We can view the patch version as adding some "undermining bonus" for
level pawns, when the defending side can not easily avoid the exchange
by advancing her pawn.
• Case 1) White b2,c3, Black a3,b3:
Black is breaking through, b2 deserves a penalty
• Case 2) White b2,c3, Black a3,c4:
if b2xa3 then White ends up with a weak pawn on a3
and probably a weak pawn on c3 too.
In either case, White can still not safely play b2-b3 and make a
phalanx with c3, which is the essence of a backward pawn definition.
Passed STC in SPRT[0, 4]:
LLR: -2.96 (-2.94,2.94) [0.00,4.00]
Total: 131169 W: 26523 L: 26199 D: 78447
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/
5aefa4d50ebc5902a409a151
ELO 1.19 [-0.38,2.88] (95%)
Passed LTC in SPRT[-3, 1]:
LLR: 2.96 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 24824 W: 3732 L: 3617 D: 17475
http://tests.stockfishchess.org/tests/view/
5af04d3f0ebc5902a88b2e55
ELO 1.27 [-1.21,3.70] (95%)
Closes https://github.com/official-stockfish/Stockfish/pull/1584
How to continue from there?
There were some promising tests a couple of months ago about adding
a lever condition for king danger in evaluate.cpp, maybe it would
be time to re-try this after all the recent changes in pawns.cpp
Bench:
4773882