This is a non-functional code style change which provides a safe access handler for LineBB.
Also includes an assert in debug mode to verify square correctness.
closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/2719
No functional change
This is a functional simplification of the time management system.
With this patch, there is a simple equation for each of two distinct
time controls: basetime + increment, and x moves in y seconds (+increment).
These equations are easy to plot and understand making future modifications
or adding additional time controls much easier.
SlowMover is reset to 100 so that is has no effect unless a user changes it.
There are two scaling variables:
* Opt_scale is a scale factor (or percentage) of time to use for this current move.
* Max_scale is a scale factor to apply to the resulting optimumTime.
There seems to be some elo gain in most scenarios.
Better performance is attributable to one of two things:
* minThinkingTime was not allowing reasonable time calculations for very short games like 10+0 or 10+0.01. This is because adding almost no increment and substracting move overhead for 50 moves quickly results in almost 0 time very early in the game. Master depended on minThinkingTime to handle these short games instead of good time management. This patch addresses this issue by lowering minThinkingTime to 0 and adjusting moverOverhead if there are very low increments.
* Notice that the time distribution curves tail downward for the first 10 moves or so. This causes less time to attribute for very early moves leaving more time available for middle moves where more important decisions happen.
Here is a summary of tests for this version at different time controls:
SMP 5+0.05
LLR: 2.97 (-2.94,2.94) {-1.50,0.50}
Total: 46544 W: 7175 L: 7089 D: 32280
Ptnml(0-2): 508, 4826, 12517, 4914, 507
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/user/protonspring
STC
LLR: 2.94 (-2.94,2.94) {-1.50,0.50}
Total: 20480 W: 3872 L: 3718 D: 12890
Ptnml(0-2): 295, 2364, 4824, 2406, 351
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5ebc343e7dd5693aad4e6873
STC, sudden death
LLR: 2.93 (-2.94,2.94) {-1.50,0.50}
Total: 7024 W: 1706 L: 1489 D: 3829
Ptnml(0-2): 149, 813, 1417, 938, 195
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5ebc346f7dd5693aad4e6875
STC, TCEC style
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) {-1.50,0.50}
Total: 4192 W: 1014 L: 811 D: 2367
Ptnml(0-2): 66, 446, 912, 563, 109
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5ebc34857dd5693aad4e6877
40/10
LLR: 2.93 (-2.94,2.94) {-1.50,0.50}
Total: 54032 W: 10592 L: 10480 D: 32960
Ptnml(0-2): 967, 6148, 12677, 6254, 970
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5ebc50597dd5693aad4e688d
LTC, sudden death
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) {-1.50,0.50}
Total: 9152 W: 1391 L: 1263 D: 6498
Ptnml(0-2): 75, 888, 2526, 1008, 79
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5ebc6f5c7dd5693aad4e689b
LTC
LLR: 2.98 (-2.94,2.94) {-1.50,0.50}
Total: 12344 W: 1563 L: 1459 D: 9322
Ptnml(0-2): 70, 1103, 3740, 1171, 88
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5ebc6f4c7dd5693aad4e6899
closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/2678
Bench: 4395562
This is a functional simplification which fixes an awkward numerical cliff.
With master king_safety, no pawns is scored higher than pawn(s) that is/are far from the king. This may motivate SF to throw away pawns to increase king safety. With this patch, there is a consistent value for minPawnDistance where losing a pawn never increases king safety.
STC
LLR: 2.94 (-2.94,2.94) {-1.50,0.50}
Total: 45548 W: 8624 L: 8525 D: 28399
Ptnml(0-2): 592, 4937, 11587, 5096, 562
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5e98ced630be947a14e9ddc5
LTC
LLR: 2.94 (-2.94,2.94) {-1.50,0.50}
Total: 42084 W: 5292 L: 5242 D: 31550
Ptnml(0-2): 193, 3703, 13252, 3649, 245
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5e98e22e30be947a14e9de07
closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/2639
bench 4600292
In master, if the received ttMove meets the prescribed conditions in the various MovePicker constructors, it is returned as the first move, otherwise we set it to MOVE_NONE. If set to MOVE_NONE, we no longer track what the ttMove was, and it will might be returned later in a list of generated moves. This may be a waste. With this patch, if the ttMove fails to meet the prescribed conditions, we simply skip the TT stages, but still store the move and make sure it's never returned.
STC
LLR: 2.94 (-2.94,2.94) {-1.50,0.50}
Total: 66424 W: 12903 L: 12806 D: 40715
Ptnml(0-2): 1195, 7730, 15230, 7897, 1160
LTC
LLR: 2.94 (-2.94,2.94) {-1.50,0.50}
Total: 45682 W: 5989 L: 5926 D: 33767
Ptnml(0-2): 329, 4361, 13443, 4334, 374
closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/2616
Bench 4928928
In more than 100k local KNPK games, there is no discernible difference between master and master with this endgame removed: master:42971, patch:42973, draws: 3969. Removal does not seem to regress in normal games.
STC
LLR: 2.94 (-2.94,2.94) {-1.50,0.50}
Total: 46390 W: 8998 L: 8884 D: 28508
Ptnml(0-2): 707, 5274, 11163, 5300, 751
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5e83b18ee42a5c3b3ca2ef02
LTC
LLR: 2.94 (-2.94,2.94) {-1.50,0.50}
Total: 44768 W: 5863 L: 5814 D: 33091
Ptnml(0-2): 251, 3918, 14028, 3905, 282
https://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5e84a82a4411759d9d0984f4
In tests with a book of endgames that can convert into KNPK, no significant difference can be seen either
```
TC 1.0+0.01
Score of patch vs master: 6131 - 6188 - 27681 [0.499] 40000
Elo difference: -0.5 +/- 1.9, LOS: 30.4 %, DrawRatio: 69.2 %
TC 2.0+0.02
Score of patch vs master: 5740 - 5741 - 28519 [0.500] 40000
Elo difference: -0.0 +/- 1.8, LOS: 49.6 %, DrawRatio: 71.3 %
``
closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/2611
Bench 4512059
This is a patch that significantly improves playing KNNKP endgames:
```
Score of 2553 vs master: 132 - 38 - 830 [0.547] 1000
Elo difference: 32.8 +/- 8.7, LOS: 100.0 %, DrawRatio: 83.0 %
```
At the same time it reduces the evaluation of this mostly draw engame
from ~7.5 to ~1.5
This patch does not regress against master in normal games:
STC
LLR: 2.94 (-2.94,2.94) {-1.50,0.50}
Total: 96616 W: 18459 L: 18424 D: 59733
Ptnml(0-2): 1409, 10812, 23802, 10905, 1380
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5e49dfe6f8d1d52b40cd31bc
LTC
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) {-1.50,0.50}
Total: 49726 W: 6340 L: 6304 D: 37082
Ptnml(0-2): 239, 4227, 15906, 4241, 250
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5e4ab9ee16fb3df8c4cc01d0
Theory: KNNK is a dead draw, however the presence of the additional weakSide pawn opens up some mate opportunities. The idea is to block the pawn (preferably behind the Troitsky line) with one of the knights and press the weakSide king into a corner. If we can stalemate the king, we release the pawn with the knight (to avoid actual stalemate), and use the knight to complete the mate before the pawn promotes. This is also why there is an additional penalty for advancement of the pawn.
closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/2553
Bench: 4981770
This is a non-functional simplification. Looks like std::bitset works good
for the KPKBitbase. Thanks for Jorg Oster for helping get the speed up
(the [] accessor is faster than test()).
Speed testing: 10k calls to probe:
master 9.8 sec
patch 9.8 sec.
STC
LLR: 2.94 (-2.94,2.94) {-1.50,0.50}
Total: 100154 W: 19025 L: 18992 D: 62137
Ptnml(0-2): 1397, 11376, 24572, 11254, 1473
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5e21e601346e35ac603b7d2b
Closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/2502
No functional change
This is a non-functional speed-up: master has to access SquareBB twice while this patch
determines opposite_colors just using the values of the squares. It doesn't seem to change
the overall speed of bench, but calling opposite_colors(...) 10 Million times:
master: 39.4 seconds
patch: 11.4 seconds.
The only data point I have (other than my own tests), is a quite old failed STC test:
LLR: -2.93 (-2.94,2.94) [-1.50,4.50]
Total: 24308 W: 5331 L: 5330 D: 13647
Ptnml(0-2): 315, 2577, 6326, 2623, 289
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5e010256c13ac2425c4a9a67
Closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/2498
No functional change
This is a non-functional simplification. If we use the "side to move" of the entry
instead of the template, one of the classify methods goes away. Furthermore, I've
resolved the colors in some of the statements (we're already assuming direction
using NORTH), and used stm (side to move) instead of "us," since this is much clearer
to me.
This is not tested because it is non-functional, only applies building the bitbase
and there are no changes to the binary (on my machine).
Closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/2485
No functional change
This is a non-functional simplification. Instead of passing the piece type
for remove_piece, we can rely on the board. The only exception is en-passant
which must be explicitly set because the destination square for the capture
is not the same as the piece to remove.
Verified also in the Chess960 castling case by running a couple of perft, see
the pull request discussion: https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/2460
STC
LLR: 2.94 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 18624 W: 4147 L: 4070 D: 10407
Ptnml(0-2): 223, 1933, 4945, 1938, 260
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5dfeaa93e70446e17e451163
No functional change
Simplify the king ring initialization and make it more regular, by just
moving the king square off the edges and using PseudoAttacks by king from
this new square.
There is a small functional difference from the previous master, as the
old master excludes the original ksq square while this patch always includes
the nine squares block (after moving the king from the edges). Additionally,
master does not adjust the kingRing down if we are on relative rank 8,
while this patch treats all of the edges the same.
STC
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 13263 W: 2968 L: 2830 D: 7465
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5db872830ebc5902d1f388aa
LTC
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 72996 W: 11819 L: 11780 D: 49397
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5db899c20ebc5902d1f38b5e
Closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/2384
Bench: 4959244
When scoring the connected pawns, replace the intricate ternary expressions
choosing the coefficient by a simpler addition of boolean conditions:
` value = Connected * (2 + phalanx - opposed) `
This is the map showing the old coefficients and the new ones:
```
phalanx and unopposed: 3x -> 3x
phalanx and opposed: 1.5x -> 2x
not phalanx and unopposed: 2x -> 2x
not phalanx and opposed: 1x -> 1x
```
STC
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 11354 W: 2579 L: 2437 D: 6338
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5d8151f00ebc5971531d244f
LTC
LLR: 2.96 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 41221 W: 7001 L: 6913 D: 27307
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5d818f930ebc5971531d26d6
Bench: 3959889
blah
This is a simplification that integrated WeakLever into doubled pawns.
Since we already check for !support for Doubled pawns, it is trivial
to check for weak lever by just checking more_than_one(lever).
We also introduce the Score * bool operation overload to remove some
casts in the code.
STC
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 26757 W: 5842 L: 5731 D: 15184
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5d77ee220ebc5902d384e5a4
Closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/2295
No functional change
Remove one parameter in function evaluate_shelter(), making all
comparisons for castled/uncastled shelter locally in do_king_safety().
Also introduce BlockedStorm penalty.
Passed non-regression test at STC:
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 65864 W: 14630 L: 14596 D: 36638
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5d5fc80c0ebc5939d09f0acc
No functional change
@Vizvezdenec array suggested that alternate values may be better than current
master (see pull request #2270 ). I tuned some linear equations to more closely
represent his values and it passed. These futility values seem quite sensitive,
so perhaps additional Elo improvements can be found here.
STC
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) [0.50,4.50]
Total: 12257 W: 2820 L: 2595 D: 6842
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5d5b2f360ebc5925cf1111ac
LTC
LLR: 2.96 (-2.94,2.94) [0.00,3.50]
Total: 20273 W: 3497 L: 3264 D: 13512
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5d5c0d250ebc5925cf111ac3
Closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/2272
------------------------------------------
How to continue from there ?
a) we can try a simpler version for the futility margin, this would
be a simplification :
margin = 188 * (depth - improving)
b) on the other direction, we can try a complexification by trying
again to gain Elo with an complete array of futility values.
------------------------------------------
Bench: 4330402
This is a functional simplification that removes the std::pow from reduction. The resulting reduction values are within 1% of master.
This is a simplification because i believe an fp addition and multiplication is much faster than a call to std::pow() which is historically slow and performance varies widely on different architectures.
STC
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 23471 W: 5245 L: 5127 D: 13099
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5d27ac1b0ebc5925cf0d476b
LTC
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 51533 W: 8736 L: 8665 D: 34132
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5d27b74e0ebc5925cf0d493c
Bench 3765158
This is a functional change that rewards double attacks on an unsupported pawns.
STC (non-functional difference)
LLR: 2.96 (-2.94,2.94) [0.50,4.50]
Total: 83276 W: 18981 L: 18398 D: 45897
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5d0970500ebc5925cf0a77d4
LTC (incomplete looping version)
LLR: 0.50 (-2.94,2.94) [0.00,3.50]
Total: 82999 W: 14244 L: 13978 D: 54777
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5d0a8d480ebc5925cf0a8d58
LTC (completed non-looping version).
LLR: 2.96 (-2.94,2.94) [0.00,3.50]
Total: 223381 W: 38323 L: 37512 D: 147546
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5d0e80510ebc5925cf0ad320
Closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/2205
Bench 3633546
----------------------------------
Comments by Alain SAVARD:
interesting result ! I would have expected that search would resolve such positions
correctly on the very next move. This is not a very common pattern, and when it happens,
it will quickly disappear. So I'm quite surprised that it passed LTC.
I would be even more surprised if this would resist a simplification.
Anyway, let's try to imagine a few cases.
a) If you have White d5 f5 against Black e6, and White to move
last move by Black was probably a capture on e6 and White is about to recapture on e6
b) If you have White d5 f5 against e6, and Black to move
last move by White was possibly a capture on d5 or f5
or the pawn on e6 was pinned or could not move for some reason.
and white wants to blast open the position and just pushed d4-d5 or f4-f5
Some possible follow-ups
a) Motif is so rare that the popcount() can be safely replaced with a bool()
But this would not pass a SPRT[0,4],
So try a simplification with bool() and also without the & ~theirAttacks
b) If it works, we probably can simply have this in the loop
if (lever) score += S(0, 20);
c) remove all this and tweak something in search for pawn captures (priority, SEE, extension,..)
This is a non-functional simplification.
backmost_sq and frontmost_sq are redundant. It seems quite clear to always use frontmost_sq and use the correct color.
Non functional change.
This is a functional simplification. This is NOT the exact version that was tested. Beyond the testing, an assignment was removed and a piece changes for consistency.
Instead of rewarding ANY square past an opponent pawn as an "outpost," only use squares that are protected by our pawn. I believe this is more consistent with what the chess world calls an "outpost."
STC
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 23540 W: 5387 L: 5269 D: 12884
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5cf51e6d0ebc5925cf08b823
LTC
LLR: 2.94 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 53085 W: 9271 L: 9204 D: 34610
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5cf5279e0ebc5925cf08b992
bench 3424592
This is a non-functional simplification. Since our file_bb handles either Files or Squares, using Square here removes some code. Not likely any performance difference despite the test.
STC
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 6081 W: 1444 L: 1291 D: 3346
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5ceb3e2e0ebc5925cf07ab03
Non functional change.
This is a non-functional simplification that combines vote counting and thread selecting in the same loop.
It is possible that the best thread would be updated more frequently than master, but I'm not sure it matters here. Perhaps "mostVotes" is a better name than "bestVote?"
STC (stopped early).
LLR: 0.70 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 10714 W: 2329 L: 2311 D: 6074
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5ccc71470ebc5925cf03d244
No functional change.
The "move" class variable is Movepick is removed (removes some abstraction) which saves a few assignment operations, and the effects of "filter" is limited to the current move (movePtr). The resulting code is a bit more verbose, but it is also more clear what is going on. This version is NOT tested, but is substantially similar to:
STC
LLR: 2.96 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 29191 W: 6474 L: 6367 D: 16350
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5ca7aab50ebc5925cf006e50
This is a non-functional simplification.
We can remove the values in Pawns if we just use the piece arrays in Position. This reduces the size of a pawn entry. This simplification passed individually, and in concert with ps_passedcount100 (removes passedCount storage in pawns.).
STC
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 19957 W: 4529 L: 4404 D: 11024
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5cb3c2d00ebc5925cf016f0d
Combo STC
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 17368 W: 3925 L: 3795 D: 9648
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5cb3d3510ebc5925cf01709a
This is a non-functional simplification.
Instead of looping through kfrom,kto, rfrom, rto, we can use BetweenBB. This is less lines of code and it is more clear what castlingPath actually is. Personal benchmarks are all over the place. However, this code is only executed when loading a position, so performance doesn't seem that relevant.
No functional change.
Simplification which removes the pawns connected array.
Instead of storing the values in an array, the values are
calculated real-time. This is about 1.6% faster on my machines.
Performance:
master ave nps: 159,248,672
patch ave nps: 161,905,592
STC
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 20363 W: 4579 L: 4455 D: 11329
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5c9925ba0ebc5925cfff79a6
Non functional change.
Adding a clamp function makes some of these range limitations a bit prettier and removes some #include's.
STC
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 28117 W: 6300 L: 6191 D: 15626
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5c9aa1df0ebc5925cfff8fcc
Non functional change.
This is a non-functional code style change.
If we add an accessor function for SquareBB we can consolidate all of the asserts. This is also a bit cleaner because all SquareBB accesses go through this method making future changes easier to manage.
STC
LLR: 2.96 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 63406 W: 14084 L: 14045 D: 35277
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5c9ea6100ebc5925cfffc9af
No functional change.
This is a non-functional simplification/speedup.
The truth-table for popcount(support) >= popcount(lever) - 1 is:
------------------lever
------------------0-------1---------2
support--0------X-------X---------0
-----------1------X-------X---------X
-----------2------X-------X---------X
Thus, it is functionally equivalent to just do: support || !more_than_one(lever) which removes the expensive popcounts and the -1.
Result of 20 runs:
base (...h_master.exe) = 1451680 +/- 8202
test (./stockfish ) = 1454781 +/- 8604
diff = +3101 +/- 931
STC
LLR: 2.94 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 35424 W: 7768 L: 7674 D: 19982
Http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5c970f170ebc5925cfff5e28
No functional change.
This is a non-functional simplification / code-style change.
This popcount16 method does nothing but initialize the PopCnt16 arrays.
This can be done in a single bitset line, which is less lines and more clear. Performance for this code is moot.
No functional change.
This is a functional simplification that removes the FutilityMoveCounts array with a simple equation using only ints.
LLR: 2.96 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 14175 W: 3123 L: 2987 D: 8065
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 9900 W: 1735 L: 1597 D: 6568
Bench: 3380343
This is a non-functional patch which shrinks the reductions array.
This saves about 8Kb of memory.
The only slow part of master's reductions array is the calculation
of the log values, so using a separate array for those values and
calculating the rest real-time appears to be just as fast as master.
STC
LLR: 2.96 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 63245 W: 13906 L: 13866 D: 35473
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5c7b571f0ebc5925cffdc104
No funcional change.
This is a functional simplification of the Outposts array
moving it to a single value. This is a duplicate PR because
I couldn't figure out how to fix the original one.
The idea is from @31m059 with formatting recommendations by @snicolet.
See #1940 for additional information.
STC
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 23933 W: 5279 L: 5162 D: 13492
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5c3575800ebc596a450c5ecb
LTC
LLR: 2.96 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 41718 W: 6919 L: 6831 D: 27968
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5c358c440ebc596a450c6117
bench 3783543
This is non-functional. These 5 arrays are simple enough to calculate real-time and maintaining an array for them does not help. Decreases the memory footprint.
This seems a tiny bit slower on my machine, but passed STC well enough. Could someone verify speed?
STC
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 44745 W: 9780 L: 9704 D: 25261
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5c47aa2d0ebc5902bca13fc4
The slowdown is minimal even in 32 bit case (thanks to @mstembera for testing):
Compiled using make build ARCH=x86-32 CXX=i686-w64-mingw32-c++ and benched
This patch only:
```
Results for 40 tests for each version:
Base Test Diff
Mean 1455204 1450033 5171
StDev 49452 34533 59621
p-value: 0.465
speedup: -0.004
```
No functional change.
This is a non-functional simplification that removes the AdjacentFiles array.
This array is simple enough to calculate that the pre-calculated array provides
no benefit. Reduces the memory footprint.
STC
LLR: 2.96 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 74839 W: 16390 L: 16373 D: 42076
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5c3d75920ebc596a450cfb67
No functionnal change
If we define dcCandidates with & pawnsNotOn7,
we don't have to & it both times.
This seems more clear to me as well.
Tested for no regression.
STC
LLR: 2.96 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 44042 W: 9663 L: 9585 D: 24794
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5c21d9120ebc5902ba12e84d
No functional change.
A single popcount in evaluate.cpp replaces all openFiles stuff in pawns. It doesn't seem to affect performance at all.
STC
LLR: 2.96 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 28103 W: 6134 L: 6025 D: 15944
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5b7d70a20ebc5902bdbb1999
No functional change.
This custom predicate filter creates an unnecessary abstraction layer, but doesn't make the code any more readable. The code is clear enough without it.
No functional change.
The extra condition is used as a shortcut to skip the following 3 assignments:
```C++
Bitboard b1 = shift<UpRight>(pawnsOn7) & enemies;
Bitboard b2 = shift<UpLeft >(pawnsOn7) & enemies;
Bitboard b3 = shift<Up >(pawnsOn7) & emptySquares;
```
In case of EVASION with no target on 8th rank (the common case), we end up performing the 3 statements for nothing because b1 = b2 = b3 = 0.
But this is just a small micro-optimization and the condition is quite confusing, so just remove it and prefer a readable code instead.
STC
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 78020 W: 16978 L: 16967 D: 44075
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5c27b4fe0ebc5902ba135bb0
No functional change.
Even when playing without endgame table bases, this particular endgame should
be a win 100% of the time when Stockfish is given a KRBK position, assuming
there are enough moves remaining in the FEN to finish the game without hitting
the 50 move rule.
PROBLEM: The issue with master here is that the PushClose difference per square
is 20, however, the difference in squares for the PushToCorners array is usually
less. Thus, the engine prefers to move the kings closer together rather than pushing
the weak king to the correct corner.
What happens is if the weak king is in a safe corner, SF still prefers pushing the
kings together. Occasionally, the strong king traps the weak king in the safe corner.
It takes a while for SF to figure it out, but often draws the game by the 50 move rule
(on shorter time controls).
This patch increases the PushToCorners values to correct this problem. We also added
an assert to catch any overflow problem if anybody would want to increase the array
values again in the future.
It was tested in a couple of matches starting with random KRBK positions and showed
increased winning rates, see https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/1877
No functional change
Although this is a compile-time constant, we stick the castlingSide into a CastlingRight, then pull it out again. This seems unecessarily complex.
No functional change.
We do not need to change the winnerKSq variable, so we can simplify
a little bit the logic of the code by changing only the loserKSq
variable when it is necessary. Also consolidate and clarify comments.
See the pull request thread for a proof that the code is correct:
https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/1854
No functional change
I've gone through the RENAME/REFORMATTING thread and changed everything I could find, plus a few more. With this, let's close the previous issue and open another.
No functional change.
It does not appear to be not necessary or advantageous to
conditionally initialize kingRing[Us] or kingAttackersCount[Them],
so the 'else' can be removed.
STC
LLR: 2.96 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 22873 W: 4923 L: 4804 D: 13146
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5be9a8270ebc595e0ae33c7e
No functional change
It looks like PawnsOnBothFlanks can be removed from initiative().
A barrage of tests seem to confirm that the adjustment to -110
does not gain elo to offset any potential loss by removing
PawnsOnBothFlanks.
STC
LLR: 2.96 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 22014 W: 4760 L: 4639 D: 12615
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5b7f50cc0ebc5902bdbb3a3e
LTC
LLR: 2.96 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 40561 W: 6667 L: 6577 D: 27317
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/5b801f9f0ebc5902bdbb4467
The barrage of 0,4 tests on the -136 value are in my ps_tunetests branch.
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/user/protonspring
Closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/1751
Bench: 4413173
-------------
How to continue from there?
The fact that endgames with all the pawns on only one flank are
drawish is a well-known chess idea, so it seems quite strange that
this can be removed so easily without losing Elo.
In the past there had been attempts to improve on PawnsOnBothFlanks
with similar concepts (for instance using the pawn span value), but
the tests were at best neutral. Maybe Stockfish is now mature enough
that these refined ideas would work to replace PawnsOnBothFlanks?
This is a non-functional change. By pre-incrementing minKingPawnDistance
instead of post-incrementing, we can remove this -1.
This also makes DistanceRing more consistent with the rest of stockfish
since it now holds an actual "distance" instead of a less natural distance-1.
In current master, PseudoAttacks[KING][ksq] == DistanceRingBB[ksq][0]
With this patch, it will be PseudoAttacks[KING][ksq] == DistanceRingBB[ksq][1]
ie squares at distance 1 from the king. This is more natural use of distance.
The current array size DistanceRingBB[SQUARE_NB][8] is still OK with the new
definition, because maximum distance between two squares on a chess board is
seven (for example Kh1 and a8).
No functional change.
