Author: Colin Frayn
Date: 04:07:55 11/03/01
OK, this is probably the stupidest post you'll ever read on CCC. Take the following completely trivial endgame position; [D]8/8/8/3P3k/K3p3/8/8/8 w - - It's obvious to anyone who's ever vaguely heard of chess that this is a draw. However, if one carefully codes in the promotion squares algorithm, it's clear that the white king can catch the black pawn, but the black king cannot catch the white pawn (as it has the move). Now, the problem is that (obviously) if the white king attempts to catch the black pawn then of course the black king moves one square closer to the white pawn, and can now catch it. So, statically, how do you say that this is obviously a draw? Bear in mind that you have to be careful about similar positions where the extra square advantage given by the side with a passed pawn having the move might make all the difference. This has got to be easy, right? Incidentally, just so that I cover my back and prove that I'm not being totally stupid, Crafty v18.11 static evaluation scores this as +6.20 for white. Cheers, Col
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