Author: Bob Durrett
Date: 10:02:56 12/09/03
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On December 09, 2003 at 11:13:56, martin fierz wrote: >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 THIS suggests the obvious changes which should be made to engines and GUIs ASAP by all chess programmers. Before an engine &/or GUI claims a draw, it should evaluate the position and determine whether or not it has a strong advantage. If it does have a strong advantage, then claiming a draw would be precluded by the programmer. In other words, the software would be programmed in advance to make the sensible choice. Similarly, the engine/GUI should be programmed to claim a draw by repetition in cases where repetition can be played and when also the engine evaluates the position as being a strong disadvantage. Obviously, humans avoid claiming repetition draws whenever they are winning and claim repetition draws whenever they can if they are losing otherwise. In positions perceived to be equal, humans may or may not claim the draw by repetition depending on other factors such as tournament standing. Chess computers should be programmed similarly. Bob D.
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