Author: John Merlino
Date: 14:53:28 08/15/04
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On August 15, 2004 at 14:05:20, Uri Blass wrote: >On August 15, 2004 at 12:49:56, Steve Lim wrote: > >>From the Hydra website ... >> >> "Shredder resigned after 38 moves and at that time Hydra was thinking that it >>could get the mate in 20 moves. " >> >>Can this be verified? >> >>Steve > > >After analyzing some lines I am thinking that there is a shorter way. > >Note that when computers say mate in 20 they usually do not mean that the >expected number of moves to win is 20 moves but only that there is a mate in 20 >moves or shorter. > >When I say that I am thinking that there is a shorter mate than 20 moves I do >not mean even to say that I proved mate in 20 moves but only that it is my >evaluation function based on some few lines that I searched. > >Uri I did a little work on this myself, and the only three moves for Black (after the last move of the game) that do NOT lead to a Mate in 12 (or less) are 38...d3, 38...a3 and 38...Rf8. I'm pretty sure that Rf8 leads to about a Mate in 17 (or less) -- 39.Re8 Rxe8 40.Qxe8+ Kh7 41.g6+ Kh6, leading to this position: [D]4Q3/6p1/6Pk/1p1q4/p2p3P/5R2/6K1/8 w - - 0 42 CM_SKR says that this is Mate in 14 for White, with 42.Kf2. So that leaves 38...d3 and 38...a3. 38...d3 is also met by the 39.Re8 combo, and is followed up with 42.Qh8+ Kxg6 43.h5+, leading to this position: [D]7Q/6p1/6k1/1p1q3P/p7/3p1R2/6K1/8 b - - 0 43 Now this is either met with 43...Qxh5 or 43...Kg5, and I'm not sure about either of them, although White will certainly win, as White will be ahead a Queen to three Pawns. As for 38...a3, it looks like this is best met by EITHER breaking the pin with 39.Kf2, OR with bringing the other rook into the attack with 39.Re7, OR with the same 38.Re8 combo as above. This is where I decided my commitment to determining if the Hydra team was correct did not meet the time requirement necessary to refute it. :-) jm
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