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Aberg variation of Capablanca's Chess. Different setup and castling rules. (10x8, Cells: 80) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

H.G.Muller wrote on Tue, Apr 29, 2008 07:17 PM UTC:

Hans Aberg:
| In other words, he is using a statistical approach merely as a point 
| of departure for developing a theory which combines point values with 
| other reasoning, such as positional judgement.
Of course. PIECE VALUES are only a point of departure. If you do a
principal-component analysis of the score percentage as a function of the
various evaluation characteristics, the piece values are the most
important components. But by no means the only ones.

If you read Larry Kaufman's paper, you see that he continues quantifying
the principal positional term responsible for the B vs N value, namely the
number of Pawns left on the board. And again, he uses the statistical
method to derive the numerical value, concluding that each own Pawn
affects the B-N difference by 1/16 Pawn. So his statistical analysis
doesn't stop at piece values. He also applies it to get the value of
positional terms.

The piece values Kaufman gets are very good. And, in so far I tested them,
they correspond exactly to what I get when I run the the piece combinations
from shuffled openings. For instance, I also find B=N and BB=0.5. Note that
Kaufman's Rook value is also dependent on the number of Pawns on the
board.