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Subject: Re: Forced moves

Author: Dann Corbit

Date: 14:22:45 07/30/99

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On July 30, 1999 at 16:44:47, Ian Osgood wrote:

>On July 29, 1999 at 20:47:14, Dann Corbit wrote:
>
>>On July 29, 1999 at 18:58:12, Ian Osgood wrote:
>>>Do other program authors curtail the search when there is a forced move at the
>>>root?
>>Crafty does.  It causes havoc with the Chess Analysis Project.  Fortunately,
>>Hiarcs will actually process such a position if I ask it to.
>>
>>>How do you detect that a root move may be forced?
>>Umm.. You have no other choices but one?
>>
>>>Could you compare the values of the best and second-best root moves after a
>>>search iteration to detect a forced root move?  (Granted, the second-best score
>>>won't be accurate due to alpha-beta, but I figure that if the difference was
>>>greater than a queen's value, you could still conclude that the best move was
>>>forced.)
>>Here is how I would detect it:
>>0.  Am I in check?
>>1.  Is there only one way to get out of check?
>>If so, then the move is forced.  Otherwise, the move is not forced.
>
>I was thinking of a looser definition of "forced" (which subsumes one legal
>move, of course).  Obvious recaptures would be included, more along the lines of
>crafty's "easy" moves with 1/3 search time.
After I thought about it a bit, I could see that my definition was wrong anyway.
 For instance, you might have a bare king who is not in check with one legal
move that does not place him into check.  That (and any like it) is a forced
move, despite his not being in check.  The other branches of the thread already
define it better than I ever could anyway, so I was hoping to silently skulk
away without my ignorance showing.
;-)



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