trying to get rid of some half ply reductions and simplify the code

Passed as simplification
Short  time control:
LLR: 2.96 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 9829 W: 2142 L: 1998 D: 5689

long time control:
LLR: 2.95 (-2.94,2.94) [-3.00,1.00]
Total: 27162 W: 4802 L: 4692 D: 17668

new bench 7284120