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Subject: Re: new autoplayer interface standard

Author: Dan Newman

Date: 12:11:58 09/17/98

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On September 17, 1998 at 14:21:45, Robert Hyatt wrote:

>On September 17, 1998 at 14:03:46, Dan Newman wrote:
>
>>On September 17, 1998 at 10:10:37, Roberto Waldteufel wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>On September 16, 1998 at 21:20:31, Serge Desmarais wrote:
>>>
>>>>On September 15, 1998 at 17:19:30, Roberto Waldteufel wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>>    [snip]
>>>>>
>>>>>Hi Bob,
>>>>>
>>>>>In fact, the laws of chess are very specific about draw offers.
>>>>>
>>>>>1) It is only allowed to offer a draw when it is your turn to play, not while
>>>>>your opponent is thinking (or searching).
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>In my 1993 FIDE rule, it says you CAN offer a draw on your opponent's time, but
>>>>if he complains about that to the arbiter, you would get reprimmended. If your
>>>>opponent accept the draw offer, then it has no consequences. I did not
>>>>check/know if the FIDE changed this rule?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>Serge Desmarais
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>[snip]
>>>>
>>>
>>>Hi Serge,
>>>
>>>My understanding is that you are not allowed to do this, although it is not
>>>considered too heinous a misdemeanour. That is why you get a reprimand from the
>>>arbiter. If you persist in offering draws on your opponent's time, the arbiter
>>>can be more severe. In fact, if you should offer a draw before moving, your
>>>opponent has the right to insist on seeing your move before deciding whether or
>>>not to accept your draw offer. The only correct time to offer the draw is after
>>>making your move and before pressing your clock. Having made the offer, you
>>>press your clock and your opponent decides in his time whether or not to accept
>>>it.
>>>
>>>If we are going into detail, the recent changes to the laws introduced a new
>>>requirement that draw offers must also be recorded in the game score kept by the
>>>players (by an = after the move).
>>>
>>>Best wishes,
>>>Roberto
>>
>>I wonder how this can be handled properly in this autoplayer protocol?
>>Currently with xboard, if an engine sends a move, xboard immediately
>>hits the clocks and sends the move to the other side, so we can't now
>>properly send a draw offer...  On the other hand we can send a draw
>>offer followed by a move.  I suppose the draw offer is sent to the
>>opponent first and then the move.  I wonder how many engines take that
>>move into account before accepting or declining the draw?  Perhaps the
>>"draw" command could have an attached move: draw Nf7+.
>>
>>-Dan.
>
>I bend the rules here.  You are supposed to make a move, offer a draw, and hit
>the clock.  I do all *three* simultaneously... because I send a move, then I
>send "draw?" and hit the clock, and all three occur within microseconds of each
>other so that they are effectively done at the same instant.  We could add a
>"press clock" command but that seems stupid.  But it would fix the protocol as
>follows:
>
>move Nf7+
>draw
>press clock
>
>In this protocol, I don't think it matters.  Programs won't (I hope, and this
>could be an issue maybe) spew out a zillion "draw" offers while the other side
>is thinking.  That *could* affect the other program obviously.  ICC solves this
>for us, but the protocol wouldn't unless we address it.  We could disallow draw
>offers without intervening "move xxx" commands to avoid any possible abuse?

I agree about "press clock"; it would be there to solve only this one
problem and yet would be required after every move...  Perhaps the interfaces
could be written to suppress multiple draw offers--so the hurt would only
be on the machine of the abuser.  (This assumes all interface programmers
are pure of heart and mind of course.)

-Dan.



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