Computer Chess Club Archives


Search

Terms

Messages

Subject: (Dis)advantages of EGTB's (yet another example)

Author: Mike Hood

Date: 10:28:29 11/21/05


Take a look at the following position. Fritz 9 (using 5-piece tablebases) finds
the mate in 34 after Rxc6 almost immediately and stops calculating. Fruit 2.1
needs 51 seconds to find a mate in 9. (Fruit actually chooses Bc5 after 23
seconds, but needs a further 28 seconds to realise this leads to mate).

[D] 7K/1kp5/2p5/8/8/8/8/2R3BN w - - 0 1

Which move is better? That depends on what you're doing. If you're doing an
analysis, Fruit's solution is better. If the computer is playing a game and is
short of time, Fritz's solution is better, because Fritz will make all 34 moves
in less than 1 second, mating his opponent before Fruit has managed to make even
one move. Incidentally, this is a counter-example to the claims that using
EGTB's in probing slows down an engine. Sometimes it does, but in this case it
drastically speeds up the engine.

Incidentally, if I were playing this game in a club match I'd have a completely
different strategy. As an average quality club player I'd play for safety rather
than efficiency. I'd play 1.Bh2 Kb6 2.Bxc7+ Kxc7 and then move my knight up. If
Black offered a knight for pawn exchange I'd accept it, because I know that I
can mate with king and rook against king in my sleep.

Analysis by Fritz 9:

1.Ng3 Kb8 2.Bd4 Kc8 3.Rxc6 Kd7 4.Rc5
  +-  (8.20)   Depth: 7/18   00:00:00  9kN
1.Ng3 Kc8 2.Bd4 Kd8 3.Ne4 Kd7 4.Nf6+ Kd6 5.Rd1
  +-  (8.26)   Depth: 8/18   00:00:00  25kN
1.Rxc6!
  +-  (8.42)   Depth: 8/18   00:00:00  28kN, tb=3
1.Rxc6!
  +-  (8.59)   Depth: 8/18   00:00:00  28kN, tb=3
1.Rxc6!
  +-  (#34)   Depth: 8/18   00:00:00  31kN, tb=7

====================================

Analysis by Fruit 2.1:

1.Ra1
  +-  (9.27)   Depth: 1/1   00:00:00
1.Rb1+ Kc8
  +-  (9.40)   Depth: 1/4   00:00:00
1.Be3
  +-  (9.46)   Depth: 1/4   00:00:00
1.Bd4
  +-  (9.59)   Depth: 1/4   00:00:00
1.Bd4 c5 2.Rxc5
  +-  (10.03)   Depth: 2/5   00:00:00
1.Ng3 Ka6 2.Rxc6+ Kb7
  +-  (10.21)   Depth: 2/5   00:00:00
1.Ng3 Ka6 2.Bd4
  +-  (10.25)   Depth: 3/6   00:00:00
1.Ng3 Kc8 2.Rxc6 Kd7
  +-  (10.08)   Depth: 4/8   00:00:00
1.Rb1+ Kc8 2.Bd4 Kd7 3.Ng3
  +-  (10.14)   Depth: 4/9   00:00:00
1.Rb1+ Kc8 2.Ng3 Kd7 3.Bd4 Ke6
  +-  (10.07)   Depth: 5/10   00:00:00
1.Ng3 Kc8 2.Bd4 Kd7 3.Kg7
  +-  (10.36)   Depth: 5/10   00:00:00
1.Ng3 Kc8 2.Bd4 c5 3.Bxc5 Kd7 4.Rd1+ Ke6
  +-  (10.52)   Depth: 6/12   00:00:00  16kN
1.Ng3 Kc8 2.Kg7 Kd7 3.Kf6 Kd8 4.Rxc6
  +-  (10.77)   Depth: 7/14   00:00:01  52kN
1.Ng3 Kc8 2.Kg7 Kd7 3.Kf6 Kd8 4.Rd1+ Ke8 5.Bc5
  +-  (10.86)   Depth: 8/18   00:00:01  145kN
1.Ng3 Kc8 2.Rxc6 Kd8 3.Rf6 Ke7 4.Kg7 Kd7 5.Bc5
  +-  (11.01)   Depth: 9/19   00:00:01  406kN
1.Kg7 Kc8 2.Rxc6 Kb7 3.Rh6 c6 4.Ng3 Kc7 5.Bd4
  +-  (11.03)   Depth: 9/19   00:00:01  525kN
1.Kg7 Kc8 2.Kf7 Kb7 3.Ke6 Kc8 4.Rxc6 Kb8 5.Bh2 Kb7 6.Rxc7+ Kb6
  +-  (11.27)   Depth: 10/22   00:00:01  1038kN
1.Kg7 Kc8 2.Kf6 Kb7 3.Rb1+ Ka6 4.Ng3 Ka5 5.Ne4 Ka4 6.Bh2 Ka5 7.Bxc7+ Ka4
  +-  (11.50)   Depth: 11/28   00:00:02  2540kN
1.Kg7 Kc8 2.Kf6 Kb7 3.Ke6 c5 4.Rb1+ Ka6 5.Bxc5 Ka5 6.Ng3 c6 7.Ne4
  +-  (11.70)   Depth: 12/30   00:00:06  6200kN
1.Kg7 c5 2.Bxc5 Kc8 3.Bb6 Kd7 4.Bxc7 Ke6 5.Ng3 Kd5 6.Kf6 Kd4 7.Nf5+ Ke4 8.Re1+
Kd5
  +-  (12.01)   Depth: 13/33   00:00:16  18122kN
1.Bc5 Kc8 2.Kg7 Kb7 3.Rb1+ Ka8 4.Bg1 c5 5.Bxc5 c6 6.Rb6 Ka7 7.Ng3 Ka8 8.Rxc6
  +-  (12.23)   Depth: 13/34   00:00:19  22367kN
1.Bc5 Kc8 2.Kg7 Kb7 3.Rb1+ Ka8 4.Bg1 c5 5.Bxc5 c6 6.Rb6 Ka7 7.Ng3 Ka8 8.Rxc6
  +-  (12.23)   Depth: 14/34   00:00:23  26760kN
1.Bc5 Kc8 2.Kg7 Kb7 3.Kf6 Ka6 4.Rb1 Ka5 5.Ng3 Ka4 6.Rb4+ Ka5 7.Ne4 Ka6 8.Nc3 Ka5
9.Ra4#
  +-  (#9)   Depth: 15/36   00:00:51  61780kN




This page took 0 seconds to execute

Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700

Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.