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Subject: Re: Rook Sacrifice and a deadly fail low

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 20:05:48 03/06/04

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On March 06, 2004 at 17:06:23, GeoffW wrote:

>Hi
>
>Here is a position I found interesting, white has just played Rf6, black to move
>
>[D]r3qnk1/rb2bppp/4pR2/pp1pP1PP/2pP3N/P1P1P1Q1/1PB5/4B1RK b - - 0 1
>
>My programs analysis for this position is horrid
>
>Ply  Eval   Time      Nodes   Principle Variation
> 1    433      0         17   g7f6 e5f6
> 2    433      0        290   g7f6 e5f6
> 3-   393      1       4782   g7f6
> 3    204      1       8053   e7a3 b2a3 g7f6 e5f6
> 4    204      3      18575   e7a3 b2a3 g7f6 e5f6
> 5    204      6      44876   e7f6 g5f6 g7g6 h4f3 f8d7 h5g6 h7g6
> 6    192     10      97670   e7f6 e5f6 g7g6 h5g6 h7g6 h4f3
> 7    194     21     193103   e7f6 e5f6 g7g6 h4f3 a8d8 h5g6 h7g6
> 8    187     60     564304   e7f6 e5f6 g7g6 h4f3 g6h5 g3h4 f8d7 h4h5
> 9    188    132    1263805   e7f6 e5f6 g7g6 h4f3 f8d7 e1d2 a8b8 g3h2 e8d8
>10    176    396    3783030   e7f6 e5f6 g7g6 h4f3 f8d7 g3h2 a8d8 e1g3 d7b6 f3e5
>11    176    942    8062241   e7f6 e5f6 g7g6 h4f3 e8c6 g3h2 f8d7 e1g3 a8d8 f3e5
>d7e5 g3e5
>12-   136   3984   35236639   e7f6
>12    102  144954  868931003   b5b4 a3b4 a5b4 f6f4 a7a2 g3g2 b4b3 c2b1 a2a1 e1d2
>f8d7 e3e4
>
>It firstly thinks it has won a rook by taking it with Pxf6, then it realises
>this is bad, and avoids the Rook sacrifice by coming up with its own weird
>bishop sacrifice Bxa3. Two plies later then decides it had better take the rook
>after all with the obvious looking Bxf6. It takes 40 seconds to get to ply 12
>before it realises that this is also a hopeless losing move.
>Then it takes almost 25 minutes to resolve the fail low with a branching factor
>of 24 !!
>I am not sure why it struggles to resolve this specific fail low so badly, this
>is probably the trickiest fail low I have seen so far, at least for my program.
>It was taking so long I was convinced it was locking up in an infinite search
>bug. I guess it probably isnt a bug as it finally does come up with a reasonable
>move, all be it far too late.
>
>What do other programs make of this, daresay Crafty et al. will have it all
>worked out and resolved in about 5 seconds flat ;-(
>
>P.S it finally managed ply 13 as I was typing this up
>
>13    102  327723 2072998497   b5b4 a3b4 a5b4 f6f2 b4b3 c2b1 f8d7 e1d2 a7a1 h5h6
>g7g6 h4f3 a8a7
>
>54 minutes to decide white is a pawn up after avoiding the sac.
>
>         Regards Geoff


crafty only says b4 as taking the rook fails low at 3 plies...

                2     0.00     --   1. ... gxf6
                2     0.00  -0.09   1. ... gxf6 2. gxf6+ Kh8 3. fxe7 Qxe7
                2     0.00  -1.29   1. ... Bxf6 2. gxf6
                2->   0.00  -1.29   1. ... Bxf6 2. gxf6
                3     0.00     --   1. ... Bxf6
                3     0.00   0.23   1. ... Bxf6 2. gxf6 g6 3. hxg6 hxg6
                3     0.00  -0.58   1. ... Bc6 2. Rf4 Rd8
                3     0.00  -1.12   1. ... b4 2. Rf4 bxa3
                3->   0.00  -1.12   1. ... b4 2. Rf4 bxa3
                4     0.02  -1.41   1. ... b4 2. g6 Bxf6 3. gxh7+ Nxh7
                                    4. exf6
                4->   0.02  -1.41   1. ... b4 2. g6 Bxf6 3. gxh7+ Nxh7
                                    4. exf6
                5     0.03     --   1. ... b4
                5     0.06  -0.87   1. ... b4 2. g6 hxg6 3. hxg6 Bxf6 4.
                                    gxf7+ Qxf7 5. exf6 Qxf6 6. cxb4
                5->   0.07  -0.87   1. ... b4 2. g6 hxg6 3. hxg6 Bxf6 4.
                                    gxf7+ Qxf7 5. exf6 Qxf6 6. cxb4
                6     0.09     --   1. ... b4
                6     0.15  -0.34   1. ... b4 2. g6 hxg6 3. hxg6 Bxf6 4.
                                    exf6 gxf6 5. gxf7+ Kxf7 6. cxb4
                6->   0.20  -0.34   1. ... b4 2. g6 hxg6 3. hxg6 Bxf6 4.
                                    exf6 gxf6 5. gxf7+ Kxf7 6. cxb4
                7     0.58  -0.58   1. ... b4 2. Rgf1 bxa3 3. bxa3 Bxf6
                                    4. gxf6 g6 5. hxg6 hxg6
                7->   0.63  -0.58   1. ... b4 2. Rgf1 bxa3 3. bxa3 Bxf6
                                    4. gxf6 g6 5. hxg6 hxg6
                8     1.06  -0.47   1. ... b4 2. Rgf1 b3 3. Bd1 Bxf6 4.
                                    gxf6 g6 5. hxg6 hxg6
                8->   1.18  -0.47   1. ... b4 2. Rgf1 b3 3. Bd1 Bxf6 4.
                                    gxf6 g6 5. hxg6 hxg6
                9     2.01  -0.28   1. ... b4 2. Rgf1 bxa3 3. bxa3 Bxf6
                                    4. gxf6 g6 5. hxg6 hxg6 6. Rg1 Bc6
                9->   2.43  -0.28   1. ... b4 2. Rgf1 bxa3 3. bxa3 Bxf6
                                    4. gxf6 g6 5. hxg6 hxg6 6. Rg1 Bc6



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