Why do people play the benoni defense?

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Avatar of ThrillerFan
Utopia247 wrote:

So WHY are computers misevaluating the benoni, and what would the correct centipawn evaluation be?

 

The problem is that anybody that is good at chess will tell you that "centi-pawn" evaluation is total garbage.  Who cares if it is +0.27 or +0.31?  You going to say the former is good and the latter is bad?  With that type of difference, you cannot even say the first move is better than the second.

 

Not all advantages in chess can be directly translated to a point system.  Even the Pawn is 1, Bishop is 3, Queen is 9, etc system is artificial, and was strictly built for the total beginner to understand the difference in strength of each individual piece on an empty board.  Problem is, chess is not linear.

 

Case in point.  Let's say your favorite food is mashed potatoes and that gets 4 points.  Your next is chocolate chip cookies and that gets 3 points.  Your next is a cherry slush and that gets 2 points.  Your next is chocolate ice cream and that gets 1 point.

Together, the cookies and slush give you 5 points.  Not a bad snack.  The mashed potatoes and chocolate ice cream are also 5 points, so let's give you that.  I will put a scoop on your potatoes!  They don't go together, do they?

 

Chess pieces are the same way.  Individual evaluation you can throw out the window.  A Queen and Knight often mingle well.  They might be better than your 2 Rooks and 2 extra pawns!  Both are 12!  Does not mean jack!

 

You have to learn to use the simple assessments like equal, white is winning, black is slightly better (maybe because his game is easier to play), etc.

 

Forget about computer centipawn values.

 

Where computers beat humans by a landslide is finding things like a 14 move forcing sequence that wins a whole rook due to various mate threats along the way that result from double piece sacrifices.  All it takes is one of those and you are done!  That is why computers beat people!

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