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Subject: Re: extensions

Author: Don Dailey

Date: 14:58:58 12/24/97

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>I would amend the above to say "most pushes of passed pawns, *until you
>reach the endgame* are blunders."  If you don't extend once material
>gets
>low, you can fall for lots of passed pawn tactics...  and if you do it
>carefully, it doesn't have to be expensive.  IE only extend safe passed
>pawn pushes (as verified by the SEE routine)...  only extend when the
>opponent
>has few pieces left...  and so forth...

Hi Bob,

I still believe MOST passed pawn pushes, even in the endgame are
blunders.  But I do not necessarily mean they are immediately subject
to capture in which case I think I agree with you.  The way I'm thinking
about it is simply from it's game theoretic value.  In almost all
endings
involving pawns, the pawn  is gradually nursed to the queening square
after lots of fits and starts and subtle maneuverings.  In general it
has to be timed perfectly and most of the possible pawns pushes will
spoil the win.

But as I said before, this may not be the point.  Maybe the extension
will help us see that the pawn push spoils the win?  To me this is
just as important as seeing that it wins.

I am interested in your SEE routine.  Can you elaborate on it?
From the context of your statement I'm guessing that it looks to
see if the sqaure the pawn wants to move to is safe from capture.
Is this what it does?

I would like to do more passed pawn extensions in Cilkchess if
I can figure out the right way to do them.  It sounds like you have
figured out how to do it farily  well in Crafty.


- Don



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