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We have been assigned a project of writing a simple chess evaluation engine. The engine doesn't play chess and doesn't calculate variations - it just performs a basic static evaluation of input position. When preparing a technical documentation of the project we introduced some basic chess terms and definitions used inside the project. But our adviser said that certain terms are inadequate as they are not used by chess experts and we must try to use adequate terms instead. We ain't chess players and we need a help on giving correct terms to the definitions. The terms and definitions used so far are given below:

 The ideal range (IR) of a piece P standing on the square S is all the squares that P can go to from S
if we remove all other pieces from the board

The actual range (AR) of a piece P standing on the square S is all the squares that P can go to from S
in the actual current position.


A piece P is considered limited if its actual range is lesser than its ideal range.


A square S is considered fatal for a piece P1 if the following takes place:


    

  1. S belongs to the actual range of P1
    2. 

  2. S is attacked with an opponent's piece P2
    3. 



A square S is considered obstructed for a piece P1 if the following takes place:


    

  1. S belongs to the ideal range of P1
    2. 

  2. S is occupied with other piece P2
    3.
Pavel Goric
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1 Answers1

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Your terms have been defined by GM Bien in his book https://b-ok.cc/book/869069/2e0f8a or https://archive.org/details/chessrecipesfromthegrandmasterskitchen.

However, although mobility is a factor in many engines, it's no calculated by the method you're trying to accomplish.

Common features checked with an evaluation function are pawn structures, isolated, backward, and doubled pawns, king safety, and piece mobility/activity, rooks on the seventh, piece mobility and closeness to the center, and restriction of the opponent's pieces.

Not a comprehensive list, but this should be enough for a school project. If you was a better list, search for chess evaluation function or read the source code of another's program, there's plenty of examples on the internet, especially on Github.com.

Mike Jones
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