Author: Andrew Williams
Date: 06:42:01 01/30/03
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On January 30, 2003 at 09:12:59, Joel wrote: >My understanding of a SEE was that it basically returned a number, comparable to >what a quiescent search is meant to do if it only searches captures? > The SEE concentrates on moves to ONE SQUARE. You are asking the question: (1) "What happens if White (or Black) initiates a series of captures on this square?" To be more precise, since you're interested in a particular move, you are usually asking: (2) "What happens if I initiate a series of captures on this square, starting with move M?" To illustrate why SEE is better than MVV/LVA, suppose you have a position where White attacks two of black's minor pieces (worth 300 points each). In each case, White has one attacker on the piece. One of these pieces is attacked by a Rook and is not defended. The other is attacked by a Pawn but is defended. SEE will tell you that the rook capture is better, because it will calculate a material gain of 300 points versus a material gain of 200 points. MVV/LVA will tell you that the Pawn capture is better, because the score will be (300-1) versus (300-5) for the Rook capture. The difference is that if the rook capture would give you a beta cutoff and the pawn capture wouldn't, you'll do a lot of unnecessary work by searching them in the wrong order Of course, there could be some complicated series of moves which means that the Pawn capture *is* better; for example, it could cause a discovered check, which means that it might escape being captured and even threaten to promote etc. But neither MVV/LVA nor SEE will help you to identify that. Regards Andrew
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