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Subject: Re: Comet vs Crafty via winboard... a bug hunt

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 06:05:26 05/25/98

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On May 25, 1998 at 08:43:33, Andreas Stabel wrote:

>On May 23, 1998 at 16:11:07, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>
>
>>
>>talked with Tim last night, in fact...  I converted to a more readable
>>PV format several months ago, producing analysis that fits the PGN
>>standard a little better.. and the "23. ... h3 etc" format that is
>>correct for PGN is confusing winboard.  This can be turned off with
>>"display nomovenum" or by leaving off the "show thinking"...
>>
>>And Tim said 3.6.8beta will have better move parsing...  soon...
>
>Just to clear up a misunderstanding, the correct PGN format for giving
>the
>move number of a black move is 23... h3, although the above should be
>accepted
>as an import format.

actualy, it should be 23. ... h3.  If you read the pgn standard, the
move
number should be followed by a period, which should be followed by a
space.
then, the "..." is used to indicate a missing white move.

ie this is the exact move format needed by winboard/xboard, which can
cause
some confusion.

>
>I quote here the relevant text from the standard:
>8.2.2.2: Export format move number indications
>
>There are two export format move number indication formats, one for use
>appearing immediately before a white move element and one for use
>appearing
>immediately before a black move element.  A white move number indication
>is
>formed from the integer giving the fullmove number with a single period
>character appended.  *** A black move number indication is formed from
>the
>integer giving the fullmove number with three period characters
>appended. ***

I believe that this is simply ambiguously written.  IE the syntax
"23... e4" has not been used anywhere that I have seen.  And every
chess publication seems to support the usual 23. ... e4 type notation.

I'll ask Steven, but even a few epd tests I have seen give the same
format for solution moves (as 23. ... e4).

although in this case, it's a moot question since the "..." broke
older winboards (up until tim's latest fix...)

one other thing...  back in the discussion about "move number" it
clearly gives the format 23.<space> as required.  Seems like this has
a hole similar to a few of the ANSI C standard, which is not always
pristine.  :)



>
>All white move elements have a preceding move number indication.  A
>black move
>element has a preceding move number indication only in two cases: first,
>if
>there is intervening annotation or commentary between the black move and
>the
>previous white move; and second, if there is no previous white move in
>the
>special case where a game starts from a position where Black is the
>active
>player.
>
>There are no other cases where move number indications appear in PGN
>export
>format.
>
>Regards
>Andreas Stabel



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