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Subject: Greek Gift?

Author: Michael Neish

Date: 20:17:27 11/21/00



Hello,

I know some programs have code in their evaluations to detect a possible Greek
gift sacrifice, and avoid it.  But is there any program that can iterate through
the moves for a more detailed search?  Is there a way to do this statically?

There are probably several key factors, such as whether the Black pieces can
come to the rescue, whether the White King is vulnerable to in-between checks
which might allow Black to reposition.  I suspect one could analyse these
factors in PreEval(), or earlier one could find out the potential of a Greek
gift sacrifice arising, and possibly alter one's strategy accordingly.  Far
fetched maybe.

I thought of these questions when the following position arose in a computer v
computer game (my program (W) v Sigma Chess (B)).  I don't know whether there is
a forced win - maybe not - but after 12. Bxh7 Kxh7 13. Ng5+, 13. ... Kg8 seems
to lose.  13. ... Kg6 puts up more resistance, but I don't know whether White
will win.

[D]r4rk1/pp1bnppp/1qn1p3/1NbpP3/8/3B1N2/PPPBQPPP/R3K2R w - -

Hiarcs 7 seems to like 14. h4, but still gives the advantage to Black (less than
a Pawn).  Can any program find a win?  Can any human, for that matter?

Cheers,

Mike.




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