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Subject: Re: More information + a couple of diagrams

Author: Ricardo Gibert

Date: 23:07:37 10/07/00

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On October 08, 2000 at 02:00:25, Dave Gomboc wrote:

>On October 08, 2000 at 01:37:20, Ricardo Gibert wrote:
>
>>On October 08, 2000 at 01:27:15, Dave Gomboc wrote:
>>
>>>On October 07, 2000 at 22:29:44, Ricardo Gibert wrote:
>>>
>>>>On October 07, 2000 at 19:32:18, Vincent Diepeveen wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On October 07, 2000 at 15:16:17, Peter McKenzie wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>The position where the solution is most in doubt:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>[D]2k2K2/8/pp6/2p5/2P5/PP6/8/8 w - -
>>>>>>
>>>>>>The authors say that after 1.Ke8 Kc7 2.Ke7, black draws by 2...b5 with a
>>>>>>stalemate motif after 3.Ke6 b4 4.a4 Kb6.
>>>>>
>>>>>nice motif for humans. peanut for the computer to see.
>>>>>however, after 1.a4 i get a 0.00 score from diep initially,
>>>>>now there are sure some bugs in this version, as i'm busy rewriting
>>>>>its hashing to 64 bits (which asks for bugs of course), but 0.00 is
>>>>>pretty hard. it is basically doubting between 0.50 and 0.00 on most
>>>>>plies. where the stalemate position is 50 moves of shuffling around
>>>>>with king and score +1.31. this version not showing +3.x scores weirdly.
>>>>>
>>>>>what is the win with a4 which i'm missing? and 20 plies of search too,
>>>>>which is hard to believe in this position. with all 3 vs 2 egtb attached
>>>>>and 20 plies of search with the white king already penetrated i either
>>>>>expect to see +mateXX or see many pawns go or see draw score if it's
>>>>>a draw. Now i get a slight draw score depending upon depth it is 0.00 or
>>>>>+0.50 for white. That's not very convincing.
>>>>>
>>>>>>Of course white can vary, and they quote: 4.axb4 cxb4 5.Kd5 a5 6.Kc5 a4=
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Or: 2.a4 b5 which is supposed to be drawn too.
>>>>>
>>>>>>I haven't checked these lines thoroughly, but quickly playing some of them vs my
>>>>>>program suggests they are probably correct.  Certainly its possible there is a
>>>>>>mistake though.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>The other controversial positon:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>[D]8/1k6/p4p2/2p2P2/p1P2P2/2P5/P1K5/8 w - -
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Kc1 is analysed using the 'theory of corresponding squares', something I don't
>>>>>>really understand :-)  I haven't analysed this one at all, I will just quote the
>>>>>>main variation:
>>>>>
>>>>>i have wasted a full evening to go to a meeting where the writers
>>>>>about the 'corresponding square' theory were there.
>>>>>
>>>>>it's all big nonsense. the problem is to figure out what the corresponding
>>>>>squares are. it's like saying: "find best move M and play perfect
>>>>>chess". Now the problem is to find move M. So is the problem to
>>>>>find the corresponding squares. There is no algorithm for it at all.
>>>>>After wasting hours of talk to the authors who themselves aren't strong
>>>>>chessplayers at all, they couldn't give any algorithm for it, and it
>>>>>all appeared to come down to how well you can define squares as being
>>>>>the corresponding square!
>>>>>
>>>>>>1.Kc1! Kc7 2.Kd1! Kd7 3.Ke1 Kc7 4.Kf2 Kd8 5.Ke2 Ke8 6.Kd3 Kd7 7.Ke3 Kd6 8.Ke4
>>>>>>"(forcing the pawn to advance)" a3 9.Kd3 a5 10.Kc2! a4 "The posiiton on the
>>>>>>Q-side is blocked; a quadratic system with non-ambiguous rear (711) now
>>>>>>operates."  Go figure!  11.Kc2! Ke7 12.Kd3 Kc6 13.Ke2 Kd6 14.Kf2 Kd7 15.Ke3 Ke7
>>>>>>16.Kf3 and wins
>>>>>
>>>>>that's 16 moves. I'm searching 40 plies. that's 20 moves. So i see
>>>>>4 moves deeper as this. Also i have made  afew moves and then also searched
>>>>>40 plies. that's like 23 ply in the diagram position. So obviously this
>>>>>trick isn't the problem here!
>>>>>
>>>>>>I didn't play thru. that variation, but clearly its at least 31ply and white
>>>>>>hasn't even captured a pawn yet!  Let me see, finished with white K on f3, so it
>>>>>>needs another 3 moves at the very least to capture c5 so this problem looks like
>>>>>>it is at the VERY least 34ply deep and probably more.
>>>>>
>>>>>I searched if i count the moves made first with it 44 plies or something
>>>>>and don't see a win at all.
>>>>>
>>>>>>cheers,
>>>>>>Peter
>>>>
>>>>If you are really interested in the theory of corresponding squares, you may
>>>>want to have a look at the book, "The Final Countdown" by Willem Hajenius &
>>>>Herman van Riemsdijk.
>>>>
>>>>As for translating it into a computer comprehensible algorithm, I don't think it
>>>>is practical.
>>>
>>>Your opinion notwithstanding, Murray Campbell did it over ten years ago. :-)
>>>
>>>Dave
>>
>>Very interesting. Is there a download article on this? I'm curious if this a
>>practical algorithm, why it is not being used in programs. Does it include
>>positions where pawns can move forward? Or only positions where they are
>>blocked?
>
>In fact, there's an entire Ph.D. thesis on it. :-)  I imagine it isn't being
>used in (at least most) programs because it's not perfect either, and the
>brute-force method worked somewhat better overall than it did.  However, it did
>handle some positions much better than a brute forcer.  The pawns didn't have to
>be blocked, but of course that makes it easier (mind you, that makes it easier
>for a brute force program too!)
>
>Dave

Then I seem to have guessed right about its practicality.



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