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Subject: Re: Pawn Majorities - an alternative (?)

Author: Will Singleton

Date: 19:31:57 09/17/99

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On September 17, 1999 at 12:33:46, KarinsDad wrote:

>Robert,
>
>A very difficult problem to resolve.
>
>Maybe the best solution is to not resolve it heavily at all (i.e. only resolve
>it to the level you already have or maybe slightly moreso).
>
>In my program, I am attempting to make positional moves over tactical moves.
>
>So, I have multiple tactically sound PVs which I decide between. One of the
>criteria that can be used to decide between them is to determine pawn structure
>at the leaves of each "PV". If you had 30 different pawn structure "ideas" in a
>database (or hardcoded), you could have a preset evaluation for each of these
>structures (i.e. 3 white queenside pawns vs. 2 black queenside pawns where the
>black pawns are doubled is one pawn structure "idea").
>
>You could then use this "evaluation" to positively or negatively affect the
>decision on which PV to choose (or at least I can do this in my code, you would
>have to change Crafty drastically to implement this type of model).
>
>Hence, if I have 5 PV scores all within 1/8th pawn of each other, I could pick
>one which SHOULD result in a favorable pawn structure within the next 16 ply as
>opposed to one which might not.
>
>And, the other advantage of this model is that most of this pawn evaluation
>"stuff" is handled just a few times for each "PV" just before deciding on a move
>as opposed to within the evaluation code for every node that gets evaluated.
>Hence, it could be relatively sophisticated (i.e. it could even take into
>account things such as how advanced the pawns are) and still not take a lot of
>time.
>
>So, the basic idea is to avoid queenside majorities and other endgame weaknesses
>if possible much earlier in the game. If I have two PVs of similar score, one
>which should result in a queenside majority for my opponent and one which should
>not, I pick the one which should not in order to avoid the potential weakness on
>move 13 as opposed to attempting to evaluate it at move 45. Of course, this type
>of solution will not work in all positions, but it should emulate better human
>strategic play as opposed to purely tactical play (i.e. attempt to avoid the
>pitfalls and cliffs before the position starts heading towards them). Part of
>the "plan" is to give the program's side the best pawn structure it can way
>before getting to the endgame.
>
>Just an alternative idea.
>
>KarinsDad :)

So, as I understand it, you are suggesting that the time it takes to generate 2
complete pv's (or more) is less than incorporating a pawn structure eval in a
normal (single pv) eval.

It would seem to me that in order to get 2 good pv's to the same depth would
require twice the time as one pv.  Of course, I'm on my second vodka & tonic, so
maybe I'm missing something.

Will



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