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Subject: Re: One (small) example where the Shredder selectivity fails

Author: Vasik Rajlich

Date: 04:36:57 06/05/05

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On June 04, 2005 at 14:06:48, Rémi Coulom wrote:

>On June 04, 2005 at 13:07:29, Ernest Bonnem wrote:
>
>>[D]6n1/3p4/8/1P1Pk1n1/4P3/B5K1/8/8 w - -
>>
>>White to win
>>
>>Here Shredder 9 UCI cannot find the "simple"  b6! even at depth 36/61 (searching
>>more than 2 hours on my computer)
>>
>>b6 is found almost immediately by all other programs I tried (Fritz 7, Tiger,
>>Pharaon,...)
>>
>>Has anybody an explanation ?
>
>null move hides a zugzwang, maybe. After b6 Nxe4+ Kh4 Nd6 Bxd6+ Kxd6 Kg5, black
>is in zugzwang, if I understand correctly.
>
>It is really not very wise to do the null move in such a situation. I would find
>it strange if Shredder has such a hole. So Shredder's problem may be a little
>more subtle. It is hard to guess.
>

Yes, exactly, after 1. b6 Nxe4+ 2. Kh4 Nd6 3. Bxd6+ Kxd6 4. Kh4 the following
zugzwang arises:

[D] 6n1/3p4/1P1k4/3P2K1/8/8/8/8 b - -

Even here I still needed the engine to explain it to me - the point is that 1.
.. Ne7 is refuted with 2. b7+ Kc7 3. d6+. This is extremely unusual, everything
falling right into place.

In Rybka I switch of null move whenever 1) there are no major pieces on the
board 2) neither side has more than one minor piece. This however is way too
conservative - in principle what Shredder is doing must be better.

Vas

>Rémi



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