Author: Jeroen van Dorp
Date: 11:45:04 01/06/02
[D]8/8/1n6/7P/2p5/2P5/p1K5/k7 w - - 0 1
White to move and win.
After trying to solve it myself I quickly came to the conclusion that this was
an easy one, just steaming up with the pawn to h8, promote and checkmate. The
black knight is helpless.
When I checked the solution with a lot of ches engines I was pleased to find
that -what's new- *I* had overlooked a clever move (as usual combined with a
minor promotion) and that some chess engines had great difficulty in determining
the right solution.
The move 2...Nxc3 is crucial, as well as the solution to that move 3.h8R
1. h6 Nd5 2. h7 Nxc3 3. h8=R (3. h8=Q {stalemate}) 3... Nb1 4. Rh1 c3 5. Rh4
Na3+ 6.Kxc3 {from now on five men tablebase} 6... Nb1+ 7. Kc2 Na3+ 8. Kb3 Nb1 9.
Rh2 Nd2+ 10. Rxd2 Kb1 11. Rd1# 1-0
*Fritz 7* didn't find the shortest move from the start position. It was a
special case walking through the variations. It jumped up and down and two and
fro between alternative moves, from mate in 30 to mate in two, from equal
position to advantage for white.
*Fritz 7 (No MMX)* didn't do the job as well, yet was less jumpy in it's
analysis.
*Fritz 5.32* couldn't find the right solution as well (from the start) and
*Fritz 6* came to the same conclusions as 5.32.
*Shredder 6* was the only to find the solution immediately, and recognized the
mate in 11 and the minor promotion from the startposition.
*Junior 7* found it too after a short diversion, as did Gandalf 5.
Also *Hiarcs 7.32* took some time, but found it quite rapidly.
*Gambit Tiger 14* and *Chess Tiger 14* didn't find the minor promotion when
analysing the start position, and stuck to 0.00 and 3.h8Q?
It was also hard to convince *Nimzo 8*. It understood white to be winning, but
couldn't find the mate quickly (or at all, I cut off the analysis after a few
minutes)
*Rebel Century 4.0* had no trouble finding the right move, the conclusion that
white is on a winning streak, and the minor promotion, however the mate sequence
wasn't found quickly. After 3 minutes 50 seconds it told me mate in 13.
*Goliath Light 1.5* took 8 secs to draw the right conclusion.
*Comet B37* took some 18 seconds to tell me a mate in 10, but that maybe because
a different way to count until mate.
And *Crafty 18.12* needed 7 seconds.
*Yace 0.99.56* (I hope I didn't forget an essential number in it's name) found
it in the blink of an eye (mate in 11)
*SOS* did'n't see the minor promotion in it's analysis from the start position
and gave it a big fat 0.00
When loading Pepito v1.42 my machine crashed so...
...then I got bored.
J.
all on PIII@840MHz
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