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Subject: Re: KQ vs kr position

Author: Ricardo Gibert

Date: 20:13:13 08/03/99

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On August 03, 1999 at 21:54:23, Robert Hyatt wrote:

>On August 03, 1999 at 15:34:54, Ricardo Gibert wrote:
>
>>On August 03, 1999 at 14:28:04, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>
>>>On August 03, 1999 at 10:28:25, Ricardo Gibert wrote:
>>>
>>>>On August 03, 1999 at 09:00:33, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On August 03, 1999 at 04:45:07, Ricardo Gibert wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>On August 03, 1999 at 04:32:27, Bruce Moreland wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>On August 02, 1999 at 22:47:14, Ricardo Gibert wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>Your post is a little ambiguous. Are you saying Nalimov EGTB is a shortest mate
>>>>>>>>EGTB for all the 5 man endings? How would the tables be generated?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>I would be surprised if all the endings covered by the Nalimov EGTB are of the
>>>>>>>>shortest mate variety. I would also be disappointed for the reason indicated.
>>>>>>>>Some endings (other than KQKR which a computer program can win in about 34
>>>>>>>>moves) would be "impossible" to win using such a TB due to the 50 move rule.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>I would be suprised if the Nalimov tables are *not* distance to mate.  The only
>>>>>>>publicly available distance to conversion tables that I know of are the Thompson
>>>>>>>tables.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Shortest mate EGTB also has the defect of possibly concluding that an ending is
>>>>>>drawn due to the 50 move when it is actually winning. By the way, I think this
>>>>>>issue can be cleared up by noting that "distance to mate" is not necessarily the
>>>>>>same as "shortest mate".
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>first, 50 move draw is _not_ included.  How could it be?  Because you have
>>>>>_no_ idea what position you will enter the database at...
>>>>>
>>>>>and distance to mate _is_ "shortest distance to mate" absolutely...
>>>>>
>>>>Then this means the EGTB will prefer a mate in 51 without pawns moves or
>>>>captures to a mate in 52 with a pawn move or capture before the 50 move rule
>>>>kicks in. It will draw winning positions. Undesirable and unnecessary.
>>>>Fortunately rare.
>>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>yes... but this is a problem no matter what.  Because the tablebase is just
>>>a file that is indexed by piece location, and it provides mated-in-N, draw, or
>>>mate-in-N.  It has _no_ idea about prior positions and what might have
>>>transpired before reaching this position.  It can't even tell if this position
>>>is a successor of another position in this file, or if it was reached via a
>>>capture with a zero 50-move counter.
>>
>>prior positions are irrelevant.
>>
>
>you are wrong here.  I play move A, then move B (which unmakes move A),
>then move A again, then move B again, and now I probe the table, and it
>says if you play move X you win the rook in 4 moves.  Unfortunately,
>a couple of moves before you win the rook, you play move A again and
>the position is repeated and the game ends as a draw.

The EGTBs hits should be "part" of the eval. A tool. You catch 3 fold reps the
same way you always do. For example, distance to mate also would have this
"problem". What difference does it make if you find mate or win of a rook?

Besides, after you play A the 1st time, you probe and find move X to win the
rook. No draw.

>
>If you don't have state information in the database, there is _no_ way
>to probe it and ask about such things.. because it says you can capture
>a piece in 29 moves, but how many _prior_ positions of yours do you repeat
>before doing so?
>
>This is an old discussion.  There are _many_ problems here...
>
>
>
>>>
>>>deep mates are going to be a problem in 6 piece files, no doubt about it.  It
>>>would be interesting to see if there are already violations of this in the 5
>>>piece files...
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>And yes, the tables do suffer from the possible problem that you mentioned,
>>>>>>>although this should be extremely rare in practice.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>bruce



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