Author: Roberto Waldteufel
Date: 16:51:35 05/24/00
I have noticed a weakness in my program in situations where there are advanced passed pawns, but often the promotion is not seen before it is already too late to stop, or else can only be stopped by sacrifice of material. Usually the program has missed a chance to stop the pawn much more cheaply, being distracted by some small material gain on the other side of the board, or else pushing the promotion beyond the search horizon by means of a series of checks from which the oponent can ultimately escape safely. Does anyone extend their searches for passed pawn pushes? If so, how is the extension triggered - does it depend on the rank of the pawn, the king position, and/or the currant remaining search depth? At present I consider pawn promotions in the qsearch (depth<=0) and I extend 1 ply for pawn pushes to the seventh rank at frontier nodes (depth=1), so the oponent cannot stand pat without giving the pawn a chance to promote, but I do no other pawn-triggered extensions at all. I think that pushes to the sixth rank probably should be extended as well, but to ensure that promotion occurs before standing pat this would need a lot of extra full-width plies. Any suggestions? Best wishes, Roberto
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