Maintain best move counter at the root and allow there only moves which has a counter
of zero for Late Move Reduction. For compensation only the first three moves are excluded
from Late Move Reduction per default instead the first four moves.
What we can further do:
- here we use a simple counting scheme but perhaps some aging to fade out early iterations
could be helpful
- use the best move counter also at inner nodes for LMR and/or pruning
STC:
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) [0.50,4.50]
Total: 17414 W: 3984 L: 3733 D: 9697
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5d6234bb0ebc5939d09f2aa2
LTC:
LLR: 2.96 (-2.94,2.94) [0.00,3.50]
Total: 38058 W: 6448 L: 6166 D: 25444
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5d62681a0ebc5939d09f2f27
Closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/2282
Bench: 3568210
Remove one parameter in function evaluate_shelter(), making all
comparisons for castled/uncastled shelter locally in do_king_safety().
Also introduce BlockedStorm penalty.
Passed non-regression test at STC:
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 65864 W: 14630 L: 14596 D: 36638
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5d5fc80c0ebc5939d09f0acc
No functional change
@Vizvezdenec array suggested that alternate values may be better than current
master (see pull request #2270 ). I tuned some linear equations to more closely
represent his values and it passed. These futility values seem quite sensitive,
so perhaps additional Elo improvements can be found here.
STC
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) [0.50,4.50]
Total: 12257 W: 2820 L: 2595 D: 6842
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5d5b2f360ebc5925cf1111ac
LTC
LLR: 2.96 (-2.94,2.94) [0.00,3.50]
Total: 20273 W: 3497 L: 3264 D: 13512
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5d5c0d250ebc5925cf111ac3
Closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/2272
------------------------------------------
How to continue from there ?
a) we can try a simpler version for the futility margin, this would
be a simplification :
margin = 188 * (depth - improving)
b) on the other direction, we can try a complexification by trying
again to gain Elo with an complete array of futility values.
------------------------------------------
Bench: 4330402
Replace calls to count(key) + operator[key] with a single call to find(key).
Replace the std::map with std::unordered_map which provide O(1) access,
although the map has a really small number of objects.
Test with [0..4] failed yellow:
TC 10+0.1
SPRT elo0: 0.00 alpha: 0.05 elo1: 4.00 beta: 0.05
LLR -2.96 [-2.94,2.94] (rejected)
Elo 1.01 [-0.87,3.08] (95%)
LOS 85.3%
Games 71860 [w:22.3%, l:22.2%, d:55.5%]
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5d5432210ebc5925cf109d61
Closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/2269
No functional change
Non functional simplification when we find the passed pawns in pawn.cpp
and some code clean up. It also better follows the pattern "flag the pawn"
and "score the pawn".
-------------------------
The idea behind the third condition for candidate passed pawn is a little
bit difficult to visualize. Just for the record, the idea is the following:
Consider White e5 d4 against black e6. d4 can (in some endgames) push
to d5 and lever e6. Thanks to this sacrifice, or after d5xe6, we consider
e5 as "passed".
However:
- if White e5/d4 against black e6/c6: d4 cannot safely push to d5 since d5 is double attacked;
- if White e5/d4 against black e6/d5: d4 cannot safely push to d5 since it is occupied.
This is exactly what the following expression does:
```
&& (shift<Up>(support) & ~(theirPawns | dblAttackThem)))
```
--------------------------
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5d3325bb0ebc5925cf0e6e91
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 124666 W: 27586 L: 27669 D: 69411
Closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/2255
No functional change
This exploits the recent fractional Skill Level, and is a result from some discussion in #2221 and the older #758.
Basically, if UCI_LimitStrength is set, it will internally convert UCI_Elo to a matching fractional Skill Level.
The Elo estimate is based on games at TC 60+0.6, Hash 64Mb, 8moves_v3.pgn, rated with Ordo, anchored to goldfish1.13 (CCRL 40/4 ~2000).
Note that this is mostly about internal consistency, the anchoring to CCRL is a bit weak, e.g. within this tournament,
goldfish and sungorus only have a 200Elo difference, their rating difference on CCRL is 300Elo.
I propose that we continue to expose 'Skill Level' as an UCI option, for backwards compatibility.
The result of a tournament under those conditions are given by the following table, where the player name reflects the UCI_Elo.
# PLAYER : RATING ERROR POINTS PLAYED (%) CFS(%)
1 Elo2837 : 2792.2 50.8 536.5 711 75 100
2 Elo2745 : 2739.0 49.0 487.5 711 69 100
3 Elo2654 : 2666.4 49.2 418.0 711 59 100
4 Elo2562 : 2604.5 38.5 894.5 1383 65 100
5 Elo2471 : 2515.2 38.1 651.5 924 71 100
6 Elo2380 : 2365.9 35.4 478.5 924 52 100
7 Elo2289 : 2290.0 28.0 864.0 1596 54 100
8 sungorus1.4 : 2204.9 27.8 680.5 1596 43 60
9 Elo2197 : 2201.1 30.1 523.5 924 57 100
10 Elo2106 : 2103.8 24.5 730.5 1428 51 100
11 Elo2014 : 2030.5 30.3 377.5 756 50 98
12 goldfish1.13 : 2000.0 ---- 511.0 1428 36 100
13 Elo1923 : 1928.5 30.9 641.5 1260 51 100
14 Elo1831 : 1829.0 42.1 370.5 756 49 100
15 Elo1740 : 1738.3 42.9 277.5 756 37 100
16 Elo1649 : 1625.0 42.1 525.5 1260 42 100
17 Elo1558 : 1521.5 49.9 298.0 756 39 100
18 Elo1467 : 1471.3 51.3 246.5 756 33 100
19 Elo1375 : 1407.1 51.9 183.0 756 24 ---
It can be observed that all set Elos correspond within the error bars with the observed Ordo rating.
No functional change
This is a functional simplification that removes the std::pow from reduction. The resulting reduction values are within 1% of master.
This is a simplification because i believe an fp addition and multiplication is much faster than a call to std::pow() which is historically slow and performance varies widely on different architectures.
STC
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 23471 W: 5245 L: 5127 D: 13099
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5d27ac1b0ebc5925cf0d476b
LTC
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 51533 W: 8736 L: 8665 D: 34132
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5d27b74e0ebc5925cf0d493c
Bench 3765158
This is another functional simplification to Stockfish passed pawn evaluation.
Stockfish evaluates some pawns which are not yet passed as "candidate" passed pawns, which are given half the bonus of fully passed ones. Prior to this commit, Stockfish considered a passed pawn to be a "candidate" if (a) it would not be a passed pawn if moved one square forward (the blocking square), or (b) there were other pawns (of either color) in front of it on the file. This latter condition used a fairly complicated method, forward_file_bb; here, rather than inspect the entire forward file, we simply re-use the blocking square. As a result, some pawns previously considered "candidates", but which are able to push forward, no longer have their bonus halved.
Simplification tests passed quickly at both STC and LTC. The results from both tests imply that this simplification is, most likely, additionally a small Elo gain, with a LTC likelihood of superiority of 87 percent.
STC:
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 12908 W: 2909 L: 2770 D: 7229
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5d2a1c880ebc5925cf0d9006
LTC:
LLR: 2.96 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 20723 W: 3591 L: 3470 D: 13662
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5d2a21fd0ebc5925cf0d9118
Bench: 3377831
Current master code made sence when we had 2 types of bonuses for protected path to queen. But it was simplified so we have only one bonus now and code was never cleaned.
This non-functional simplification removes useless defendedsquares bitboard and removes one bitboard assignment (defendedSquares &= attackedBy[Us][ALL_PIECES] + defendedSquares & blockSq becomes just attackedBy[Us][ALL_PIECES] & blockSq also we never assign defendedSquares = squaresToQueen because we don't need it).
So should be small non-functional speedup.
Passed simplification SPRT.
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5d2966ef0ebc5925cf0d7659
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 23319 W: 5152 L: 5034 D: 13133
bench 3361902
In Stockfish, both the middlegame and endgame bonus for a passed pawn are calculated as a product of two factors. The first is k, chosen based on the presence of defended and unsafe squares. The second is w, a quadratic function of the pawn's rank. Both are only applied if the pawn's relative rank is at least RANK_4.
It does not appear that the complexity of a quadratic function is necessary for w. Here, we replace it with a simpler linear one, which performs equally at both STC and LTC.
STC:
LLR: 2.96 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 46814 W: 10386 L: 10314 D: 26114
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5d29686e0ebc5925cf0d76a1
LTC:
LLR: 2.96 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 82372 W: 13845 L: 13823 D: 54704
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5d2980650ebc5925cf0d7bfd
Bench: 3328507
We recently added a bonus for double pawn attacks on unsupported enemy pawns,
on June 27. However, it is possible that the unsupported pawn may become a passer
by simply pushing forward out of the double attack. By rewarding double attacks,
we may inadvertently reward the creation of enemy passers, by encouraging both of
our would-be stoppers to attack the enemy pawn even if there is no opposing
friendly pawn on the same file.
Here, we revise this term to exclude passed pawns. In order to simplify the code
with this change included, we non-functionally rewrite Attacked2Unsupported to
be a penalty for enemy attacks on friendly pawns, rather than a bonus for our
attacks on enemy pawns. This allows us to exclude passed pawns with a simple
& ~e->passedPawns[Us], while passedPawns[Them] is not yet defined in this part
of the code.
This dramatically reduces the proportion of positions in which Attacked2Unsupported
is applied, to about a third of the original. To compensate, maintaining the same
average effect across our bench positions, we nearly triple Attacked2Unsupported
from S(0, 20) to S(0, 56). Although this pawn formation is rare, it is worth more
than half a pawn in the endgame!
STC: (stopped automatically by fishtest after 250,000 games)
LLR: -0.87 (-2.94,2.94) [0.50,4.50]
Total: 250000 W: 56585 L: 55383 D: 138032
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5d25795e0ebc5925cf0cfb51
LTC:
LLR: 2.96 (-2.94,2.94) [0.00,3.50]
Total: 81038 W: 13965 L: 13558 D: 53515
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5d25f3920ebc5925cf0d10dd
Closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/2233
Bench: 3765158
PowerPC has had popcount instructions for a long time, at least as far
back as POWER5 (released 2004). Enable them via a gcc builtin.
Using a gcc builtin has the added bonus that if compiled for a processor
that lacks a hardware instruction, gcc will include a software popcount
implementation that does not use the instruction. It might be slower
than the table lookups (or it might be faster) but it will certainly work.
So this isn't going to break anything.
On my POWER8 VM, this leads to a ~4.27% speedup.
Fir prefetch, the gcc builtin generates a 'dcbt' instruction, which is
supported at least as far back as the G5 (2002) and POWER4 (2001).
This leads to a ~5% speedup on my POWER8 VM.
No functional change
The current skill levels (1-20) allow for adjusting playing strengths, but
do so in big steps (e.g. level 10 vs level 11 is a ~143 Elo jump at STC).
Since the 'Skill Level' input can already be a floating point number, this
patch uses the fractional part of the input to provide the user with
fine control, allowing for varying the playing strength essentially
continuously.
The implementation internally still uses integer skill levels (needed since they pick Depths),
but non-deterministically rounds up or down the used skill level such that the average integer
skill corresponds to the input floating point one. As expected, intermediate
(fractional) skill levels yield intermediate playing strenghts.
Tested at STC, playing level 10 against levels between 10 and 11 for 10000 games
level 10.25 ELO: 24.26 +-6.2
level 10.5 ELO: 67.51 +-6.3
level 10.75 ELO: 98.52 +-6.4
level 11 ELO: 143.65 +-6.7
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5cd9c6b40ebc5925cf056791http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5cd9d22b0ebc5925cf056989http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5cd9cf610ebc5925cf056906http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5cd9d2490ebc5925cf05698e
No functional change.
Initialization of larger hash sizes can take some time.
Don't include this time in the bench by resetting the timer after Search::clear().
Also move 'ucinewgame' command down in the list, so that it is processed
after the configuration of Threads and Hash size.
No functional change.
This is a functional change that rewards double attacks on an unsupported pawns.
STC (non-functional difference)
LLR: 2.96 (-2.94,2.94) [0.50,4.50]
Total: 83276 W: 18981 L: 18398 D: 45897
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5d0970500ebc5925cf0a77d4
LTC (incomplete looping version)
LLR: 0.50 (-2.94,2.94) [0.00,3.50]
Total: 82999 W: 14244 L: 13978 D: 54777
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5d0a8d480ebc5925cf0a8d58
LTC (completed non-looping version).
LLR: 2.96 (-2.94,2.94) [0.00,3.50]
Total: 223381 W: 38323 L: 37512 D: 147546
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5d0e80510ebc5925cf0ad320
Closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/2205
Bench 3633546
----------------------------------
Comments by Alain SAVARD:
interesting result ! I would have expected that search would resolve such positions
correctly on the very next move. This is not a very common pattern, and when it happens,
it will quickly disappear. So I'm quite surprised that it passed LTC.
I would be even more surprised if this would resist a simplification.
Anyway, let's try to imagine a few cases.
a) If you have White d5 f5 against Black e6, and White to move
last move by Black was probably a capture on e6 and White is about to recapture on e6
b) If you have White d5 f5 against e6, and Black to move
last move by White was possibly a capture on d5 or f5
or the pawn on e6 was pinned or could not move for some reason.
and white wants to blast open the position and just pushed d4-d5 or f4-f5
Some possible follow-ups
a) Motif is so rare that the popcount() can be safely replaced with a bool()
But this would not pass a SPRT[0,4],
So try a simplification with bool() and also without the & ~theirAttacks
b) If it works, we probably can simply have this in the loop
if (lever) score += S(0, 20);
c) remove all this and tweak something in search for pawn captures (priority, SEE, extension,..)
-removes wideUnsafeSquares bitboard
-removes a couple of bitboard operations
-removes one if operator
-updates comments so they actually represent what this part of code is doing now.
passed non-regression STC
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5d0c1ae50ebc5925cf0aa8db
LLR: 2.96 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 16892 W: 3865 L: 3733 D: 9294
No functional change
Use comparison of eval with beta to predict potential cutNodes. This
allows multi-cut pruning to also prune possibly mislabeled Pv and NonPv
nodes.
STC:
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) [0.50,4.50]
Total: 54305 W: 12302 L: 11867 D: 30136
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5d048ba50ebc5925cf0a15e8
LTC:
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) [0.00,3.50]
Total: 189512 W: 32620 L: 31904 D: 124988
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5d04bf740ebc5925cf0a17f0
Normally I would think such changes are risky, specially for PvNodes,
but after trying a few other versions, it seems this version is more
sound than I initially thought.
Aside from this, a small funtional change is made to return
singularBeta instead of beta to be more consistent with the fail-soft
logic used in other parts of search.
=============================
How to continue from there ?
We could try to audit other parts of the search where the "cutNode"
variable is used, and try to use dynamic info based on heuristic
eval rather than on this variable, to check if the idea behind this
patch could also be applied successfuly.
Bench: 3503788
Fixes issues #2126 and #2189 where no progress in rootDepth is made for particular fens:
8/8/3P3k/8/1p6/8/1P6/1K3n2 b - - 0 1
8/1r1rp1k1/1b1pPp2/2pP1Pp1/1pP3Pp/pP5P/P5K1/8 w - - 79 46
the cause are the shuffle extensions. Upon closer analysis, it appears that in these cases a shuffle extension is made for every node searched, and progess can not be made. This patch implements a fix, namely to limit the number of extensions relative to the number of nodes searched. The ratio employed is 1/4, which fixes the issues seen so far, but it is a heuristic, and I expect that certain positions might require an even smaller fraction.
The patch was tested as a bug fix and passed:
STC:
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 56601 W: 12633 L: 12581 D: 31387
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5d02b37a0ebc5925cf09f6da
LTC:
LLR: 2.96 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 52042 W: 8907 L: 8837 D: 34298
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5d0319420ebc5925cf09fe57
Furthermore, to confirm that the shuffle extension in this form indeed still brings Elo, one more test at VLTC was performed:
VLTC:
LLR: 2.96 (-2.94,2.94) [0.00,3.50]
Total: 142022 W: 20963 L: 20435 D: 100624
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5d03630d0ebc5925cf0a011a
Bench: 3961247
