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Subject: Re: please answer this question too!

Author: Joachim Rang

Date: 09:45:39 03/23/04

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On March 23, 2004 at 12:38:29, martin fierz wrote:

>On March 23, 2004 at 12:22:16, Tord Romstad wrote:
>
>>On March 23, 2004 at 11:31:18, martin fierz wrote:
>>
>>>On March 23, 2004 at 10:14:05, Tord Romstad wrote:
>>>
>>>>One of the really embarassing things about Gothmog's eval of this position
>>>>is that it doesn't even consider the bishop on g1 to be a bad biship.  My
>>>>bad bishop eval is based on the number of *blocked* pawns on squares of the
>>>>bishop's colour.  In the position we discuss, there are only two such pawns
>>>>(on e3 and g3).  Therefore Gothmog thinks that the g1 bishop isn't really
>>>>that bad.  It has limited mobility, but it should be easy to relocate it
>>>>to a better square.
>>>
>>>perhaps you should change your definition a bit. the pawn on f2 is virtually
>>>blocked too, and the pawn on c4 is rather blocked and with it the one on c3. in
>>>any case, the f2-pawn should be recognizable as blocked.
>>>to evaluate my bishops, i use a sum of c1*(blocked pawns on that color) +
>>>c2*(unblocked pawns on that color). i think that is a better way of doing it.
>>>still it's not good, because as said, the g1-bishop would be just fine on a3 or
>>>on f4.
>>
>>Thanks for the suggestions.  You are probably right, I should have a look
>>at my bad bishop code.
>
>an interesting idea posted here lately (don't remember by who - sorry) was to
>look in the forward direction of the bishop and see whether it hits own pawns.
>like this, a bishop on a3/f4 in your position gets no penalty, but a bishop on
>g1 does. obviously, this criterion alone is not too useful either, but it may be
>an ingredient.
>
>>>>As so often, Gothmog's eval proves to be the worst of them all.
>>>no!!! as i said you asked the wrong question! you didn't even answer the right
>>>question yourself, and all others won't answer it either as i know them... the
>>>right question is:
>>>
>>>***************************************************************
>>>"please give me your static eval with bishop on g1, c1 and a3".
>>>***************************************************************
>>>
>>>my answer is "-0.49 (g1), -0.51(c1), -0.35(a3)."
>>
>>... and my answer is "+0.24 (g1), +0.18 (c1), +0.31 (a3)".
>>
>>>as you can see, my answer is always about the same, and for example ridiculous
>>>in that g1 is preferred over c1 (reason: the rook's mobility is smaller for
>>>Bc1).
>>
>>Same thing here, as you can see from my numbers.
>>
>>>i will bet another beer (you owe me one IIRC)
>>
>>I do.  :-)
>>
>>>that most of the people who
>>>answered your post (and of who you think they are evaluating this better) have
>>>similar problems. e.g. the position with the bishop on c1/a3 is roughly equal
>>>(well, with the Ba3 you in fact immediately win a pawn, but just philosophically
>>>speaking, white has little to fear with a pawn for the exchange and the bishop
>>>pair) and all those guys who gave a big negative score for white will still be
>>>giving a big negative score for white (because nobody is realizing that the
>>>g1-bishop is the big problem, they just think exchange=2 pawns), and gothmog's
>>>eval will be the superior one.
>>
>>Do you think that white has the advantage with the bishop at c1?
>
>no. i think the position is equal. there is nothing black can do do improve as
>far as i can see; i.e. there are 3 things he can try:
>-> return the exchange by capturing c4 at some point
>-> play d5 at some point
>-> play a6-b5 at some point
>
>i don't believe in the pawn breaks, you remove white's weak pawn on c4, open up
>the position for the bishops and still have no clear plan. that leaves the first
>possibility, but then it's not too clear either. specially if you already have
>the bishop on a3 black must also look out for his own weakness on d6. so i think
>black does best doing nothing, and white has no active plan either that i can
>see, so it's a draw.
>
>i thought you were unhappy with your evaluation because you were +0.2 while
>others were -1.0, which is of course looking bad for you when you have the
>bishop on g1, then the others are much better. but with the bishop on c1, the
>correct eval is probably about 0, and then your +0.2 are better than the -1.0 of
>the others. that's why i said you should be feeling better now. not about the
>position with the bishop on g1 of course, but in general - gothmog seems to be
>closer to the truth (according to me) than the others.
>
Shredder 8 manages both:

it gives -0.2 for the bishop on c1 and -1.4 for the bishop on g1. Don't ask me
how SMK has solved this.

regards Joachim


>cheers
>  martin
>
>
>PS:
>>Exchange=1.75 pawns in Gothmog, by the way.
>better than 2.0 :-)



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