Tempo

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In chess, a tempo refers to a “turn” or single move. When a player achieves a result in one fewer move, he gains a tempo and when he takes one more move than necessary he loses a tempo.

Tempo Bonus#

To avoid score oscillations on the parity of the search depth, some programs give a small bonus for having the right to move - the premise being that it is usually advantageous to be able to do something, except in the zugzwang positions. That bonus is useful mainly in the opening and middle game positions, but can be counterproductive in the endgame.

See also#

• Development
• Gambit
• Mobility
• Null Move Observation
• Odd-Even Effect

Score Oscillation

• Opening
• Side to move
• Space
• Standing Pat in Quiescence Search
• Tempo (engine)
• Transposition
• Triangulation
• Variable Null Move Bound
• Zugzwang

Forum Posts#

1997 …#

• PROG: odd/even score alternance by Rémi Coulom, rgcc, June 5, 1997
• pv score oscillation by Willie Wood, CCC, October 18, 1997

2000 …#

• Bonus points for side to move in qsearch? by Leen Ammeraal, CCC, January 06, 2001
• Testposition - The Vital Tempo by Sune Larsson, CCC, March 15, 2001
• How to tune the bonus for having the move by Don Dailey, CCC, June 01, 2008 [2]
• Side to Move Bonus - does it help? by Mark Lefler, CCC, May 29, 2009

2010 …#

• Why works an oscillating TempoValue? by Marek Kwiatkowski, CCC, January 21, 2011
• stand pat or side to move bonus by Larry Kaufman, CCC, March 22, 2012
• First move advantage by Lyudmil Tsvetkov, CCC, June 19, 2013 » Opening
• Symmetrical evaluation and endgame by Hamfer, OpenChess Forum, June 02, 2016 » Asymmetric Evaluation
• side-to-move bonus for several eval terms by Sander Maassen vd Brink, CCC, October 27, 2017
• On Tempo by Ed Schroder, CCC, August 15, 2018

External Links#

• Tempo (chess) from Wikipedia
• Tempo, a fundamental concept in chess from chessguru.net
• Yamandu Costa - Tempo de Criança, 2003, YouTube Video

References#

1. ↑ Siegbert Tarrasch (1931). Das Schachspiel Die Eröffnung I. Allgemeiner Teil Die Kräfte, Der Raum, Die Zeit, Tempobilanz (German)
2. ↑ The creativity of Don Dailey by Miguel A. Ballicora, CCC, November 25, 2013

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