Author: Howard Exner
Date: 18:03:51 01/09/98
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On January 09, 1998 at 17:45:31, Bruce Moreland wrote: > >On January 09, 1998 at 14:26:44, Howard Exner wrote: > >>r3rk2/ppq2pbQ/2p1b1p1/4p1B1/2P3P1/3P1B2/P3PPK1/1R5R w - - id"Seiriwan - >>Sokolov,A"; bm Qxg7+; >> >>Is this an example of a singular extension mate theme? >>Will this be difficult to solve as a Queen and rook are >>sacrificed followed by the "quiet" Bf6? > >I don't know whether these mates are efficiently found with singular >extension, that was just a nasty rumor that I started. > >I don't know if singular extension is good for anything. The paper that >I read originally about it claimed a pretty big benefit from this, but a >subsequent paper claimed much more modest benefit, and there were >caveats that the reason it might work for DT could have something to do >with DT's search, which was pretty sloppy near the tips. > >Absolutely no offense to DT or DB or DT or Hsu or Campbell, but, I think >the two statements taken with the largest number of grains of salt by >this community in the last ten years are: > >1) Botvinnik had a working chess program. >2) Singular extension is mythical and magic. > >I don't know of anyone who will make a statement of the form: "I/We do >singular extension, it helped us a lot, we proved to ourselves that it >is a good thing, and for you guys who are curious, here is a position >that we think it helps a lot in, and here is some other cool info >involving lots of other interesting numbers, for instance, look how many >more we get in the ECM suite with this!" > >If someone wants to make all or part of the above statement, I would be >delighted to hear it. > >This problem is very hard for my program. I do not know why. I suspect >it is hard because white goes down a tremendous amount of material and >doesn't get it back immediately. This is similar to Wac 141 (for me), >although harder. Mine is apparently vulnerable to this sort of thing. > >I bet other programs get it quickly. I am always interested in the problems that program X finds quickly while program Y struggles. It makes me curious as to what makes them tick. Rebel 8 for example finds WAC 141 rather quickly but has a very hard time finding this above mate in 7. I think it is the quiet move, Bf6 that is the stumbling block for Rebel. I'm not a programmer but follow with interest this recent Singular extension thread. It sounds like a similar technique humans employ of giving themselves two moves in a row to help determine tactical candidate moves.
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