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Subject: Re: Rebel 10 -Anand, last game

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 12:17:03 07/23/98

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On July 23, 1998 at 13:48:10, Bruce Moreland wrote:

>
>On July 23, 1998 at 12:58:20, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>
>>The major move that Crafty didn't like was the Qh5+ move which traded the knight
>>on h8 for black's remaining two pawns.  Crafty has specific eval code that says
>>if it is down a piece, even with three pawns for it, it isn't going to be happy
>>unless all the pieces are gone except for that one extra piece for the opponent.
>
>Black got two pieces for a rook and three pawns.  You consider this being down a
>piece?
>
>bruce

I don't count the pawns in this piece of code.  I look and see "rook" for "two
pieces" and say "*bad*" for the rook side.  Ditto if I get a piece for two or
three pawns.  I say "bad" for the side with the pawns.  How bad?  Varies, but
the penalty is over a pawn at present, to avoid doing the ugly B+N for a R+P,
commonly on f2/f7, or a knight for 2 or 3 pawns to create some passers as well.

This penalty scales down (piece for pawns) as pieces are traded, because I'd
much rather have 3 pawns against a knight or bishop than have the bishop and
only be able to hope for a draw.

Ed faked around with the vaue of a pawn to avoid the piece for pawns trade.  I
used to muck around with the piece and pawn values to discourage this.  But I
got tired of the problems that caused, and, in fact, the current "penalty" is
exactly how I do this as a human.  I (and Crafty) would gladly sac a piece for
two or three pawns around the king if there are attacking chances.  But not just
to call it "even" since the extra piece becomes a problem...

So I consider N for 3P's to be +1.00 for the side with the N, if there are no
other positional factors to change this.  I consider a R vs BN (or any two
pieces) to be -2 for the R side (-1 for normal material difference, -1 for
what I call a "bad trade")...



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