Author: Christophe Theron
Date: 09:11:09 04/08/99
Go up one level in this thread
On April 08, 1999 at 10:10:34, Roberto Waldteufel wrote:
>In chess the side to move can stand pat even though there are captures
>available, since the ability to capture does not compel a capture to actually be
>made, but in checkers this is not allowed: if there is one (or more) capture
>available, then the side to move *must* make a capture, so standing pat is not
>an option.
Hmhh... I had overlooked this. This is indeed not mainly a zugzwang problem.
>Originally I stopped the Qsearch as soon as the side to move had no
>captures, but I found that this led to errors if the other side was threatening
>a capture that could not be prevented, so now I continue the Qsearch in these
>cases as well, that is as long as either side has captures pending the search
>continues (full width). This does not add too much overhead, and the results are
>much more stable than before when I only extended if the side to move had
>captures pending without considering the other side's threats.
An idea for a chess program? Never seen this before? ;)
>Usually in cases
>where the other side threatens a capture but the side to move has no captures,
>the side to move can meet the threat with at least one of its available
>(non-capture) moves, but in cases where nothing can escape from the threat, the
>Qsearch now scores the position accordingly.
Why not do this for both sides? By detecting the opponent's threats your program
certainly plays safer (is able to see long range threats). By detecting also
your threats, it might be more agressive?
Again, this is just a silly idea. I'm quite a stranger to checkers...
Christophe
>Another point is that when captures
>are available, the choice of moves is extremely limited (often only one legal
>capture), so such extensions are much less expensive than they would be in
>chess.
>
>Best wishes,
>Roberto
This page took 0.01 seconds to execute
Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700
Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.