Import EPD | Allow New Positions

[gbertazzo]

I tried searching the forum, but searching the subject keyords they are all "too common", so I had to post the question here.
What's for Allow New Positions?
How does it work?
Does it allow to grow the tree?

[jws555]

Hi, gbertazzo!

I'll try to answer your question as I understand it.

Assume you create an ebook and export to an EPD file.

At a later time you export additonal positions to this EPD file. Or you add positions by editing the file in some other manner like
pasting from another source which is possible since it is just a text file.

Outside of COW you analyze the positions in the EPD file with a chess engine which should append such information as analysis depth, number of nodes, evaluation, ... .

Now you want to import the EPD info back into your original ebook. Do you want to import only EPD info for positions in the
original ebook or do you want to include the positions you added? That's what "Allow New Positions" allows you to
select.

Regards,
John

[gbertazzo]

Hi, gbertazzo!
Now you want to import the EPD info back into your original ebook. Do you want to import only EPD info for positions in the
original ebook or do you want to include the positions you added? That's what "Allow New Positions" allows you to
select.

Thank you very much for answering.
This is what I expected, but this is not what's happening.
COW Pro last version, 183.
These are the exact steps.

1 Created new ebook Test1.4md with inside only 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6
2 Copied it as Test2.epd
3 Added 3 Bb5 to Test2.4md
4 From Tes2.4md exported Test.epd with 6 positions
5 Closed Test2.4md
6 Opened Test1.4md
7 Started the engine
8 Started analysis of Test.epd
9 Got msgbox "An imported position did not exist in this book. Possibly these EPD records were exported from another book. Do you want to continue analyzing this file?"
10 Answered Yes
11 After the end of analysis I exited and reentered Test1.4md. No New position 3 Bb5.

Did I get it wrong?

[jws555]

Hi, gbertazzo,

Doesn't look to me like you did anything wrong. I did what you tried and got the same result.

Maybe I don't really understant what this is supposed to do or maybe it's a prograj bug(?)

If I discover anything I'll respond again but for now I'm baffled. Times like this are when I wish Mike
would add to the conversation.

Regards,
John

[DrAwkward]

I have not checked it.
But you say you imported a new position but you didnt add the move 3.Bb5 to the excisting position (manualy or with CTRL-T) after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6. So the program is in my opinion doing the correct thing, because you dont want all possible moves that lead to a certain position on youre screen.

For example : if you enter the line 1.e4 d5 2.ed5 Qd5 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 and after that 1.e4 d5 2.ed5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Nf6?? you dont want to see 4.Nf3 but probably only 4.Nxd5

Hope this explains a bit.

[gbertazzo]

Hello DrAwkward,

Thanks for your answer.
I wasn't implying that something was wrong, simply I couldn't understand what "allow new positions" was for.
I replicated the same, and Ctrl-T nothing changed, said that there weren't transpositions, and in fact there are no transpositions, so this works exactly as I expected.
I imagine that a there is a lot of knowledge around, but it's not easy to search, so you need to go through all the forum, all the videos, all Facebook, and this is not so practical.
Luckily I found a way to get what I wanted.
Exporting to pgn, analyzing and then reimporting the pgn to a new ebook I get what I want, new positions found analyzing added to the ebook.
After the first time it becomes painful, but if you do it only once it's an acceptable way to fill many voids.

[DrAwkward]

Hello gbertazzo,

very strange, when i first enter the moves 1.e4 d5 2.ed5 Qd5 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 and after that 1.e4 d5 2.ed5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Nf6
When hitting CRTRL T the move Nf3 appears. When this is not the case then something is wrong.

You simplefy it, first enter 1.e4 e5 2.d4 then enter 1.d4 e5 and hit CTRL-T this realy should give you 2.e4

I have no idea why this wouldnt work on youre system. Any other COW users have the same issue ?? Please let us know.

[gbertazzo]

Hello DrAwkward,

The explanation is simple.
In your example there is a transposition, and CTRL-T correctly fixes it.
In my example there are no transpositions, but there is a new move.
In the past I knew that new positions were not allowed, so no new positions was OK, but when I found "Allow New Positions" this made me curious.
So, if new positions are not allowed I'd like to know what "Allow New Positions" stands for.

[DrAwkward]

I checked it.
You are absolutely correct. The new position isnt entered into the database.

A little question i have for Mike, what would be the reason for importing epd positions into an EBook. These new positions arent linked to any other position so the only way you would use these is when you (accidentally) would enter CTRL-T in a position and then the new position could get linked to an excisting position. So you could better copy an EBook, strip the lines you dont need and then import that stripped EBook. In that way you are sure that new positions are also available when you play thru an EBook.

[roryelila]

I have not checked it.
But you say you imported a new position but you didnt add the move 3.Bb5 to the excisting position (manualy or with CTRL-T) after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6. So the program is in my opinion doing the correct thing, because you dont want all possible moves that lead to a certain position on youre screen.

For example : if you enter the line 1.e4 d5 2.ed5 Qd5 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 and after that 1.e4 d5 2.ed5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Nf6?? you dont want to see 4.Nf3 but probably only 4.Nxd5 Monkey Mart

Hope this explains a bit.

Yes, if you do not add moves like 3.Bb5 to the current position in your database, the program will only display previously entered moves without including new moves.