Author: Alastair Scott
Date: 11:50:41 03/16/03
Go up one level in this thread
On March 16, 2003 at 01:00:39, Igor V. Korshunov wrote:
<big snip>
I think you might catch quite a few programs with the issue noted in the first
two games; I did a quick check and was surprised to see that Chess Tiger 15.0
for Palm gives 'insufficient material to mate' in all of K+B vs K+B, K+B vs K+N
and K+N vs K+N!
Your interpretation of the rules of chess is correct ('The game is drawn when a
position is reached from which a checkmate cannot occur by any possible series
of legal moves, even with the most unskilled play.') but I wonder whether
computer-computer games should be declared drawn with those three material
balances (given that the moves, for one side to be checkmated, would not merely
be 'unskilled' but perverse; no computer would play them, and no human would
play on at all in such a position unless the opponent was in dire time trouble).
Alastair
This page took 0 seconds to execute
Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700
Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.