Any More Strategical Ideas for a Test Suite?

[Allard Siemelink]

in case you're interested, I can send you a set with the n most common opening positions and most frequently played moves.
Not sure if it qualifies as a 'development' testsuite but you could try...

[swami]

Is it possible to create a suite that takes the 20 hardest positions from each of the already released ones? One would need a databse of which positions were not solved by some of the better programs. Do you have such records?

Very Good idea. I applaud you for coming up with such a creativity.

It's certainly possible, but I'd like to finish up some more test suites before I decide to find positions from older ones.

[Graham Banks]

Have you created a suite that focuses on pawns? Examples - pawn sacrifices, creation of a winning passed pawn.
Or sacrificing a minor piece for two or three pawns?

[swami]

Have you created a suite that focuses on pawns? Examples - pawn sacrifices, creation of a winning passed pawn.
Or sacrificing a minor piece for two or three pawns?

Hi Graham, We have only created a suite on pawn undermining. I may add "Sacrificing a minor piece for pawns" to the list but that could fall under the "Positional Sacrifice" theme. Creation of winning passed pawns is similar to pawn race. This was suggested by Jesper Nielson while ago. Pawn Sacrifice was already added to the list.

[Rafael Vasquez]

Piece Redundancy

See this article by Larry Kaufman:

http://home.comcast.net/~danheisman/Art ... alance.htm

Is very interesting

[swami]

Some more ideas:

• Advancement of Queen Side Pawns or a/b/c pawns:
  Just like the advancement of f/g/h pawns but this is on the opposite wing.
  
  Fianchettoing the Bishop
  Keeps up the long diagonal and acts as a strong king's defense.
  
  Exchange of the Fianchetto Bishop
  Trying to find ways to exchange up the opponent's Fianchetto Bishop
  
  Knights to the 4th/5th Rank
  Advancing the knight to the 5th rank(Ng5, Nb5) pressures the pieces in opponent's camp. This is a threatening move that assists in king side attack, or intends to reposition itself to e4/d4 center where it will have access to many squares, or makes way for f-pawn advance.

[Taner Altinsoy]

Synergy of the pieces like keeping the bishop pair. Also queen and knight is stronger than queen and bishop especially in attack. Usually rook is considered stronger than two minor pieces if the pawns are scattered on both sides of the board.

Also an idea might be sacrificing to get perpetual check though this might might be more tactical.

Taner

[beachknight]

Some more ideas:

• Advancement of Queen Side Pawns or a/b/c pawns:
  Just like the advancement of f/g/h pawns but this is on the opposite wing.
  
  Fianchettoing the Bishop
  Keeps up the long diagonal and acts as a strong king's defense.
  
  Exchange of the Fianchetto Bishop
  Trying to find ways to exchange up the opponent's Fianchetto Bishop
  
  Knights to the 4th/5th Rank
  Advancing the knight to the 5th rank(Ng5, Nb5) pressures the pieces in opponent's camp. This is a threatening move that assists in king side attack, or intends to reposition itself to e4/d4 center where it will have access to many squares, or makes way for f-pawn advance.

I am making notes and following your development closely, Swami.

Few things coming to my mind:

If ninth suite is to be called as

Advancement of Queen Side Pawns or a/b/c pawns

then you might rename the eigth one as:

Advancement of King Side Pawns or f/g/h pawns

Advancement of (Small) Center Pawns or d/e pawns could be covered by
another test suite, esp. for midgame phase in some irregular openings.

Best,

[playjunior]

Irrelevant pawns in endgames.

Sometimes in endgames the engines will grab a pawn in the flank which the opponent cannot regain immediately, but can use the tempo and the fact that one piece is missing to organize an effective defense/blockade.


This happens a lot when, say, white has a passed isolated d-pawn and needs to push it to crumple black. Grabbing a pawn on, say, h6 leads to blockade of the d-pawn and black eventually takes it down or just stays. This kind of positions occur from time to time and engines fail every time I tested.

In recent London tournament there was Kramnik's game against Li Chao (?) where the Russian commentator said Kramnik will not even consider taking the pawn.

[Maharadja]

Hi,

What is a Strategical Test Suite without a test set of Karpovian moves?
You could think of retreat moves and small moves.