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Subject: Re: Crafty Static Evals 2 questions

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 08:06:00 02/24/04

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On February 24, 2004 at 10:37:21, martin fierz wrote:

>On February 24, 2004 at 10:19:51, Anthony Cozzie wrote:
>
>>On February 24, 2004 at 09:32:08, martin fierz wrote:
>>
>>>On February 23, 2004 at 23:05:58, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>
>>>>On February 23, 2004 at 18:52:36, Geoff Westwood wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>Hi
>>>>>
>>>>>I was perusing the latest table of results, Crafty's static eval of 2 of the
>>>>>passed pawn positions were interesting.
>>>>>
>>>>>Assuming I havent made a mistake in the cutting and pasting
>>>>>
>>>>>Position 1
>>>>>8/4k3/8/7P/1P6/3p4/4p3/4K3 b - -; id "PP-00004"
>>>>>
>>>>>[D]8/4k3/8/7P/1P6/3p4/4p3/4K3 b - -
>>>>>
>>>>>Crafty reckons this is +4.8 (good for white). This is rather clever as although
>>>>>the black king could catch either of the white passed pawns, it cannot stop
>>>>>both. Also blacks 2 advanced pawns cant do anything as the white king gobbles
>>>>>them up easily. Only Crafty and Tinker understand this position statically. Any
>>>>>tips on what the algorithm is to sort this one out ?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>This is the idea I have reported here before, pointed out (demanded to be fixed
>>>>in fact) by a GM friend of mine.  The idea is that the two separated pawns are
>>>>better than the two connected passers.  The king stops the two connected passers
>>>>easily until the enemy king supports them, meanwhile the split passers walk on
>>>>in...
>>>
>>>i don't like the generality of your statemtent here, but - it is a small price
>>>to pay if it's right in most cases. which perhaps is the case. anyway, here's my
>>>question:
>>>
>>>what does your static eval say for the black king on e6/e5/e4/e3 ? i wouldn't be
>>>surprised if it got it wrong in some cases now...
>>>
>>>cheers
>>>  martin
>>
>>The question is always "what do you put in the search, what do you put in the
>>eval" <shrug>.
>
>sort of - for me the answer is clear. the point i wanted to make (not the first
>time, BTW) is that returning huge evaluations in positions like this may not be
>a good idea because they are *very* sensitive to details like king position.
>e.g. if i got it right, then it's a white win with the king on e6, but a black
>win with the king on e5. do you really want to allow your static eval to return
>a white win when it might be a black win?
>of course you can say that if you get it right 60% of the time, it is better
>than returning an equal eval in this kind of position. but wouldn't it be better
>then to return something like +- 1 so that you never blunder into this when you
>are e.g. a piece up and see this type of transition?
>i generally try to return huge evals only when i am very certain that they are
>correct.
>
>cheers
>  martin

You are looking at this the wrong way.  If you want 100% accuracy, you will die
from it.  :)

If you don't do what I do, you will like connected passers, and in 90% of the
games I will beat you when that comes up.  Do you want to be right 100% of the
cases you recognize, leaving 95% as "unclear and probably lost" or do you want
to be right in 90% of the total cases?

I choose the latter...

No doubt it can be made more accurate.  But no doubt that without it, it is even
less accurate...


>
>>I have considered trying to do a really good KP eval; at the moment it is on the
>>back-burner but I might return to it someday.
>>
>>anthony



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