5 ms·
Stockfish doesn't use material advantage as an approximation to winning though. It uses a complex deep learning value function that it evaluates many times.
by computerphage 2y ago
Stockfish doesn't use material advantage as an approximation to winning though. It uses a complex deep learning value function that it evaluates many times.
- alexvitkov 2y agoStill, the fact that there are obvious heuristics makes that function easier to train and and makes it presumably not need an absurd number of weights.
- bongodongobob 2y agoNo, without assigning value to pieces, the heuristics are definitely not obvious. You're taking about 20 year old chess engines or beginner projects.
- alexvitkov 2y agoEveryone understands a queen is worth more than a pawn. Even if you don't know the exact value of one piece relative to another, the rough estimate "a queen is worth five to ten pawns" is a lot better than not assigning value at all. I highly doubt even 20 year old chess engines or beginner projects value a queen and pawn the same. After that, just adding up the material on both sides, without taking into account the position of the pieces at all, is a heuristic that will correctly predict the winning player on the vast majority of all possible board positions.
- navane 2y agoHe agrees with you on the 20yr old engines and beginner projects.