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Subject: Re: Shredder wins in Graz after controversy

Author: martin fierz

Date: 08:13:56 12/09/03

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On December 09, 2003 at 10:50:23, Sune Fischer wrote:

[snip]

>If the bare engine had been playing he would have had to add a few things the
>GUI normally takes care of.
>For UCI engines it is expected that the GUI handles certain (trivial) things.

claiming a draw on 3-fold repetition is *not* a trivial thing. there are
different possible cases:

1) if your opponent avoids it, he loses
2) if your opponent avoids it, he wins

in case 2) you should of course claim the draw, because perhaps he will notice
he could avoid it. in case 1) however, you can safely repeat the moves, and not
claim the draw. it is *not* mandatory to claim a draw on the 3rd repetition. so
you should basically not claim it if you might win if your opponent avoids the
draw.

how do you expect a GUI to make the right decision? imagine the following
absurdity: jonny is running without GUI and happily repeats moves against
shredder, and does not claim the draw because the engine doesn't know about it.
shredder has a bug and allows a 3-fold repetition but will deviate before the
fourth repetition. now shredders GUI stops shredder from moving, and says "i
claim a draw with my move XY because of 3fold repetition" - this would have been
hilarious for everybody except SMK :-)

since 3fold repetition is something you claim or don't claim based on the
current position, it is clearly something the GUI shouldn't be doing!

cheers
  martin



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