Instead of hard-code the weights in a big table,
we prefer to calculate them out of few parameters
at startup. This allows to keep low the number of
independent parameters and hence is good for tuning
and for a better insight in the meaning of the numbers.
No functional change.
Make even more clear what are the terms that
contribute to evaluate connected pawns, and
completely separate them from the weights
that are now fully looked up in a table.
For future tuning makes sense to init the table with
a formula instead of hard-code it. This allows to
reduce problem space cardinality and makes tuning
easier.
And fix a MSVC warning while there:
warning C4804: '>>' : unsafe use of type 'bool' in operation
No functional change.
These two notions are very correlated. Since connected has the most
generality, it makes sense to generalize it to encompass what is
covered by candidate.
STC:
LLR: 4.03 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 11970 W: 2577 L: 2379 D: 7014
LTC:
LLR: 2.96 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 13194 W: 2389 L: 2255 D: 8550
bench 7328585
Idea from Lyudmil Tsvetkov.
The value seems to be raised a bit abruptly, but as
Gary said, a blocked pawn on the sixth rank has been
instrumental in limiting king mobility in multiple
losses that I've seen from SF. A blocked pawn on fifth
rank is much less serious on the king safety impact.
Passed both STC
LLR: 2.97 (-2.94,2.94) [-1.50,4.50]
Total: 14551 W: 2750 L: 2607 D: 9194
and LTC
LLR: 2.96 (-2.94,2.94) [0.00,6.00]
Total: 43595 W: 6917 L: 6618 D: 30060
And even a retest at 60" fixed games 40K
ELO: 1.79 +-1.9 (95%) LOS: 97.0%
Total: 39889 W: 6018 L: 5813 D: 28058
bench: 7154916
Prefer
file_of(s) < file_of(ksq)
to the inidrect
file_of(ksq) < FILE_E
To evaluate if semiopen side to check is the left side.
Also other small touches while there.
No functional change.
We add a penalty for each pawn which is not protected by another pawn
of the same color.
Passed both short TC
LLR: 2.96 (-2.94,2.94) [-1.50,4.50]
Total: 12107 W: 2411 L: 2272 D: 7424
And long TC
LLR: 2.96 (-2.94,2.94) [0.00,6.00]
Total: 9204 W: 1605 L: 1458 D: 6141
bench: 7682173
This hacky rule allows to get an about right eval out of this position:
r2qk2r/ppp2p2/2npbn2/2b1p3/2P1P1P1/2NB1PPp/PPNP3K/R1BQ1R2 b kq - 0 13
And, more importantly, passed both short TC:
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) [-1.50,4.50]
Total: 6239 W: 1249 L: 1127 D: 3863
And long TC:
LLR: 2.96 (-2.94,2.94) [0.00,6.00]
Total: 38371 W: 6165 L: 5888 D: 26318
bench: 8183238
The flag raises also in case of a pawn duo, i.e.
when we have two adjacent pawns on the same rank,
and not only in case of a chain, i.e. when the two
pawns are on a diagonal line.
See this for a reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connected_pawns
Renaming suggested by Ralph.
No functional change.
Passed short TC
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) [-1.50,4.50]
Total: 18331 W: 3608 L: 3453 D: 11270
And scored above 50% on a very long test in long TC
LLR: -2.97 (-2.94,2.94) [0.00,6.00]
Total: 51533 W: 8181 L: 8047 D: 35305
bench: 7335588
In endgame it's better to have pawns on both wings.
So give a bonus according to file distance between left
and right outermost pawns.
Passed both short TC
LLR: 2.97 (-2.94,2.94) [-1.50,4.50]
Total: 39073 W: 7749 L: 7536 D: 23788
And long TC
LLR: 2.96 (-2.94,2.94) [0.00,6.00]
Total: 6149 W: 1040 L: 910 D: 4199
bench: 7665034
Actually, it is not used, as both arrays have the
same values. Some local tests in either direction
showed no improvement.
Also some minor corrections in the comments.
No functional change.
This is the first chain bonus version
from Ralph that also passed both
Short TC:
LLR: 2.96 (-2.94,2.94) [-1.50,4.50]
Total: 23460 W: 4727 L: 4556 D: 14177
And long TC:
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) [0.00,6.00]
Total: 31858 W: 5497 L: 5240 D: 21121
And performed better against current
committed version, always at 60secs:
LLR: -2.94 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,3.00]
Total: 26301 W: 4477 L: 4580 D: 17244
This test was done by Leonid.
bench: 8455956
Instead of current code, give a bonus according to the frontmost
square among candidate + passed pawns.
This is a big simplification that removes a lot of accurate code
substituting it with a statistically based one using the common
'bonus' scheme, leaving to the search to sort out the details.
Results are equivalent but code is much less and, as an added bonus,
we now store candidates bitboard in pawns hash and allow this
info to be used in evaluation. This paves the way to possible
candidate pawns evaluations together with all the other pieces,
as we do for passed.
Patch passed short TC
LLR: 2.96 (-2.94,2.94) [-1.50,4.50]
Total: 16927 W: 3462 L: 3308 D: 10157
Then failed (quite quickly) at long TC
LLR: -2.95 (-2.94,2.94) [0.00,6.00]
Total: 8451 W: 1386 L: 1448 D: 5617
But when ran with a conclusive 40K fixed games at 60 secs it proved
almost equivalent to original one.
ELO: 1.08 +-2.0 (95%) LOS: 85.8%
Total: 40000 W: 6739 L: 6615 D: 26646
bench: 3884003
