Author: Laurence Chen
Date: 07:15:28 12/24/00
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On December 24, 2000 at 08:02:18, David Rasmussen wrote: >Actually, it has nothing to do with christmas, but here goes: > >[D]8/8/5n1p/p1k1pBpP/1p2P1P1/1P2K3/P7/8 b - - 0 1 > >This position is from Damjanovic-Fischer, 1970. I've gotten it from Silman's >masterpiece, How To Reassess Your Chess. > >He uses it as a demonstration of how important it is to penetrate the enemy >position with the king, in such an endgame, and that bishops aren't superior to >knights in endgames with pawns only on one side of the board. > >The line played was 1...Kb5 2. Kd3 a4 3. bxa4+ Kxa4 4. Kc4 Ka3 5. Kc5 Kxa2 6. >Kxb4 Kb2 > >Here, Silman says that black is winning, because the black king gets into the >enemy position, and because the knight is now equal to the bishop. > >My problem is that Chezzz doesn't find this line. Now Chezzz is no genius, >especially not in endgame situations, but when I run a search from the resulting >position, it gives black a +0.60 advantage, so it should be able to see this. >Never the less, from the starting position, after searching 15 plies deep, it >still evaluates the position as 0.01 with a boring line of just moving the >pieces around. > >How do other programs do in this position? It doesn't seem very difficult. > >What is the most important evaluation factor, that Chezzz might be missing, that >will decide this position? > The most relevant factor in this position is the position of the pawns. Notice that White's pawns are all in the same square color of the Bishop, and Black's pawns are in the opposite color of the Bishop. Here is a classical case where White's Bishop cannot even attack any of Black's pawn which gives Black a free hand to maneuver, and also the Bishop is tied down to defence of the pawns. This is a easy position to evaluate. Your problem seems that you have been biased to general rules. The rules of chess is very simple, there are no rules, the only way to assess a position correctly is to analyze the position deeply. It's easier said than done. Best wishes in your pursuit of improving your chess engine. Regards, Laurence
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