Author: Mike Hood
Date: 03:12:44 11/08/01
You can't make a chess program play worse by using EGTBs, can you? Not usually, but look at the following study that involves castling. Crafty has all 5-piece EGTBs at its disposal, in particular KRPKR. It's Black's move, Black has just been checked by White's pawn, White can still castle. 2k5/3P4/8/8/8/8/1r5p/R3K3 . . k . . . . . . . . P . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . r . . . . . p R . . . K . . . Analysis by Crafty 18.10 (using EGTBs): 1. -+ (-#17): 1...Kc8xd7 2. -+ (-#18): 1...Kc8-d8 2.Ra1-a8+ Kd8xd7 3. = (-0.01): 1...Kc8-c7 2.0-0-0 Rb2-b8 3.d7-d8Q+ Rb8xd8 4. +- (#18): 1...Kc8-b7 2.0-0-0 Rb2-b6 3.d7-d8Q Rb6-c6+ 4.Kc1-b2 Rc6-b6+ 5. +- (#9): 1...Kc8-b8 2.d7-d8Q+ Kb8-b7 3.0-0-0 Rb2-b6 4.Rd1-d7+ Kb7-a6 Crafty takes the Pawn, not seeing that White can counter with 0-0-0+, and loses! However, if Crafty is used with no EGTBs, the analysis looks completely different: Analysis by Crafty 18.10 (no EGTBs): 1. -+ (-7.20): 1...Kc8-d8 2.Ra1-a8+ Kd8xd7 3.Ra8-h8 h2-h1Q+ 4.Rh8xh1 Rb2-b1+ 2. +- (7.05): 1...Kc8xd7 2.0-0-0+ Kd7-e6 3.Kc1xb2 Ke6-f5 4.Rd1-h1 Kf5-g4 3. +- (7.05): 1...Kc8-c7 2.d7-d8Q+ Kc7xd8 3.0-0-0+ Kd8-e7 4.Kc1xb2 Ke7-e6 4. +- (7.20): 1...Kc8-b7 2.0-0-0 h2-h1Q 3.Rd1xh1 Kb7-c7 4.Kc1xb2 Kc7xd7 5. +- (#10): 1...Kc8-b8 2.d7-d8Q+ Kb8-b7 3.Qd8-a8+ Kb7-c7 4.Ra1-a7+ Kc7-b6 Crafty makes the correct move, Kc8-d8, and wins. I've tested this position with every chess program available to me. Hiarcs 7.32, Junior 7 and Shredder 5.32 all make the wrong move when using tablebases. Only Fritz 6 and Chess Tiger 14 don't fall into the trap.
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