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Subject: Re: evaluating passed pawns

Author: Martin Giepmans

Date: 17:29:24 03/31/03

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On March 31, 2003 at 17:46:40, Uri Blass wrote:

>On March 31, 2003 at 15:20:35, Martin Giepmans wrote:
>
>>On March 31, 2003 at 14:35:48, Uri Blass wrote:
>>
>>>Today latest movei evaluates passed pawns and protected passed pawns based on
>>>the ranks of the pawn(I will later change it to evaluate them
>>>based on other factors like square of the kings).
>>>
>>>The problem is that the order of evaluation is not correct.
>>>
>>>If I have a pawn at b5 and another passed pawn at c5 then
>>>I want to evaluate them as better than pawn at b4 and
>>>protected passed pawn at c5.
>>>
>>>I thought to give a bonus for passed pawn that has pawn in the left side of it
>>>but the problem is that in that case the evaluation is not
>>>symmetric and in the folowing diagram if the black pawn is in c6 and not f6
>>>I get different result.
>>
>>I think giving bonus/2 if there is a pawn on the right OR on the left side
>>would do the trick. It's symmetrical.
>>
>>>
>>>
>>>[D]8/7k/5p2/8/3PP3/8/8/K7 w - - 0 1
>>>
>>>
>>>Another problem is what to do when there are 3 passed pawns.
>>>
>>>[D]8/7k/8/8/3PPP2/8/8/K7 w - - 0 1
>>>
>>>In that case even if I decide to give only one bonus for pair
>>>I may get here 2 bonuses and after the central pawn progress
>>>one square forward I will have only one bonus.
>>>
>>>I wonder how other programs solve that problem.
>>>
>>>protected passed pawns are good but other things are also good and the problem
>>>is how to order the things in the right order.
>>>
>>>Uri
>>
>>In my engine I give a bonus for a passed pawn that is
>>(a) protected by a pawn (left or right)
>>or
>>(b) has a pawn on the left or on the right
>>
>>If both are not true (pawn is not protected and has no neighbor) I give a
>>small penalty. The penalty is so small that it will not hinder the advance
>>of the passed pawns. But it helps the engine to keep it's pawns "together".
>>
>>Cheers,
>>Martin
>
>Today I have a small bonus for passed pawns in all cases based on the rank of
>the pawn.
>
>I do not think that it is a good idea to have a panelty for passed pawns
>even if they have no neighbour becuase there are cases when they are dangerous.

True, but the danger can be detected by other means (distance to opponent
king, attack/defense situation of promotion square etc)
>
>2 passed pawns at a and h file may be very dangerous and beat easily 3 connected
>pawns c,d,e in a pawn endgame.

I agree. In my engine I use extra evaluations for those cases. There are many
complicating factors and it's probably impossible to do it right.
I think the fundamental question is: what to evaluate and what to leave to
search? And: is it possible to speed up the search?

>
>I know that there are cases when they are weak so I decided to have no bonus and
>no panelty for them in my previous version but I found based on games that a
>small bonus with no panelty seems to be slightly better than nothing
>
>I may continue later by adding a panelty to cancel the bonus in part of the
>cases.
>
>I do not do big changes but one change and after it testing and the question
>is how to evaluate passed pawns in a way that better will evaluated as bigger.
>
>giving 1/2 bonus for every pawn that is in a pair is not a good idea because 3
>connected pawns on the same rank may get 4.5 bonuses (1 for every one of them
>for the fact that it is a passed pawn and 3/2 bonuses for the fact that they are
>in pair).
>
>The problem is that if the central pawn advance you have only 4 bonuses(1 for
>everyone and 1 for protected passed pawn).
>
>You can claim that 3 connected passed pawns are not very common but I still do
>not like the evaluation.
>
>Uri



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