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Subject: Re: A [pretty easy] test position and my blind program

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 14:56:51 01/20/01

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On January 20, 2001 at 16:54:33, Vincent Diepeveen wrote:

>
>
>On January 19, 2001 at 21:27:52, Uri Blass wrote:
>
>>On January 19, 2001 at 19:44:49, Vincent Diepeveen wrote:
>>
>>>On January 19, 2001 at 17:23:03, Scott Gasch wrote:
>>>
>>>>Hi all,
>>>>
>>>>Here's a pretty simple test position.  This comes from the WAC suite... my
>>>>engine does fairly well on this suite as a whole but seems blind to this
>>>>solution.
>>>>
>>>>[D]8/7p/5k2/5p2/p1p2P2/Pr1pPK2/1P1R3P/8 b - -
>>>>
>>>>The solution is Rxb2 -- black's connected passers are unstoppable after the
>>>>recapture.
>>>>
>>>>My program refuses to find this solution... even at 9 ply it misses it.  The
>>>>strange thing is that from the other side after Rxb2 it sees that white is toast
>>>>very quickly... score dropping to -500 or so after about 1 second.
>>>>
>>>>My question is, of course, how this move is missed.  I've tried kicking up the
>>>>value of connected passers and passed pawns in general.  I've tried adding a
>>>>special rule to eval about connected passers on the 7th, on move, with control
>>>>of a queening square.  I've tried cutting back my futility margin in qsearch and
>>>>always extending a full ply for checks (It usually extends only 3/4 ply for
>>>>checks after the iteration depth).  And still it does not find Rxb2.
>>>>
>>>>Even stranger is if I run a static eval with the two connected passers rolling
>>>>towards the queening square after the rook exchange the eval puts black ahead!
>>>>I can't seem to figure this out... either my pruning is too aggressive or there
>>>>is some other bug in the engine...?
>>>>
>>>>I hope someone out there can give me a little advice.  Thanks!
>>>>
>>>>Scott
>>>
>>>First of all this combination is not 9 ply but something
>>>like 14 ply.
>>
>>The number of plies is dependent on the evaluation function and on the
>>extensions and pruning rules.
>>
>>If the evaluation function knows that the following structure is good for black
>>then you do not need a lot of plies
>>
>>[D]8/8/5k2/8/8/2ppPK2/1R6/8 w - - 0 1
>>
>>The white pawn at e3 is of course important in this structure because it blocks
>>the white king.
>>
>>The program should know that without the white pawn at e3 the structure is good
>>for white.
>>
>>
>> Most programs solve it incorrectly at small depths as
>>>they don't evaluate kings stopping passers or because they just
>>>give huge scores for doubled passers.
>>
>>I think that most programs do not solve it at small depthes.
>>
>>Uri
>
>You are right about the e3 pawn. This is the ONLY reason why
>it wins for black. See the evaluation for many programs of this position
>without the pawn on e3 and you'll see they statically evaluate it as +2.0
>for black or something similar.
>
>+3.0 for each passer, 1 pawn more minus rook is +2.0 to roughly
>do the math.
>
>Of course search depth depends upon what you do in qsearch,
>selective search, whether you extend all checks or not
>and whether you have passed pawn extensions not to mention
>threat extensions.
>
>So nowadays i solve this at i think 10 ply or something because of
>the extensions, but i only solve it tactically; so i see
>that i get a queen with black and not evaluation is solving it.
>
>What i find wrong are programs that solve this position positionally.
>No evaluation takes into account the e3 pawn i'm 100% sure of that.
>I don't do it in DIEP either. Because what if it's on e2 and someone
>attacks e3?
>
>There are zillions of possibilities, but a prog simply shouldn't
>solve this without seeing it the pawns promote to a queen!

You should look at the game last night between crafty and diep before you
say that...  If you wait until you see a promotion, you are going to get
killed.  I'd rather say two connected passers on the 6th win and be right
90% of the time, rather than not saying that and being wrong 90% of the
time.

On the other hand, you are evaluating isolated pawns at a ridiculously high
rate.  I watched a game where you had pawns on the gh files (2) and Crafty
had pawns on the f and h files (3).  You thought you were over a pawn ahead,
and got zapped for thinking that.

I don't think _any_ evaluation is right 100% of the time.  I am pretty
convinced mine is right more often than it is wrong, and getting more accurate
all the time.



>
>Even worse as this is the gs2930 testset, where programs can
>give away pawns for nothing!

I don't give away pawns for _nothing_. :)



>
>Greetings,
>Vincent



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