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Subject: Re: qSearch and stand pat question

Author: scott farrell

Date: 07:54:28 11/04/03

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On November 04, 2003 at 08:33:49, Tord Romstad wrote:

>On November 04, 2003 at 06:42:56, scott farrell wrote:
>
>>Consider the position below, just moving into the qSearch my engine tries the 2
>>checks, and RxP.
>>
>>The checks lead to a qsearch for white that looses the rook.
>
>Does this mean that you search checks like Rb1+ and Ra2+ in your qsearch?
>I did this before, but removing checks which lose material from the qsearch
>was a big improvement for me.
>
>>The RxP leads to a qsearch for white of the promotion.
>>
>>Clearly it doesnt like any of these moves, so it just takes the stand-pat at the
>>node it is at. As such it is horizoning the fatalities in the qsearch.
>>
>>Is this correct?
>
>Yes, I think so.
>
>>How many people use stand-pat ala crafty? Who uses what else?
>
>My engine does like Crafty.
>
>>even though my engine has the pawn promotion in the qSearch, the stand-pat >stops it from playing it.
>
>I try to solve such problems with my evaluation function.  A passed pawn
>on the 7th which can safely advance and promote (I check this by calling
>my SEE from within the evaluation function) is given a huge bonus.  My
>engine will not want to stand pat in the position you use as an example,
>because the static eval returns a very bad score (-5.43).
>>
>>A 1 depth search from this node, gives me 75 nodes, and the score drops by 5 for
>>black.
>>
>>One solution I can see is to staticly evaluate the rook as lost, so it wont
>>stand-pat at the node. My evaluate function doesnt really consider who's move it
>>is, to see the rook is undefended and under attack, and sideToMove is going to
>>allow its capture. I have some eval code for pinned pieces and enpris and the
>>like, but low values - it would seem to me here I could statically say the Rook
>>is lost.
>
>I don't think this is a good idea.  That black's rook is hanging is not
>really very relevant here.  You could move the black rook to almost any
>other square on the board, and black would still be lost.
>
>>The only other solution I can think is to let the other side make its qsearch
>>moves anyway, sort of like null-move, and given they all fail-high for white,
>>dont allow the stand pat or something (sort of like dont allow stand-pat during
>>checks).
>
>I haven't tried this, but it sounds rather expensive.  The best idea might
>be to take a close look at your passed pawn evaluation.  Two connected
>passed pawns on the 7th rank should be evaluated as being worth more than
>a rook, IMHO.
>

I agree, I already do that.

I was just interested in that the stand-pat and qsearch cant find it, that you
need to use evaluation. Clearly the above is anything but quiet, but your
supposedly _quiet_ eval function has to guess at the dynamic.

>Tord



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