Bulldog chess rychessmaster1 - evert823/computer with Witch and Guard

Till now my focus was calculation, and identifying forced mate, forced stalemate, forced big material win. I specify the plies, and within these plies it's flawless. But if the advantage is hidden behind one ply too many it will not see it.

It wants to play Wc4, again because of the high score given for attacking squares in the enemy position and near the King. But I choose c6

One thing I can do is enable that it can read an opening book and apply it. So one would add more opening moves and it would automatically become better.

Basically, yes it defends a pawn.

But when I am too enthousiastic in giving a high score for something else, it may prefer that over a pawn. A pawn is just one point. Generally, this is a good way of thinking.

In this position it attacks the Guard with Bc7, and for the engine the Guard is worth 4 points, the Bishop only 3.

Tomorrow I will decide if I want to follow this move or prefer to defend the pawn.

Maybe same reason it liked Bxa6...just saying

Later I'll create the separate thread ry vs TheWeirdEngine without help from me

The value of pieces will be quite a challenge when it comes to writing code for an engine. I'd say 4 points is about right for a guard, but it's less at the beginning and more in endgame, ranging from 3 to 5 points. The witch is also notoriously difficult to value, too, ranging from less than a pawn at one extreme, to the equal of a rook at the other extreme. I imagine it's probably easier to write code for the witch, because you simply drop it's value when a bishop/rook/queen is lost or traded. The guard will be a lot more positional, it's a monster when active and very passive when it's not, tempo becomes more important.

It should also assign perhaps half a pawn value for the bishop pair. Bxa6 is not a good move, it gives up the bishop pair and doesn't even win a pawn, though it does show it's capable of sacrificing material for potential gain. Two bishops are a little better than a bishop and knight in most cases, More so than in regular chess because bulldog is played on a slightly larger board.

I would say pawns should probably increase slightly in value as they advance, but that could be counterproductive because the engine might become too ambitious with pawn pushing. But you do want it to recognise that advanced pawns are a problem for the opponent. 

f6 (as said before, engine wanted Bc7)

I'm OK to change this game to unrated. If rychessmaster1 is OK with that, because now the OP says that this game is rated.

Engine wants Qf8-i5.

I play Bc7 now. Board follows asap

The engine wants to play Bxg3, but I won't follow that.

Ng6

Engine wants to play Bc4.

But instead I play Ne5.

Even if I play my own move, I let the engine first doublecheck that my own move is not a direct blunder.

TheWeirdEngine wants to play i6

I'll play it.

Calculation started

I can share my thoughts and preferences, but let's wait for TheWeirdEngine

Engine says Nxg4 and that is also my move here.

I'm confused now. It prefers Bf4. I thought I wanted to play h5 and win a piece for two pawns.

But it says it would reply Nxh5 and it does not consider it so bad at all for White.

Strange, thinking...

I still play h5

Engine and me agree upon taking back with pawn.

Conditional:

if Qxh5+ then I totally agree with the engine on Bf7