pawn targets in genAllNoisyMoves

[TomHyer]

Ethereal/src/movegen.c

Line 147 in fdfc70b

pawnLeft = pawnLeftAttacks(pawns, them, board->turn);

Seems this should be "destinations", not "them"

[AndyGrant]

I believe you are correct after some thought. You are correct if the following statement is true: "It is impossible to evade check, by promoting a pawn, without that pawn capturing a checking piece", is it is possible to block a check by taking a piece. Which is ... fundamentally true in standard chess, although not some weird variants.

[TomHyer]

I have also attempted the following:

…

-- keep a material index (as in Gull/Roc) as part of the board state -- use this to look up a precomputed scale factor, replacing almost all the body of evaluateScaleFactor So far this is a 0-ELO change, because evaluateScaleFactor is quick and I lose some locality-of-reference. However, it allows the addition of finer-grained scale factors without a run-time calculation cost. Also, it allows me to add in “quadratic material” to the eval. Just using Roc’s matQuad values (not even scaling for Ethereal’s smaller nominal pawn), I believe I gain 6-8 ELO. Perhaps the addition of NNUE makes this useless – I don’t know. Tom Hyer From: Andrew Grant ***@***.***> Sent: Thursday, March 14, 2024 5:55 AM To: AndyGrant/Ethereal ***@***.***> Cc: Tom Hyer ***@***.***>; Author ***@***.***> Subject: Re: [AndyGrant/Ethereal] pawn targets in genAllNoisyMoves (Issue #207) I believe you are correct after some thought. You are correct if the following statement is true: "It is impossible to evade check, by promoting a pawn, without that pawn capturing a checking piece", is it is possible to block a check by taking a piece. Which is ... fundamentally true in standard chess, although not some weird variants. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#207 (comment)> , or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AC2GICZ5T7RM2L7762PKCLTYYF6XFAVCNFSM6AAAAABETNREG6VHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMYTSOJXGE3DMNZWGI> . You are receiving this because you authored the thread. <https://github.com/notifications/beacon/AC2GIC3BHR4IVITZAQ3BCPLYYF6XFA5CNFSM6AAAAABETNREG6WGG33NNVSW45C7OR4XAZNMJFZXG5LFINXW23LFNZ2KUY3PNVWWK3TUL5UWJTTXBJMKU.gif> Message ID: ***@***.*** ***@***.***> >

[AndyGrant]

The handcrafted eval is worth virtually 0 elo in Ethereal, and no development is taking place on it.

The only reason its still there, is because Ethereal is reference material for a large number of engines and authors.

[TomHyer]

Thank you.  Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone On Sunday, March 24, 2024, 5:30 PM, Andrew Grant ***@***.***> wrote: The handcrafted eval is worth virtually 0 elo in Ethereal, and no development is taking place on it. The only reason its still there, is because Ethereal is reference material for a large number of engines and authors. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe. You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>