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Subject: Re: Crafty evals

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 06:57:10 09/22/01

Go up one level in this thread


On September 22, 2001 at 01:39:15, Miguel A. Ballicora wrote:

>On September 22, 2001 at 00:52:06, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>
>>On September 22, 2001 at 00:43:03, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>
>>>On September 21, 2001 at 23:45:54, Miguel A. Ballicora wrote:
>>>
>>>>On September 21, 2001 at 23:01:29, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On September 21, 2001 at 17:01:35, Miguel A. Ballicora wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>On September 21, 2001 at 16:45:44, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>On September 21, 2001 at 16:27:01, Gian-Carlo Pascutto wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>On September 21, 2001 at 14:57:20, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>I don't mind that kind of mis-evaluation so much.  If anybody wins, white
>>>>>>>>>wins.  What I would not like is to see that kind of evaluation and then lose
>>>>>>>>>the game...
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>The problem is when crafty prefers the 1.8 from this ending over the 1.7 from
>>>>>>>>another ending that _is_ won for white.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>That'll cost you half a point.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>--
>>>>>>>>GCP
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>I don't disagree.  But it is just as important to not lose when you can win
>>>>>>>or draw.  The not drawing when you can win is another level of tuning.  I need
>>>>>>>to study the ending because a pawn on the a and c file becomes very hard for
>>>>>>>a lone king to stop...  it might have simply made a mistake and drawn a won
>>>>>>>position in this case..  I didn't look at it very carefully (yet).
>>>>>>
>>>>>>It looks drawn. As you already know, the advantage of the outside passer is that
>>>>>>you can sacrifice it and the king can go and eat up the opponent pawns on the
>>>>>>other side. In this case it is impossible (that's the problem here). For
>>>>>>instance, place the pawns in g6,h5,g4. How can the white king capture them? it
>>>>>>can't because as soon as you capture g6 black plays h4 and promotes. On the
>>>>>>other hand, two passers cannot beat a king on the Q side, they need the help of
>>>>>>the wKing. however, the wK cannot go to the Q side because black promotes.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Regards,
>>>>>>Miguel
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>I don't believe it is quite that simple.  If the pawns are zugged on the
>>>>>kingside, the two passers on the queenside can easily win.  This is the
>>>>>attraction of "wild 7" on ICC, which is what the "mini game" is all about.
>>>>
>>>>I am not sure what you mean by zugged pawns. Anyway, white cannot capture the
>>>>pawns in any case, so how can white win? two passers, if they are not separated
>>>>enough, cannot win without king support.
>>>>The only chance is a race, when white king rush to the Q side to support them
>>>>letting a black pawn to promote.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>In this zug-less position (at present) things aren't so clear, of course,
>>>>>but
>>>>>put the black pawns at g5 and h6 and the white pawn at g4, and this turns
>>>>>into a simple white win...
>>>>
>>>>Black plays h5 and it is a draw. I think I did not understand.
>>>>
>>>>Regards,
>>>>Miguel
>>>
>>>
>>>You are assuming that a KQ vs KQPP is a draw?  IE after h5, I play gxh5 and I
>>>promote first.
>
>But I play g6xh5 first and you don't promote ;-)
>I think we are talking about different things. You are setting a position
>with only h6 and g5? then I have pawn less and has little to do with the game
>itself.
>


OK... let's back up a bit.

I have an a and c pawn, and a pawn at g5.  You have pawns at g6/h7.  That is
the position in the game under discussion.  Crafty was up a pawn, and had an
eval of +2.something, although the game was later drawn.

I am going to use my king to advance my a/c pawns.  If you leave that
area, I will promote easily.  If you play h6, I am going to play gh and
promote on the h file if your king isn't close enough, or on the a file if
you try to stop the h pawn.

That was the reason for setting up the kingside pawns so that you don't have
any moves over there.  With my queen-side pawns at (say) c4/a4 I don't see how
your king is going to stop them.  Wheneven you approach one, the other advances.
If you "wait" I wait also by advancing my king.

This was why I said it doesn't seem so easy to try to statically evaluate
this, although I think I have some ideas of how to do this a bit more
accurately by fixing what looks like a bug.





>>>
>>>To understand the rp and bp vs a lone king, requires a bit of thought.  But
>>>once you understand that this is all about zugzwang, you realize that if the
>>>tempo is mine, and you have _no_ move to make but king moves, you can't stop
>>>the two pawns.  Just visualize the two pawns side by side at a4/c4, with your
>>>king at b6.  It is your move and you have to stop the two pawns.  If you play
>>>Kc5, I play a5 and you can't take the c pawn.  If you play Ka5, I play c5 and
>>>you can't take the a pawn.  So you retreat, I advance, and we reach this
>>>position one rank further up.  It's a cute position that once caused a lot
>>>of interest on ICC until most everyone figured out how to win (white starts
>>>off with pawns at a2/b2/c2, king at d1.  Black has pawns at h7/g7/f7, king
>>>at e8.  White moves and wins every time if he plays right.  One wrong move
>>>
>>
>>Part of the above is right.  Part is wrong.  Too late at night to correct it
>>now...  Depends on how far the pawns are advanced...
>
>Of course, but it is not the case of this game!
>Ok it is late for me too, I better go to sleep...
>
>Miguel
>
>>
>>Bob
>>
>>
>>
>>and black draws or wins.
>>>
>>>So calling this a draw or a win or a loss is not so easy for a static eval.
>>>If black has one "passing" move (wild 7 has white playing a4/c5/a5/c5 until
>>>the black king stops the pawns, then using the b pawn to gain the necessary
>>>tempo to win the game) then this doesn't work.  In the position I started with
>>>above, if white has to move, either pawn move loses, as black can then capture
>>>that pawn and catch the other before it can promote...
>>>
>>>That's why I said this was a hard one to evaluate without a lot of searching
>>>or specific pattern analysis.  I don't want to include the specific knowledge
>>>for the above analysis in Crafty as it would be slower, and it would hardly
>>>ever be used...
>>>
>>>But I do plan to look at the position and see if the eval can be tweaked some
>>>as it _does_ know that black has a majority.  I am probably incorrectly giving
>>>credit to white for two "distant passers" when there is really only one.  And
>>>black has a distant passer himself that it does know about...



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