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Subject: Re: knight distance

Author: Mridul Muralidharan

Date: 08:09:32 12/15/05

Go up one level in this thread



Nice !
Now I know one of the reasons why Baron is so strong in endgames :)

Mridul


On December 15, 2005 at 10:34:40, Richard Pijl wrote:

>
>>Of course the knight can win a move but you still may detect unstoppable pawn if
>>the knight need to win 2 moves to stop the pawn or cases that the knight cannot
>>win a move thanks to calculation of the distance to the opponent king.
>
>These cases are very very rare, especially in practical play.
>
>> Besides, in most cases the
>>>'stopping' capability of the knight is more restricted by pawn and king
>>>positions than anything else anyway.
>>
>>Of course it is clear that distance function cannot detect all the cases
>>when pawns are unstoppable but only part of the cases.
>>
>> finally, you should also consider
>>>alternative stopping fields like the second rank, as sometimes it is possible to
>>>reach a stopping field other than the promotion square.
>>
>>of course but I do not think that checking distance to some squares is
>>expensive.
>
>Checking just distance is not expensive. But taking pawn and king positions into
>account is, as you cannot fully precompute it.
>
>>I do nothing about it and I did not see Movei lose many games because of not
>>detecting unstoppable passed pawns.
>
>I don't think it is very important either, at least when you consider total
>playing strength.
>However, when you reach a knight ending, knight-deflection is a very important
>pattern. I think this type of knowledge will help in finding knight deflection
>type of combinations faster.
>
>>I suspect that the main advantage is simply being able to prune lines and search
>
>pruning based on this alone is dangerous, as you can never really be sure that
>this is 100% right. You'll need search to be able to correct the evaluation when
>it goes wrong.
>
>>faster but the advantage is limited and middle game evaluation is more
>>important.
>
>of course.
>
>>Rybka that is probably the best program does not detect it by evaluation as the
>>following analysis prove(it shows a score of +12 inspite of the fact that even
>>without seeing that black promote with check black queen first)
>>
>>Note that Movei has big problem in this type of positions today and it's search
>>is very unstable and it needs depth 10 to see that white is losing.
>>
>>[D]k6N/8/8/p7/8/6PP/8/7K w - - 0 1
>
>The Baron has -1.02 in evaluation here, without search.
>>
>>Analysis by Rybka 1.0 Beta 32-bit:
>>
>>1.Nf7
>>  +-  (12.21)   Depth: 3   00:00:00
>>
>>Another position when Movei is better in finding black's win but rybka is slower
>>in finding score above draw.
>>
>>[D]k6N/8/8/p7/8/6PP/r6R/7K b - - 0 1
>
>Due to the rooks, Baron's static evaluation gives a score of -4.91 (advantage
>for white). In search, the first reported line shows the win for black though:
> ply       time        nodes   score  pv
> 10(17)&   0:00.22    111865   +3.50  Ra2xh2 Kh1xh2 a5-a4 g3-g4 a4-a3
>                                      Nh8-g6 a3-a2 h3-h4 a2-a1Q h4-h5 Qa1-e1
>                                      Kh2-h3 Qe1-h1 Kh3-g3 (Ka8-b7) (Kg3-f4)
>After forcing Rxh2, Kxh2, the static evaluation is already 0.92, advantage for
>black, so just a qsearch should be enough for the Baron to show a black
>advantage.
>>
>>Analysis by Rybka 1.0 Beta 32-bit:
>>
>>1...Ra1+
>>  =  (0.00)   Depth: 3   00:00:00
>>1...Ra1+ 2.Kg2 Ra2+ 3.Kg1
>>  =  (0.00)   Depth: 4   00:00:00
>>1...Ra1+ 2.Kg2 Ra2+ 3.Kg1 Ra1+ 4.Kf2
>>  =  (0.00)   Depth: 5   00:00:00
>>1...Ra1+ 2.Kg2 Ra2+ 3.Kg1 Ra1+ 4.Kf2 Ra2+ 5.Kg1 Ra1+ 6.Kf2
>>  =  (0.00)   Depth: 6   00:00:00
>>1...Ra1+ 2.Kg2 Ra2+ 3.Kg1 Ra1+ 4.Kf2 Ra2+ 5.Kg1 Ra1+ 6.Kf2
>>  =  (0.00)   Depth: 7   00:00:00
>>1...Ra1+ 2.Kg2 Ra2+ 3.Kg1 Ra1+ 4.Kf2 Ra2+ 5.Kg1 Ra1+ 6.Kf2
>>  =  (0.00)   Depth: 8   00:00:00  1kN
>>1...Ra1+ 2.Kg2 Ra2+ 3.Kg1 Ra1+ 4.Kf2 Ra2+ 5.Kg1 Ra1+ 6.Kf2
>>  =  (0.00)   Depth: 9   00:00:00  1kN
>>1...Ra1+ 2.Kg2 Ra2+ 3.Kg1 Ra1+ 4.Kf2 Ra2+ 5.Kg1 Ra1+ 6.Kf2
>>  =  (0.00)   Depth: 10   00:00:00  2kN
>>1...Ra1+ 2.Kg2 Ra2+ 3.Kg1 Ra1+ 4.Kf2 Ra2+ 5.Kg1 Ra1+ 6.Kf2
>>  =  (0.00)   Depth: 11   00:00:00  3kN
>>1...Ra1+ 2.Kg2 Ra2+ 3.Kg1 Ra1+ 4.Kf2 Ra2+ 5.Kg1 Ra1+ 6.Kf2
>>  =  (0.00)   Depth: 12   00:00:00  5kN
>>1...Rxh2+ 2.Kxh2 a4 3.Nf7 a3 4.Ne5 a2 5.Nc4 a1Q 6.Ne3
>>  -+  (-5.28)   Depth: 12   00:00:00  39kN
>>1...Rxh2+ 2.Kxh2 a4 3.Nf7 a3 4.Ne5 a2 5.Nc4 a1Q 6.Ne3
>>  -+  (-5.28)   Depth: 13   00:00:01  46kN
>>1...Rxh2+ 2.Kxh2 a4 3.Nf7 a3 4.Ne5 a2 5.Nc4 a1Q 6.Ne3
>>  -+  (-5.28)   Depth: 14   00:00:01  56kN
>>1...Rxh2+ 2.Kxh2 a4 3.Nf7 a3 4.Ne5 a2 5.Nc4 a1Q 6.Ne3
>>  -+  (-5.28)   Depth: 15   00:00:02  71kN
>>1...Rxh2+ 2.Kxh2 a4 3.Nf7 a3 4.Ne5 a2 5.Nc4 a1Q 6.Ne3
>>  -+  (-5.28)   Depth: 16   00:00:02  90kN
>>
>>(,  15.12.2005)
>>
>>Uri



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