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stand pat or side to move bonus
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Larry Kaufman



Joined: 10 Jan 2010
Posts: 1229
Location: Maryland USA
PostPost subject: Re: stand pat or side to move bonus    Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2012 3:45 pm Reply to topic Reply with quote
Uri Blass wrote:
lkaufman wrote:
bob wrote:
lkaufman wrote:
In at least 99% of chess positions, it's better to be on move than not. Therefore all strong programs take this into consideration when evaluating positions or making decisions. There appear to be three possibilities:

A. Simply give the side to move a bonus when doing an evaluation, which can either be a constant or may depend on something else.
B. When reaching quies, if you are below beta but within for example 10 centipawns of beta allow the cutoff.
C. Do both of the above.

What are the pros and cons of the three methods? We currently use method A, but I notice that some strong programs appear to use B or C. Are there any other possibilities in use for handling this issue?


I've done this for a long time in Crafty. Current values are 5 and 8 for middle-game and endgame. I tested a bunch of different combinations, but those were best at the time. Not a huge gain anyway, but still, every Elo point counts...

I don't particularly see any difference in any of the above. If you add in the bonus, you may well cause a cutoff anyway. If you just check for the cutoff, you might save a little time.

Doing both seems redundant...


It's odd that you found that the value should go UP in the endgame, while both SF and Komodo found the opposite! I wonder why?
The difference between A and B is in whether the bonus affects only quies decisions (B) or all decisions thruout the search (A), for examply futility.


I think that the best bonus should be dependent on the question if the side to move has a piece or a pawn under threat and not only on the stage of the game.

Programs that evaluate the threat in their evaluation function can probably give bigger bonus for the side to move.

If Crafty does not evaluate threats in the evaluation function then it does not seem to me strange to have a smaller bonus in the middle game because in the middle game there are more cases when a piece is under threat.


That sounds like an excellent explanation! However it does not explain why Critter (or Ippo or Ivanhoe) did not find it beneficial to use higher middlegame bonuses, since I believe they all reward attacks in eval.
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Subject Author Date/Time
stand pat or side to move bonus Larry Kaufman Thu Mar 22, 2012 9:15 pm
      Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Sam Hamilton Thu Mar 22, 2012 10:49 pm
      Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Daniel Shawul Thu Mar 22, 2012 11:27 pm
            Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Larry Kaufman Fri Mar 23, 2012 12:40 am
                  Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Daniel Shawul Fri Mar 23, 2012 1:27 am
                        Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Larry Kaufman Fri Mar 23, 2012 2:06 am
                              Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Daniel Shawul Fri Mar 23, 2012 3:07 am
                                    Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Larry Kaufman Fri Mar 23, 2012 3:26 am
                                          Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Richard Vida Fri Mar 23, 2012 2:07 pm
                                                Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Larry Kaufman Fri Mar 23, 2012 2:42 pm
                                                      Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Richard Vida Sat Mar 24, 2012 9:59 am
                                                            Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Larry Kaufman Sat Mar 24, 2012 2:44 pm
                                                                  Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Richard Vida Sun Mar 25, 2012 1:51 pm
                                                                        Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Larry Kaufman Sun Mar 25, 2012 2:44 pm
                                                                              Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Richard Vida Sun Mar 25, 2012 3:21 pm
                                                                                    Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Larry Kaufman Sun Mar 25, 2012 3:40 pm
                                                Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Marek Kwiatkowski Fri Mar 23, 2012 2:46 pm
                              Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Richard Vida Fri Mar 23, 2012 2:01 pm
      Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Robert Hyatt Fri Mar 23, 2012 2:38 pm
            Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Larry Kaufman Fri Mar 23, 2012 2:47 pm
                  Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Uri Blass Fri Mar 23, 2012 3:39 pm
                        Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Larry Kaufman Fri Mar 23, 2012 3:45 pm
                              Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Robert Hyatt Sat Mar 24, 2012 3:03 am
                                    Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Larry Kaufman Sat Mar 24, 2012 3:14 am
                                          Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Robert Hyatt Sat Mar 24, 2012 4:41 am
                                                Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Marco Costalba Sat Mar 24, 2012 8:12 am
                                                      Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Robert Hyatt Mon Mar 26, 2012 5:32 am
                                                            Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Sam Hamilton Mon Mar 26, 2012 2:12 pm
                  Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Robert Hyatt Sat Mar 24, 2012 3:00 am
                        Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Larry Kaufman Sun Mar 25, 2012 7:53 pm
      Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Sune Fischer Sat Mar 24, 2012 10:38 am
      Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Vincent Diepeveen Sun Mar 25, 2012 9:08 am
            Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Uri Blass Sun Mar 25, 2012 11:24 am
                  Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Vincent Diepeveen Sun Mar 25, 2012 2:15 pm
            Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Ed Schroder Sun Mar 25, 2012 1:02 pm
                  Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Larry Kaufman Sun Mar 25, 2012 7:43 pm
                        Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Ed Schroder Sun Mar 25, 2012 8:37 pm
                              Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Larry Kaufman Sun Mar 25, 2012 8:51 pm
                                    Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Richard Vida Sun Mar 25, 2012 9:33 pm
                                          Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Larry Kaufman Sun Mar 25, 2012 9:48 pm
                                          Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Don Dailey Sun Mar 25, 2012 10:15 pm
                                          Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Vincent Diepeveen Mon Mar 26, 2012 10:48 pm
                                                Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Richard Vida Tue Mar 27, 2012 9:59 am
                                                      Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Vincent Diepeveen Tue Mar 27, 2012 11:38 am
                                    Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Ed Schroder Sun Mar 25, 2012 10:39 pm
            Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Larry Kaufman Sun Mar 25, 2012 3:49 pm
                  Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Vincent Diepeveen Sun Mar 25, 2012 4:20 pm
                        Re: stand pat or side to move bonus Larry Kaufman Sun Mar 25, 2012 4:47 pm
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