Sam has closed his piano and gone to bed ... now we can talk about the real stuff of life ... love, liberty and games such as Janus, Capablanca Random, Embassy Chess & the odd mention of other 10x8 variants is welcome too
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I think it would be helpful if people post their own values on the board for the pieces. Here are the ones I put in Gothic Vortex
Pawn = 100
Knight = 275 with 20 pawns, 255 with 0 pawns.
Exact value = 250 + pawns.
Bishop = 310
Rook = 530 with 0 pawns, 440 with 20 pawns.
Exact value = 530 - (pawns * 3).
Archbishop = 690 with 20 pawns, 650 with 0 pawns.
Exact value = 650 + (pawns * 2).
Chancellor = 860, unchanging
Queen = 900 with 20 pawns, 960 with 0 pawns.
Exact value = 960 - (pawns * 3).
These values were chosen carefully, but I still think they can be changed.
For example, compare how Rook + Pawn will be traded for Bishop + Knight as the pawn count varies. At the beginning of the game, R + P = 540, and B + N is 585. You don't want to give up a B + N for R + P early on, because your two minors are developed an in play, while the Rook is most likely just sitting there after having castled.
A Bishop will not trade itself for 3 pawns unless there is some other form of compensation. Notice a Knight will always trade iteself for 3 pawns, or 2 pawns + "heavy positional damage". Some of you may have seen Vortex tossing its Knight to do this already. So far, I think this is strong behavior.
Also, 2 Knights cannot mate a lone king in the absence of pawns. So, a Rook is more valuable than 2 Knights with pawns = 0 (530 for Rook, 510 for 2 Knights).
This "simple" approach makes the program appear to have endgame intelligence. It will prefer to have a Rook over 2 Knights heading into the endgame, and it can direct this play from a distance with the properly chosen values.
If others want to post their "ideal values" I would be happy to review them.