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Subject: Re: ON KEN THOMPSON'S ENDGAME DATABASE, NEED YOUR OPINION!

Author: Rafael Vasquez

Date: 04:53:27 06/01/99

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On June 01, 1999 at 00:08:55, alfred palang wrote:
Alfred,

To my understanding, the different endgame are classified and compressed in a
special format with evaluations indicating how many moves left for winning the
endgame (0 will mean draw). When checking a game with the CDROM engine, it will
be checking every position and when found it will show you a message indicating
you which CD
you have to insert in order to find the position. Because all legall positions
are stored in the compressed format, in the first check it will only look for
the pieces on board (If only K,R,P vs k,r then will prompt you to insert the CD
with the K,R,P vs k,r endings). After inserting the CD it will find the exact
match for the position and will retrieve the evaluation stored with it in the
CD, which can be mate in xx moves, for example.
It's a very exact tool only restricted by the data stored. There are 64
different endgame stored. Endgame with multiple pawns are not in the CD's
If a player plays an adjourned game (rare in this times) then it is a great
help.

Best Regards, Rafael
>Regarding Ken's database, I really don't have any idea on how it works. Does it
>do the following:1) put down your desired endgame formation and play against the
>program? 2) evoke analysis from its database and comes up with positions
>identical or close to your desired endgame? 3) If so, how strong is it if it
>plays against you in the endgame, or it doesn't have this feature except to just
>sort out endgames in its database and present it to you for evaluation?  How
>good of a weapon is this for a chess player who had an adjourned game in a
>tournament? I have several questions regarding this program.  Please educate me
>on these matters.  I believe this program is an important tool for any chess
>player.  What intrigue me about it was Kasparov's comments regarding it during
>his lectures in Oregon.  Anyone who is acquainted with the program, please be
>kind to this serious inquiry.  Thanks.



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