Author: h.g.muller
Date: 13:02:25 02/08/06
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I strongly doubt that in this end-game minor-promotions are very usefull. I doubt that modes of play that pass through positions with multiple queens are very useful. A good first start would be to mark all won conversions to KqpKpp, KqpKqp and 5-men TBs. Most likely all promotion positions (that you can reach from the given situation) will then already marked as 'won'. For the very few that might not be won, minor promotion will make them even less won. For most initial pawn configurations a stalemate on queening will not even be possible, even if both sides conspired to bring it on the board. KqpKqp would be more difficult, because both sides already have queens there are more possibilities for stalemate, and tactics on promotion (e.g. a knight fork). If the opponent has only pawns, a fork by a knight on the promotion square can not capture anything that you could not 'fetch' with a queen long before it gets dangerous. Only if you are very unlucky, with an initial position like W:Kh2,Pb7,Pb4; B:Ka6,Ph3,Ph4 stalemates are possible and promotion to a Rook are useful. There are few enough of those to simply solve them by search: if with a Rook ahead you can't quickly force a conversion to a won position from a 5-men TB... Remember the opponents pawns should somehow be blocked, or it wouldn't have been a stalemate on queening!
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