[socmag]

Good parent question and interesting links, thanks, will take a look.

To follow on though, shoukdn't it technically be the case that piece values should in theory fluctuate based on current situation.

For instance, my castle is worth zero to me if I'm throwing it so I can get you in check.

Will I know modern chess engines take this stuff into account. Mostly just a random thought.

[earthtolazlo]

> To follow on though, shoukdn't it technically be the case that piece values should in theory fluctuate based on current situation.

Yes. One common example is knights and bishops. Both are worth about 3 pawns, but knights are generally more useful in closed positions due to their ability to jump over pieces, while bishops are better in open positions since they can more attack and move long distances.

[socmag]

Fascinating.

So in some sense, and I'm just brain-farting here, the value of a piece is a weighted sum of all the possible squares it could occupy during move generation. Something like a rudimentary path trace.

Now trying my best not to get distracted building chess machines. :/

[jedimastert]

> values should in theory fluctuate based on current situation

The author touched this a little bit with adding the position adjustments

> my castle is worth zero to me if I'm throwing it so I can get you in check.

I know what you mean, but castling into or through check isn't a legal move and shouldn't show up in your list of possible moves.

[socmag]

Right, although I didn't mean castling into check. I meant tempting a greedy algorithm by throwing away a high value piece (which was always a weakness of early chess machines), although I realize the tree search would spot that.

Also now that I'm awake, read the article fully now.

Very cool, makes me want to try building one!