probcut search, this is allowing us to write info of probcut to transposition table because we know that we wouldn't be overwriting some deeper data with our depth - 3 search - this is an important aspect of this patch;
* For some not really known reason this patch completely ignores tte->bound() - which was the case for previous patch that made probcut interact with TT, maybe 2) is the reason, although it's unproven.
A first version of this patch passed STC and LTC
passed STC
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5f05908a59f6f03532894613
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) {-0.50,1.50}
Total: 95776 W: 18300 L: 17973 D: 59503
Ptnml(0-2): 1646, 10944, 22377, 11279, 1642
passed LTC
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5f06b54059f6f035328946bb
LLR: 2.94 (-2.94,2.94) {0.25,1.75}
Total: 57128 W: 7266 L: 6938 D: 42924
Ptnml(0-2): 372, 5163, 17217, 5389, 423
However, an additional bugfix was needed to avoid checking a condition on ttMove if was not available. This passed non-regression bounds on top of the first version:
at STC
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5f080e5059f6f03532894766
LLR: 2.94 (-2.94,2.94) {-1.50,0.50}
Total: 14096 W: 2800 L: 2628 D: 8668
Ptnml(0-2): 225, 1620, 3238, 1688, 277
at LTC
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5f0836a559f6f0353289479c
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) {-1.50,0.50}
Total: 25352 W: 3228 L: 3139 D: 18985
Ptnml(0-2): 175, 2350, 7549, 2415, 187
closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/2804
Bench 4540940
A number of engines, GUIs and tournaments start to report WDL estimates
along or instead of scores. This patch enables reporting of those stats
in a more or less standard way (http://www.talkchess.com/forum3/viewtopic.php?t=72140)
The model this reporting uses is based on data derived from a few million fishtest LTC games,
given a score and a game ply, a win rate is provided that matches rather closely,
especially in the intermediate range [0.05, 0.95] that data. Some data is shown at
https://github.com/glinscott/fishtest/wiki/UsefulData#win-loss-draw-statistics-of-ltc-games-on-fishtest
Making the conversion game ply dependent is important for a good fit, and is in line
with experience that a +1 score in the early midgame is more likely a win than in the late endgame.
Even when enabled, the printing of the info causes no significant overhead.
Passed STC:
LLR: 2.94 (-2.94,2.94) {-1.50,0.50}
Total: 197112 W: 37226 L: 37347 D: 122539
Ptnml(0-2): 2591, 21025, 51464, 20866, 2610
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5ef79ef4f993893290cc146b
closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/2778
No functional change
The idea of this patch is that if capture can be described as
"less valuable piece takes more valuable piece" it's not really correct
to add only piece value of captured piece to static evaluation
since there can be more threats in other places and opponent can't really
do much but recapture our capturing piece which leaves us space for
more captures thus winning more material and increasing static eval.
passed STC
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5ef0167b122d6514328d760f
LLR: 2.96 (-2.94,2.94) {-0.50,1.50}
Total: 24736 W: 4838 L: 4607 D: 15291
Ptnml(0-2): 438, 2812, 5648, 3021, 449
passed LTC
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5ef073bc122d6514328d7693
LLR: 2.93 (-2.94,2.94) {0.25,1.75}
Total: 46152 W: 5865 L: 5567 D: 34720
Ptnml(0-2): 312, 4160, 13886, 4354, 364
closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/2761
bench 4789930
Tuned search constants after many search patches since the last
successful tune.
1st LTC @ 60+0.6 th 1 :
LLR: 2.97 (-2.94,2.94) {0.25,1.75}
Total: 57656 W: 7369 L: 7036 D: 43251
Ptnml(0-2): 393, 5214, 17336, 5437, 448
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5ee1e074f29b40b0fc95af19
SMP LTC @ 20+0.2 th 8 :
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) {0.25,1.75}
Total: 83576 W: 9731 L: 9341 D: 64504
Ptnml(0-2): 464, 7062, 26369, 7406, 487
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5ee35a21f29b40b0fc95b008
The changes were rebased on top of a successful patch by Viz (see #2734)
and two different ways of doing this were tested. The successful test
modified the constants in the patch by Viz in a similar manner to the
tuning run:
LTC (rebased) @ 60+0.6 th 1 :
LLR: 2.94 (-2.94,2.94) {0.25,1.75}
Total: 193384 W: 24241 L: 23521 D: 145622
Ptnml(0-2): 1309, 17497, 58472, 17993, 1421
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5ee43319ca6c451633a995f9
Further work: the recent patch to quantize eval #2733 affects search quit
quite a bit, so doing another tune in, say, three months time might be a
good idea.
closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/2735
Bench 4246971
This patch increases number of nodes where we produce multicut cutoffs.
The idea is that if our ttMove failed to produce a singular extension
but ttValue is greater than beta we can afford to do one more reduced search
near beta excluding ttMove to see if it will produce a fail high -
and if it does so produce muticut by analogy to existing logic.
passed STC
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5e9a162b5b664cdba0ce6e28
LLR: 2.94 (-2.94,2.94) {-0.50,1.50}
Total: 58238 W: 11192 L: 10917 D: 36129
Ptnml(0-2): 1007, 6704, 13442, 6939, 1027
passed LTC
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5e9a1e845b664cdba0ce7411
LLR: 2.94 (-2.94,2.94) {0.25,1.75}
Total: 137852 W: 17460 L: 16899 D: 103493
Ptnml(0-2): 916, 12610, 41383, 13031, 986
closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/2640
bench 4881443
This idea is loosely based on xoroshiro idea about raisedBeta and ttmoves.
If our ttmove have low enough ttvalue and is deep enough (deeper than our probcut depth) it makes little sense to try probcut moves, since the ttMove already more or less failed to produce one according to transposition table.
passed STC
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5e9673ddc2718dee3c822920
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) {-0.50,1.50}
Total: 72148 W: 14038 L: 13741 D: 44369
Ptnml(0-2): 1274, 8326, 16615, 8547, 1312
passed LTC
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5e96b378c2718dee3c8229bf
LLR: 2.94 (-2.94,2.94) {0.25,1.75}
Total: 89054 W: 11418 L: 10996 D: 66640
Ptnml(0-2): 623, 8113, 26643, 8515, 633
closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/2632
bench 4952731
The idea behind this patch is that if static eval is really bad so capturing of current piece on spot will still produce a position with an eval much lower than alpha then our best chance is to create some kind of king attack. So captures without check are mostly worse than captures with check and can be reduced more.
passed STC
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5e8514b44411759d9d098543
LLR: 2.94 (-2.94,2.94) {-0.50,1.50}
Total: 46196 W: 9039 L: 8781 D: 28376
Ptnml(0-2): 750, 5412, 10628, 5446, 862
passed LTC
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5e8530134411759d9d09854c
LLR: 2.94 (-2.94,2.94) {0.25,1.75}
Total: 23462 W: 3228 L: 2988 D: 17246
Ptnml(0-2): 186, 2125, 6849, 2405, 166
close https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/2612
bench 4742598