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Subject: Re: A search question that has to do with voluntary nature of draws

Author: Dann Corbit

Date: 19:00:16 05/10/01

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On May 10, 2001 at 21:57:14, Dann Corbit wrote:

>On May 10, 2001 at 21:41:31, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>
>>On May 10, 2001 at 20:15:19, Dann Corbit wrote:
>>
>>>Consider this position:
>>>[D]r1b1r1k1/p4pp1/2p4p/n7/2PP4/2N2Nq1/PPQKBnP1/R1B3R1 b - -
>>>Black is behind in material.  Black has a mate in 4.
>>>
>>>Suppose at some juncture of the game black could claim checkmate by the 50 move
>>>rule if black so desired.  Would your search algorithm claim the draw or ignore
>>>it and go for the checkmate?
>>
>>
>>Crafty searches it as a zero-sum game.  If it sees a forced mate, it realizes
>>that the opponent will claim the draw at move 50 if he can...  Crafty would not
>>walk into the draw voluntarily unless it could find nothing better (ie it might
>>try a pawn push or capture that resets the 50-move counter without giving up
>>the forced mate opportunity.
>
>I mean it the other way around.  The opponent has done a 3-repeat or the
>opponent has gone 50 non-reversible moves.  It's your turn to play.  Will your
>program seek the mate or claim the draw or something else

Hmmm... the "ignore 3 repeat" extra search would only be optimally good for one
ply extra ply because the opponent can call it also (but you could play on if
the worst you can do is a draw anyway -- you might have an opponent that does
not recognize 3-move repetition or that has a bug in 3-move repetition detection
(there are lots of these programs!))



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