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Subject: Re: An amazing checkmate. Can your program find it?

Author: Dann Corbit

Date: 16:29:45 12/22/99

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On December 22, 1999 at 19:25:24, Will Singleton wrote:
[snip]
>Just guessing, but that's probably because it's not all that important to find
>the shortest mate.  My evidence for such a wild hypothesis is that none actually
>find the mate in 9.  Perhaps it would weaken overall play if time was spent on
>tracking down the absolute shortest mate in every position.  Any mate, as long
>as it is a valid mate, is sufficient.
>
>One problem with my hypothesis is that, if you don't always (or most always)
>find the shortest mate, then you may run the risk of missing a mate forever,
>since there may exist always a longer mate than a mate in 1.  But in my
>experience, that risk is just about non-existent.

Of course, there is no value in finding the shorter mate other than beauty.
A mate in 100 is just as good as a mate in 1 if both are sure.  You win.
But to find the shorter mate is prettier, don't you think?
;-)



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