Author: Mark R. Anderson
Date: 07:52:58 06/17/05
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On June 16, 2005 at 04:51:57, Tony Nichols wrote: >On June 15, 2005 at 23:12:31, Brian Katz wrote: > >>Does any program find Shirov's "Absolutely Incredible" only winning move >>1...Bh3!! in the diagramed position?? >> >> >>[D]8/8/4kpp1/3p1b2/p6P/2B5/6P1/7K b - - 0 1 >> >>I am using an AMD Athlon XP 2600+ 1 Gig DDR SDRAM. >> >>I have tried Fritz 8, Crafty 19.19, Shredder 9 UCI, Toga and Hiarcs 8...Neither >>of these programs have found this astonishing move, thus far. >> >>Best >>Brian > >I'm not sure that this is the only way to win. Shirov also gave ...Be4 as -+. >Maybe this is why computers don't play Bh3. >Regards >Tony Tony, Actually, Shirov says that Be4 only draws ... I quote from "Fire On Board, Part II," which recently came out: "As I have already stated, the 'normal' paths would lead to a draw, e.g. 47...Be4 48 g3 Kf5 49 Kf2, and the black king can't get to e4, the white king manages to reach the key e3 square. In order to make a breakthrough to the decisive e4 square, black must sacrifice his bishop!" and Shirov also notes that "48 Kf2 Kf5 49 Ke3 Bxg2 leaves White pawnless and helpless." Both quotes for "Fire On Board, Part II, 1997-2004" by Alexi Shirov, page 19. I would recommend it highly, it is perhaps even better than his first book. He is also working on a Fire On Board 3, FYI. All computer programs that I checked are clueless on this problem, as has been pointed out by others. Shirov gives an interesting position from an earlier game with Ulf Anderssen where the Swedish GM defeated Shirov with a somewhat similar Bishop sac to the h-pawn. Shirov speculates that, since he had enough time, his brain made the association through intuition, and out popped the wonderful move, Bh3. This shows why there are still some things that human GMs do much better than computers (thank God). Mark Anderson
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