Author: Robert Hyatt
Date: 10:37:24 12/09/03
Go up one level in this thread
On December 09, 2003 at 11:22:21, José Carlos wrote: >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 > > I think it would be much easyer if some rules where modified specifically for >computer chess, particularly those where some decision "off the board" must be >made. For example, if 3-fold repetition is _always_ a draw in computer chess, >then the GUI can't do anything at all; either the engine enters the position for >the third time or not: the engine's decision. > Same for other draw rules. > > José C. I don't understand the controversy at all, myself. IE the program said "this is a 3-fold repetition". The operator overruled it and played on. What if the program had gone into a deep think and was going to overstep the time control on the last move? Can the operator hit the "move now" key to prevent that? Suppose the program is about to make a move that is not good. Can the operator hit the "take more time" key? The answer to all of the above is "no". We've seen many games lost due to poor time management. But that is part of the computer chess player and the human is out of the loop. Ditto for whether you relay a draw claim from the computer, or any other decision. If the computer displays "Crap" the operator had better hit the potty _right now_. :)
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