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Subject: Re: KPKP .nbw & .nbb differ ... yes symmetry

Author: Marc Bourzutschky

Date: 03:01:16 02/05/03

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On February 05, 2003 at 04:25:46, GuyHaworth wrote:

>
>Maybe they differ because an a1-h8 rotation does not leave the position
>unchanged when there are Pawns on the board.
>
>So ... they wouldn't be the same even if there was no e.p. rule.
>
>g

The position does not have to be unchanged, only a 1-1 mapping needs to exist.
The symmetry actually used is:

1. Flip the colors of all pieces
2. Flip the board (a1 <-> a8, h1 <-> h8, etc) including e.p. square
3. Change side to move

For KPKP all positions in .nbb can be mapped to a position in .nbw this way, so
.nbb and .nbw have the same information content.  There must be another reason
why Eugene keeps both files, probably more a convenience than anything else.
This will get more interesting once he generates KRPKRP, etc.  Note that probing
code needs to be aware of the above transformation even for non-symmetrical
endings because, e.g., endings such as KPKBP.NBW have to get mapped to KBPKP.NBB
(including potential e.p. squares).

-Marc



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