Author: G. R. Morton
Date: 10:48:10 03/10/00
The reason I asked about the best END game software below is the following simple position which Junior6a and Rebel 10B surprisingly failed to evaluate correctly on a 550MHZ (96Mg RAM) machine: Black : pawns at h7,b6 and h5, king at d6, rook at c7. White : pawns at a2,b2, and d3, king at g2, rook at f7. White to move. The average club player can quickly see that RxR?? gives an easy win for black, since after the exchange, black simply uses his h pawn to draw the white king away from the queen side on which black pushes through. Both Junior6a and Reb10B (noted for excellent positional play) can’t see this (in anything like reasonable time). Hiarcs7.1 also want to exchange rooks for a while but then smells a rat and chooses the correct Rf2. MchessPro7 immediately makes the correct Rf2 (I guess due to its good endgame table base). True, black is probably winning anyway, but should not these programs should select better? What does Shredder do? Another question: the above position is from an Estrin – Hans Berliner correspondence game discussed in Berliner’s ‘The System’ book. The previous black move was …Rc8-c7 to which he gives a good move exclamation, but why? Surely not just because it tempts white with the sucker RxR. To protect his h7 pawn (which could fall if instead Rc8-c2+ …Kg3, Rxb2 …Rxa6) since black can always play h5 after the c2 check? None of the programs I have play this “Rc8-c7!”. Sorry I’m not sharper, but why is this Zwischenzug Rc7 a good move? Does Shredder, the super endgame software, play Rc7 instead of the natural Rc2+ ? Thanks.
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