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Subject: Re: Piece Values in Chess Programs (Larry Kaufman)

Author: David Blackman

Date: 03:46:42 05/07/01

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On May 06, 2001 at 21:43:37, Robert Hyatt wrote:

>On May 06, 2001 at 08:35:07, Vincent Diepeveen wrote:
>
>>On May 05, 2001 at 12:01:08, Dana Turnmire wrote:
>>
>>>  Here is an interesting article found in a 1989 CCR article.
>>
>>Exactly the biggest misunderstanding in chessbooks is that 2 rooks
>>are stronger as a queen. Even in most endgames a queen wins easily
>>against 2 rooks.
>
>I wouldn't say in "most".  I would say in "some".  Two rooks can box up
>a queen and make it impossible to win since the queen can't overpower the
>two rooks without the help of the king...

If it's just 2 rooks and some pawns against 1 queen and some pawns, i'd back the
rooks usually to win. As long as there are not too many loose pawns, and the
king safety is reasonable, the rooks can often win even when one pawn down. I
used to think that the queen would beat or draw with the 2 rooks in an endgame,
but now i've played a few of those endgames and seen a small amount of GM
analysis, i've changed my mind.

If there are more pieces on the board as well, it really depends on exactly what
pieces, and on the kind of position. Knights seem to work very well with queens,
and sometimes very well against rooks. Queens have much better mobility than
rooks in many common positions, and can use this if there are several targets to
attack and defend. But if the whole position is about controlling an open or
half-open file and then using it, the rooks should win.

I quite like the 1,4,4,6,12 basic piece values and i find they work well. They
seem to get the right answer slightly more often than 1,3,3,5,9. In the case of
queen vs 2 rooks, i think 1,3,3,5,9 is closer to the truth, but in most other
cases 1,4,4,6,12 gets the same answer or is better. But either way can be made
to work. You just need to get the right positional factors in there, and make
sure they can add up to more than a pawn when they have to.



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