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Subject: Re: A Good Test Position

Author: Dan Homan

Date: 05:55:50 08/21/98

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On August 21, 1998 at 07:58:21, Robert Henry Durrett wrote:

>There have been quite a few threads this month dealing with test positions which
>test verious aspects of the software.
>
>But there is one question about the software which nobody seems to want to
>mention:  Why do the chess engines have trouble with the initial position where
>no pieces have been moved yet?  [Position at the start of all chess games]
>
>If the programs can be "tweaked" so that they play good openings, then all of
>the opening books will become unnecessary!
>
>Why not work on the "initial position" and get the programs to find the best
>move for that position?

I think that playing a good opening is a very hard problem with a
very easy solution... just build a quality opening book.  I this is
why some programs haven't been "tweaked" to play good openings without
a book...  (I think that my program will default to something like
the '4-knights defense' without it's opening book - solid development,
but not exactly exciting chess :)

Even if programmers did tweak their programs for quality play in the
opening (without a book), they would still use a book because of the
great potential savings on the clock.

I agree that it would be nice to have a program with a strong evaluation
of opening positions.  (Some programs may have this... I don't know, as I
don't use them this way).

 - Dan





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