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Subject: Re: Tablebases and 50 moves rule

Author: Helmut Conrady

Date: 23:46:40 09/14/01

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On September 14, 2001 at 20:32:20, Uri Blass wrote:

>On September 14, 2001 at 20:00:34, Helmut Conrady wrote:
>
>>On September 14, 2001 at 19:50:16, Dan Andersson wrote:
>>
>>>The rules state that you have to mate in 50 moves. Then it doesn't matter if you
>>>might mate in 51. An analogous example is if you are 45 moves into the 50 move
>>>rule and you have a forced mate in 6 moves. Then its also a draw. The only point
>>>is that if you follow the rules of chess you cannot claim a win, unless your
>>>opponemt allows it.
>>
>>The 50 move rule is useful ONLY for human play, because no arbiter can say,
>>whether a special position on the board is a exception for a win in more than >50 moves.
>>But there are arbiters that can say: The TBS! Why a draw, when a position
>>is won after a couple of best moves??
>>
>>Helmut
>
>The 50 move rule is relevant also for computer chess games.
>Chess is a game with rules and players should follow the same rules.
>
>TBs also do not tell you the best moves.
>It is possible that TBs give you a drawing move because of the 50 move rule when
>there is a winning move when the distance to mate is longer but the distance to
>conversion is small enough to avoid the draw.
>
>If you play with different rules then you play another game and not chess.
>I have no problem if you like more another game but in this case you should not
>call the relevant game of computers in the name chess.
>
>Uri

IMO the 50-move-rule is for human play only and not a essential part of the game
(it has been changed 7 times in the last century!). In time of TBs the
50-move-rule IN COMPUTERCHESS is against the spirit of the game.

But the argument above (what to do, when a program sees a mate in a TB-based
search) is very good for the other side.

Helmut

Helmut



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