Well almost every computer playing chess algorithm uses piece counts to evaluate the quality of chess positions, because barring an amazing tactical combination (which can usually be computationally eliminated past 5 moves) or a crushing positional advantage, a loss of pieces will mean the victory of the person with more pieces.
I would argue you see far more pattern recognition at play in chess than you do of heuristics. Heuristics is more common at lower levels of play.
When Grandmaster's rely on pattern recognition, they are using their vast repertoire of remembered positions as a way to identify opportunities of play. It's not that they think the move looks right, it's that they played a lot of tactical puzzles, and because of this pattern recognition, they are now capable of identifying decisive attacks that can then be objectively calculated within the brain to be seen as leading to checkmate or a piece advantage.
They don't make the move because of the pattern or heuristic. They make the move because the pattern allowed them to see the objective advantage in making that move.
------
As for your point about a move being objectively good: Unless you completely solve the game of chess, there will never be always one move in every situation that's objectively the best. In many games (and you will see this in computer analysis), 2 or 3 moves will hold high promise, while others will hold less. From an objective standpoint all these three moves could be objectively better than all others, but it could be hard to justify that one is necessarily better than another.
The reason for this is partly because between two objectively 'equal' moves, there may be a rational reason for me to justify one over the other based on personal considerations (e.g. because I am familiar with the opening, because I played and analyzed many games similar to this line, because I can play this end game well, etc.) Decisions based on those considerations are not what I would call heuristics, because they are based on objective reasons even if heuristics may have contributed to their formation within the mind.
"Well almost every computer playing chess algorithm uses piece counts to evaluate the quality of chess positions"
This is quite wrong. They use a score that material is only one (although a major) factor of.
"because barring an amazing tactical combination (which can usually be computationally eliminated past 5 moves) or a crushing positional advantage, a loss of pieces will mean the victory of the person with more pieces."
Again, this simply isn't true. For one thing, talk of "piece counts" and even "increasing piece counts", rather than material, is very odd coming from a serious chessplayer. Aside from that, time, space, piece mobility and coordination, king safety, pawn structure, including passed pawns, how far pawns are advanced, and numerous other factors play a role. All of these can provide counterplay against a material advantage ... it need not be "crushing", merely adequate. And tactical combinations need not be "amazing", merely adequate. And whether these factors are adequate requires more than 5 moves of lookahead because chess playing programs are only able to do static analysis and have no "grasp" of positions. All of which adds up to the need for move tree scores to be made up of far more than "piece counts".
You're right that material is the correct term. I was trying to use language appropriate for someone thinking about programming a chess machine.
I perhaps resorted to hyperbole in my original description for the sack of emphasis. You are correct that at higher levels of play, positional considerations matter far more than material considerations. The advantage does not need to be amazing, but adequate. However, as material begins to accumulate the advantage one must have in position in order to justify the loss will increasingly require a position that moves into the realm of "amazing" and "crushing".
You are right that objectively calculating the positional strength of a position is very difficult to do without immense brute forcing, and likely needs more than 5 moves ahead of insight. When I said that I was really referring quite strictly to tactical combinations where the vast majority of tactical mistakes can be caught quickly.
I would argue you see far more pattern recognition at play in chess than you do of heuristics. Heuristics is more common at lower levels of play.
When Grandmaster's rely on pattern recognition, they are using their vast repertoire of remembered positions as a way to identify opportunities of play. It's not that they think the move looks right, it's that they played a lot of tactical puzzles, and because of this pattern recognition, they are now capable of identifying decisive attacks that can then be objectively calculated within the brain to be seen as leading to checkmate or a piece advantage.
They don't make the move because of the pattern or heuristic. They make the move because the pattern allowed them to see the objective advantage in making that move.
------
As for your point about a move being objectively good: Unless you completely solve the game of chess, there will never be always one move in every situation that's objectively the best. In many games (and you will see this in computer analysis), 2 or 3 moves will hold high promise, while others will hold less. From an objective standpoint all these three moves could be objectively better than all others, but it could be hard to justify that one is necessarily better than another.
The reason for this is partly because between two objectively 'equal' moves, there may be a rational reason for me to justify one over the other based on personal considerations (e.g. because I am familiar with the opening, because I played and analyzed many games similar to this line, because I can play this end game well, etc.) Decisions based on those considerations are not what I would call heuristics, because they are based on objective reasons even if heuristics may have contributed to their formation within the mind.