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01-14-2014 , 12:13 AM

rooooktaker

journeyman

Join Date: Dec 2013 Posts: 274

Ok so, a buddy of mine is kinda learning chess, and we used to play Risk together. When we played, i always referred to the country's, as squares. kinda like a chess board. So, he is learning, and at some point i say to try to think of the board in squares( as in weak, strong etc.). So he asks well, what is the most important square. My noob thought was F7, but then was like nah, its gota b E4-5 or D4-5. Or is there really an answer, as in game pending?. thx 4 trolls and serious replies

edit: i said E5

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01-14-2014 , 12:37 AM

Rei Ayanami

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Aug 2012 Posts: 11,685

Hard question to give an unqualified answer to. It depends on the game state.

If I could write a program capable of quantifying each square's value at any given point of a game, I'd feed it a huge GM vs. GM database and have it spit out a "heat map" of average square importance. (I'd filter out endgames.)

I'd expect e4/e5 to be the hottest, followed by d4/d5. As far as the second rank goes, I think f2/f7 would be its most critical squares.

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01-14-2014 , 12:57 AM

BobJoeJim

Tournament Director

Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 11,200

I guess it depends on how you define a square's "importance". Do we mean how important it is to occupy that square? Or to control it? Or do we mean the most vulnerable squares? One could perhaps even argue that the most important square is whatever square the king is on, if one squinted just right.

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01-14-2014 , 03:34 PM

rooooktaker

journeyman

Join Date: Dec 2013 Posts: 274

Kinda what i though, its really impossible to tell. His question was simply which is most important. Kind of like in risk, say the middle east or russia is most important.

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01-15-2014 , 07:48 PM

mangler241

grinder

Join Date: Apr 2007 Posts: 534

e4/e5/d4/d5; that's why Informator-ese has a symbol for the centre.

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01-16-2014 , 01:27 AM

A-Rod's Cousin

banned

Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 37,130

Interesting question. I'd like to see a heat map of the squares, too.

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02-15-2014 , 05:17 PM

Rei Ayanami

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Aug 2012 Posts: 11,685

(Preempting pedantry: Yes, we know, it's not the same thing.)

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02-16-2014 , 12:06 PM

Sholar

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 6,357

Ruy Lopez as white bias detected.

That's a nice chart, though, and a great idea for how to answer the question; thanks for creating. Now that I think about it, it wouldn't be that terrible to try to recreate that with squares attacked rather than occupied (assuming one counts x-ray targeting)...

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02-16-2014 , 06:47 PM

Rei Ayanami

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Aug 2012 Posts: 11,685

I didn't make it. My art style is sleeker and I wouldn't use the word "utilization."

So given that, recreating it that way would be very hard.

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02-26-2014 , 01:56 AM

#10

Sholar

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 6,357

Same data (well, whatever RJF as White games I had, but including the moves by his opponent), both the occupied and targeted views.

Occupied doesn't count initial positions; targeted makes no effort to correct for anything and is basically the squares attacked on an empty board by the just-moved piece.

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