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Subject: Re: Testposition King Safety ( or maybe something else)

Author: Miguel A. Ballicora

Date: 13:08:32 08/28/01

Go up one level in this thread


On August 28, 2001 at 15:34:30, Peter Berger wrote:

>On August 28, 2001 at 11:58:02, Dieter Buerssner wrote:
>
>>
>>However, I don't totally agree, that this is a King safety problem. For many
>>depths, Kd6 and Ke8 have almost the same score (or have the same score). Sure,
>>fiddling a little bit at KS-values will make Yace "find" the correct move
>>muchearlier. I actually lowered some time ago some "K-advance-penalty". But I
>>had the feeling, that this makes Yace weaker after some time, so I put back the
>>old values.
>>
>>Also, this position may be a bit unusual, and not fitting some heuristics used
>>in many chess programs. Usually programs come out of book, in castled position,
>>or with a closed center. Neither is the case here.
>>
>>BTW. An material only eval, never switches away from Kd6.
>
>I agree and never said anything else. You won't want your engine to play Ke8
>here though and lose in about 5 moves if it can be avoided - it definitely is a
>king safety problem ( why else would the engine prefer Ke8 anyway ? ) It is an
>exception of the usual rule - and it obviously can happen in a game ( as it did
>) . Maybe it isn't important as it doesn't happen often.

I tried this with Gaviota because it has almost no king safety evaluation terms,
so it has a big penalty for going to the center when there is a lot
of pieces around. That kills it (yes, I know, my poor engine sucks).
It takes 229 seconds (PIII 700mhz) to fail low and then 10 times more to find
Kd6! I think this is a good test position to make sure that penalties do not get
too big, or at least are balanced with other terms. I haven't worked on that
yet.
It finds rather easily f3 and g3 though...

I have the strange feeling that move ordering could be critical in this
position. What happen if we mirror the position?

+-----------------+
| . . . . . . . r |
| Q . . k . x x x |
| . . b . x . . . |
| . . . . . . . . |
| . . . . . . q . |
| . . B . . . . . |
| . . . . . o o o |
| . . R . . . K . |
+-----------------+

   5:      0.1    -0.52  Kd7-e8    f2-f3   Qg4-f4   Rc1-c2   Ke8-f8   Bc3xg7
                         Kf8xg7   Rc2xc6
   6       0.2      :-(  Kd7-e8
   6       0.3      :-(
   6       0.4    -1.60  Kd7-c8    f2-f3   Qg4-g5   Bc3-b2   Qg5-b5   Bb2xg7
   6       0.6    -0.93  Kd7-e8    f2-f3   Qg4-g5   Bc3-b2   Bc6-d7   Rc1-d1
   6:      0.6    -0.93  Kd7-e8    f2-f3   Qg4-g5   Bc3-b2   Bc6-d7   Rc1-d1
   7       1.0      :-)  Kd7-e8
   7       1.1    +0.00  Kd7-e8    f2-f3   Bc6xf3   Qa7-b8   Ke8-e7   Qb8-c7
                         Ke7-e8   Qc7-c8   Ke8-e7   Qc8-c7
   7:      1.3    +0.00  Kd7-e8    f2-f3   Bc6xf3   Qa7-b8   Ke8-e7   Qb8-c7
                         Ke7-e8   Qc7-c8   Ke8-e7   Qc8-c7
   8       3.7    -0.10  Kd7-e8    f2-f3   Bc6xf3    g2-g3   Qg4-g5   Rc1-f1
                         Bf3-h5   Rf1-f4
   8:      3.9    -0.10  Kd7-e8    f2-f3   Bc6xf3    g2-g3   Qg4-g5   Rc1-f1
                         Bf3-h5   Rf1-f4
   9       8.0    -0.38  Kd7-e8    f2-f3   Bc6xf3    g2-g3   Qg4-g5   Rc1-f1
                         Bf3-e2   Qa7xf7   Ke8-d8   Rf1-f4   Qg5-e7   Qf7xg7
                         Qe7xg7   Bc3xg7
   9:      8.5    -0.38  Kd7-e8    f2-f3   Bc6xf3    g2-g3   Qg4-g5   Rc1-f1
                         Bf3-e2   Qa7xf7   Ke8-d8   Rf1-f4   Qg5-e7   Qf7xg7
                         Qe7xg7   Bc3xg7
  10       9.8      :-(  Kd7-e8
  10      24.3      :-(
  10     152.7    -1.73  Kd7-d6    f2-f3   Bc6xf3   Rc1-c2   Bf3xg2   Qa7-a3
                         Kd6-d7   Rc2xg2   Qg4-d1   Kg1-f2   Qd1-d6   Qa3-a4
                         Qd6-c6
  10     164.7    -1.27  Kd7-e8    f2-f3   Bc6xf3    g2-g3   Qg4-h3   Qa7-f2
                         Qh3-g4   Rc1-f1   Ke8-d7   Qf2xf3   Qg4xf3   Rf1xf3
  10:    166.1    -1.27  Kd7-e8    f2-f3   Bc6xf3    g2-g3   Qg4-h3   Qa7-f2
                         Qh3-g4   Rc1-f1   Ke8-d7   Qf2xf3   Qg4xf3   Rf1xf3
  11     202.7    -1.05  Kd7-e8    f2-f3   Bc6xf3    g2-g3   Qg4-h3   Qa7-f2
                         Bf3-c6   Bc3-b2   Bc6-b7   Bb2xg7   Rh8-g8
  11:    211.4    -1.05  Kd7-e8    f2-f3   Bc6xf3    g2-g3   Qg4-h3   Qa7-f2
                         Bf3-c6   Bc3-b2   Bc6-b7   Bb2xg7   Rh8-g8
  12     229.7      :-(  Kd7-e8
  12    2143.2    -1.42  Kd7-d6    f2-f3   Bc6xf3   Rc1-c2   Bf3xg2   Qa7-a3
                         Kd6-d7   Rc2xg2   Qg4-d1   Kg1-f2   Qd1-c2   Kf2-f1
                         Qc2-d3   Kf1-e1   Qd3-e4   Rg2-e2   Rh8-a8
  12:   2157.7    -1.42  Kd7-d6    f2-f3   Bc6xf3   Rc1-c2   Bf3xg2   Qa7-a3
                         Kd6-d7   Rc2xg2   Qg4-d1   Kg1-f2   Qd1-c2   Kf2-f1
                         Qc2-d3   Kf1-e1   Qd3-e4   Rg2-e2   Rh8-a8

Regards,
Miguel


>>I think, this position tests more the search of the engine. When Yace sees the
>>problem, it gets a fail low to a score < -3. I wondered, why this is seen so
>>late.
>>
>
>Yes, again agreed . Look at Andrew William's confirmation for PM - it seems the
>same happens to Yace here.
>
>
>>First of all, after 1...Ke8, 2.f3 must be found. To see, that f3 is really good,
>>probably (after 2...Bxf3, which is no problem of course), 3. g3 must be found.
>>All those moves (and more in the mainline) don't trigger any extensions in Yace.
>>OTOH in other lines many extensions are triggered (and are mainly useless). So
>>the search depth increases too slowly, and Yace needs too much time.
>>
>>I think, perhaps finding f3 after Ke8 would be another good test position.
>
>f3 with a good line and eval seems to be hard indeed for some of the engines
>that won't find Kd6 .
>
>>
>>And - Yace thinks even after Kd6, it will be difficult to hold the game.
>>After I have analyzed some lines, and gone back (what you called "cheating" :-)
>>I get the following after Kd6:
>>
>>  16702914  1:27.8   1.55 10t  2.f3 Bxf3 3.Rc2 Bxg2 4.Be1H Be4+H 5.Bg3+H
>>                               Qxg3+H 6.hxg3H Bxc2H 7.Qd4+H Ke7H 8.Qc5+H Kf6H
>>                               9.Qxc2H h5H 10.Qd1H g5H 11.Kf2H Rh7H 12.Qd8+H
>>                               Kg6H 13.Qd3+H Kg7H 14.Qd4+H {HT} {261}
>>  29572054  2:33.8   1.55 10.  2.f3 Bxf3 3.Rc2 Bxg2 4.Be1 Be4+ 5.Bg3+ Qxg3+
>>                               6.hxg3 Bxc2 7.Qd4+ Ke7 8.Qc5+ Kf6 9.Qxc2 h5
>>                               10.Qd1 g5 11.Kf2 Rh7 12.Qd8+ Kg6 13.Qd3+ Kg7
>>                               14.Qd4+ {HT} {261}
>
>I don't get your point here. I agree to your analysis but this is a line where
>black is alive and fighting still although its position isn't nice. Ke8 ?? is
>dead though.
>
>pete
>>
>>Regards,
>>Dieter



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