[computer-go] Allocating remaining time

[Peter Drake]

How much time should a program spend on each move?

If my program has t milliseconds left to use in a game, and there are  
an estimated m moves left on the board (e.g., this many vacant  
spaces), one reasonable choice is t / m.

In practice, this seems to spend too much time on early moves, which  
(under UCT/MC) is largely wasted time. Would it be better to use  
something like t / m**k, for some constant k? (Looking at graphs of  
such functions, k = 1.5 seems reasonable.)

It would also be interesting to look at the graphs of how much time  
humans spend on each move; is it usually less for the opening moves  
than for middle / endgame moves? Is there a smooth curve, or is there  
a relatively abrupt shift from joseki to analysis?

Peter Drake
Assistant Professor of Computer Science
Lewis & Clark College
http://www.lclark.edu/~drake/