Author: Ulrich Tuerke
Date: 09:09:24 02/25/98
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On February 25, 1998 at 11:29:06, Don Dailey wrote: >>I have wondered why programs evaluations are measured in pawns intead of >>probablilities of winning. Has no one done this? Has anyone ever taken >>the evaluations in Informant as probabilities of winning and regressed >>them against explanatory variables such as material, space, etc. to fit >>this function. >> >>George Essig > >I'm actually working on this! This is how I think of >evaluation and it would be natural to convert the program >to this system. However I'm not sure it's any more useful >than simply finding the right function to convert a score >to a probability. But most of it's usefulnes is just >thinking in these terms (whether you actually implement >it or not.) For instance, I believe having an advanced >passed pawn should not affect your probability of winning >too much if you are already a piece up, but should have >more impact on the score if you are down a piece. A simple >linear bonus for this passed pawn might not be quite right. > >In general, I believe many positional terms should change >in value when material is not close to zero. Another way >of viewing this is to say "don't be as eager to hunt pawns >if you are already have extra material." It's the same >concept. IMHO, this is a very interesting idea. However, I am afraid that a reasonable implementation of such behaviour is very tricky. So, as as consequence a program having large material advantage would be inclined to give back material for - may be temporary - positional advantage. I think that the program shouldn't try to further increase its material advantage on cost of large positional decreases, but on the other hand, material should not be given away unforced. If you succeed and it works fine, then the playing style of the program will become far more human-like and aesthetically. Good success, Uli > > >- Don
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