Selecting moves with the highest payoff

[giovanni]

I am looking for a program that would select moves with the highest payoff in a tree. For example, in the position arising in the Spanish game after
1)e2 e5 2)Nf3 Nc6 3)Bb5

3)...a6 would be the selected move, because the chances that White can go wrong are the highest. Indeed, any move, besides B moves, would drop a piece. Also Bd3 and Be2 are dubious, let it alone Bf1. The utility I am looking for would need to find these position once fed with a tree. I am not very familiar with tree format, but probably any non-proprietary format would be fine.
Thanks in advance.

[jdart]

I think what you want is a good chess database, and possibly also a good opening book. The database will show the win/loss statistics for each move and the opening book will show you a set of recommended moves (which may not be the same as what the database suggests, because book makers may have access to other games you don't, and because they add in computer evals/match results and some other factors).

SCID is free and you could start with that. ChessBase is very good but somewhat expensive. The Noomen book (free) is very good (works with Chessbase), or you can get the Hiarcs book (paid subscription).

--Jon

[giovanni]

Thanks, John. I like your idea of using an opening book. Now the question becomes: is there a way to automatically select from an opening book moves that give opponents the highest chance to go wrong, regardless if it is the optimal move (well, within a certain range)? To stick with the Spanish example I provided, I would expect that such a program would select at move eight the Marshall attack 8)... d5, i.e.

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 O-O 8.c3 d5

This choice would be made because the program sees that the opponent has a narrower path of moves to choose, in respect to several alternatives that loose on the spot.

Thanks again.

[MikeGL]

Sounds like an anti-human feature, a bit inferior move compared to the best move but the PV is sharp, the chosen engine move would have the fewest correct replies and difficult for humans, but would be inferior against engines.

I remember the Rebel program of Ed Shroeder have this feature, and this feature was used during Rebel match vs. Anand.

[giovanni]

Thanks, Mike. Your interpretation is perfectly correct.
Is this feature from the Rebel still available? Would it allow to select moves from an opening book or an opening tree?

[jdart]

I do not know of an automatic way to do that but I could think of some algorithms for it. What you want is multiple plausible successor moves but only one or two with a good outcome.

There are also quite a few openings that are very sharp in general and one player is always kind of teetering on the edge (Botvinnik Gambit in the Semi-Slav, Winawer Poisioned Pawn, some Najdorf lines such as B96, etc.). The Marshall is actually considered drawish although you have to have considerable knowledge and endgame ability to get that result against a strong player.

--Jon

[MikeGL]

Thanks, Mike. Your interpretation is perfectly correct.
Is this feature from the Rebel still available? Would it allow to select moves from an opening book or an opening tree?

I am not sure if the webpage is still available, this anti-human feature and the match vs Anand was explained at the page www.rebel.nl by Ed Shroeder, the programmer himself, but it is a big website and cannot find it now. Maybe you can just visit that site and or email and ask the programmer himself. Sometimes he logs in here too.

I have tried the free DOS Rebel Decade and other free Rebel versions, and I have seen the Anti-Human feature on the drop down menu, i think those free REBEL programs are still free and already in public domain.

[MikeGL]

Thanks, Mike. Your interpretation is perfectly correct.
Is this feature from the Rebel still available? Would it allow to select moves from an opening book or an opening tree?

I am not sure if the webpage is still available, this anti-human feature and the match vs Anand was explained at the page www.rebel.nl by Ed Shroeder, the programmer himself, but it is a big website and cannot find it now. Maybe you can just visit that site and or email and ask the programmer himself. Sometimes he logs in here too.

I have tried the free DOS Rebel Decade and other free Rebel versions, and I have seen the Anti-Human feature on the drop down menu, i think those free REBEL programs are still free and already in public domain.

Sorry I guess I avoided chess for too long and my info was obsolete. There's a new website, according to Google, where you can download and check all the free REBEL programs at
http://www.rebel13.nl/rebel13/rebel%2013.html and the feature you're interested in was explained on this webpage http://www.rebel.nl/anti-gm.htm

[Ferdy]

Thanks, John. I like your idea of using an opening book. Now the question becomes: is there a way to automatically select from an opening book moves that give opponents the highest chance to go wrong, regardless if it is the optimal move (well, within a certain range)? To stick with the Spanish example I provided, I would expect that such a program would select at move eight the Marshall attack 8)... d5, i.e.

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 O-O 8.c3 d5

This choice would be made because the program sees that the opponent has a narrower path of moves to choose, in respect to several alternatives that loose on the spot.

Thanks again.

The engine prefers d6 at the root. But according to what you want should use d5 as the difference is highest between its best children.

[giovanni]

Thanks, Mike. Your interpretation is perfectly correct.
Is this feature from the Rebel still available? Would it allow to select moves from an opening book or an opening tree?

I am not sure if the webpage is still available, this anti-human feature and the match vs Anand was explained at the page www.rebel.nl by Ed Shroeder, the programmer himself, but it is a big website and cannot find it now. Maybe you can just visit that site and or email and ask the programmer himself. Sometimes he logs in here too.

I have tried the free DOS Rebel Decade and other free Rebel versions, and I have seen the Anti-Human feature on the drop down menu, i think those free REBEL programs are still free and already in public domain.

Sorry I guess I avoided chess for too long and my info was obsolete. There's a new website, according to Google, where you can download and check all the free REBEL programs at
http://www.rebel13.nl/rebel13/rebel%2013.html and the feature you're interested in was explained on this webpage http://www.rebel.nl/anti-gm.htm

Thanks Mike for suggesting to look at this possibility. However, in this case the antiGM Rebel feature operates during the search, while I am interested in the offline selection of moves from trees or opening books.