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Subject: Re: CT 15 and evaluation problem

Author: Christophe Theron

Date: 12:26:06 11/02/03

Go up one level in this thread


On November 02, 2003 at 05:38:58, Kurt Utzinger wrote:

>On November 02, 2003 at 04:54:06, Gian-Carlo Pascutto wrote:
>
>>On November 02, 2003 at 03:44:09, Ricardo Gibert wrote:
>>
>>>On November 02, 2003 at 03:20:26, Kurt Utzinger wrote:
>>>
>>>>A good example where Chess Tiger 15 needs much more time than
>>>>most other engines to evaluate the position as a draw:
>>>>
>>>>[D]8/8/r7/3K4/3Q4/5p2/5p2/6k1 b - - 0 1
>>>>
>>>
>>>This is also a good example of a type of position of negligible practical >value.
>>>I don't think CT15's programmer needs to worry about it at all.
>>
>>*cough* *cough* *cough*
>>
>>IsiChess - ChessTiger, Dutch Open 2003
>>
>>--
>>GCP
>
>IsiChess MMX - Chess Tiger
>[D]8/1k6/p5q1/4P3/1P3P2/7Q/3K3p/8 b - - 0 1
>
>Analysis by Chess Tiger 15.0: (P4 1.8/24 MB hash)
>
>64...Qg1 65.e6 Qd4+ 66.Kc1 Qa1+ 67.Kd2
>  µ  (-0.88)   Depth: 1   00:00:00
>  -+  (-7.51)   Depth: 4   00:00:00  2kN
>64...Qb1 65.Qd7+ Kb6 66.Qd6+ Kb5 67.Qc5+ Ka4 68.e6 Qf1
>  -+  (-7.80)   Depth: 4   00:00:00  5kN
>  -+  (-7.41)   Depth: 6   00:00:00  15kN
>64...Qg1 65.Qd7+ Kb6 66.Qd8+ Kb5 67.Qa5+ Kc4 68.Qxa6+ Kxb4 69.Qb7+ Kc5 70.Qa7+
>Kc4 71.Qa4+ Kd5 72.Qa8+ Ke6
>  -+  (-8.02)   Depth: 6   00:00:00  47kN
>  -+  (-7.80)   Depth: 15   00:02:16  55491kN, tb=187
>
>(Utzinger, MyTown 02.11.2003)
>
>
>IsiChess MMX - Chess Tiger
>8/1k6/p5q1/4P3/1P3P2/7Q/3K3p/8 b - - 0 1
>
>Analysis by Deep Sjeng 1.5:
>***************************
>
>64...Qg1 65.Qd7+ Kb6 66.Qd8+ Kc6 67.Qd6+ Kb5 68.Qb8+ Kc6
>  ²  (0.40)   Depth: 3/12   00:00:00
>  =  (0.21)   Depth: 5/18   00:00:00
>64...Qf7 65.Kc3 Qxf4 66.Qd7+ Kb8 67.Qd8+ Ka7 68.Qd7+ Ka8 69.Qc6+ Kb8 70.Qe8+ Ka7
>71.Qd7+
>  =  (0.06)   Depth: 5/19   00:00:00
>  =  (0.00)   Depth: 9/29   00:00:05  1986kN, tb=162
>64...Qg1 65.Qd7+ Kb6 66.Qd8+ Kb5 67.Qa5+ Kc6 68.Qxa6+ Kd5 69.Qb7+ Ke6 70.Qc8+
>Kd5 71.Qb7+ Ke6 72.Qc8+ Kd5 73.Qb7+
>  ³  (-0.48)   Depth: 9/29   00:00:07  2593kN, tb=163
>  =  (0.00)   Depth: 13/38   00:00:49  17560kN, tb=1597
>
>(Utzinger, MyTown 02.11.2003)



It's the problem when you allow a huge speculative evaluation of passed pawns.
You have to add an almost infinite number of exceptions if you want to handle
this perfectly.

And I don't think it is possible to program even this exception. I'm pretty sure
you could, by moving just one pawn, turn this position from a draw to a win.

On the other hand, when I tried to add a speculative evaluation of perpetuals I
got worse results. Yes it would look smarter in positions like this one, but the
winning rate dropped.

Which probably only means that I did not do it right.

In the same vein, the following position has always been a nightmare for Tiger:

[D]8/1KP5/3q2k1/8/6p1/8/8/8 b - -

This position comes from a real game between the Modular Game System Sargon 2.5
and Mike III, played in September 1980 during the Personal Computer World Fair.
Mike III continued the game with a long series of checks leading to a draw.

Chess Tiger is not smarter than Mike III here. It is something that I had fixed
in the 16 bits version, to the expense of some added complexity in the passed
pawns evaluation code. I have not transfered this code to the 32 bits version
because it was not general enough (add another black pawn and the code did not
work).

I am interested in results of other (amateur and commercial) programs.



    Christophe



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