[computer-go] How to improve my minimax speed?

[Andrés Domínguez]

2006/11/19, Mark Boon <tesujisoftware at gmail.com>:
>
> On 17-nov-06, at 07:15, Eduardo Sabbatella wrote:
>
> > Shouldn't base the entire game play on the last move.
> >
> > But looking at the last move could be an excellent
> > search optimisation. Indeed, I think any serious Go
> > program "should" look closer at the last move. ;-)
> >
>
> I think most of you approach the idea of proximity to the last move
> from the wrong angle. The concept to consider is stability of a
> position, not proximity in a spatial sense. Proximity is only a side-
> effect of an unstable situation in that a local answer is needed to
> make the position stable again. Statistically this is often an answer
> near the last move, but often it's also near the last move in the
> sense for example that the move defends a group next to the last move
> that was threatened by it.

I think you are right, but proximity is easy and fast to implement while
stability is very difficult. If a program knows about stability, it understands
Go (life and death, shape, tesuji etc.). I think proximity is a good and
fast heuristic to get candidate moves.

Andrés Domínguez