🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <Bt932y.C64@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> dwight@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Dwight Robert Stone) writes:
>nash@visus.com (Richard V. Nash) writes:
>
>>  +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+
>>8 |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |
>>  +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+
>>7 |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |
>>  +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+
>>6 | *P |    |    |    |    |    | *K | *P |
>>  +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+
>>5 |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |
>>  +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+
>>4 |  P |    | *B |    |    |    |    | *P |
>>  +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+
>>3 |  B |    |    |    |    |  K |    |    |
>>  +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+
>>2 |    |    | *P | *B |    |    |    |    |
>>  +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+
>>1 |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |
>>  +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+
>>    a    b    c    d    e    f    g    h    
>
>
>>This is the position just before c2c1B. My guess as to why GNUchess did this is  
>>because its evaluation function "reasoned" that it was better to go with 3  
>>bishops against 1 than 2 against 1. If the pawn would have promoted to a queen,  
>>no doubt it would have been taken by the bishop on a3. As the game went, the  
>>white bishop moved away.
>
>>Sound plausable? Sound like something a silly machine would do?
>
>	This seems more to me like something a silly machine would do.  When
>you are up by this many peices it is almost always beneficial to trade away
>peices.  Besides, if the bishop on a3 took the queen it would not be 2 against
>1, it would be 2 against 0 after the bishop at d2 took the bishop at a3 (now
>c1).  This would leave GNU chess with a white and black bishop and 3 pawns
>(with the pawn in row a ready for easy promotion after the removal of the
>opponent's pawn which would not be able to be prevented by the king (sitting
>all the way over in f column).  Besides, two bishops (of opposite colors) and
>a king vs. a king is a workable mate solution.

GNU CHESS is moving here exactly like would have moved in a real tournament,
perhaps I would have promoted even to a Knight, whoever the opponent would
have been. It's a great psychological move which tells the opponent that
it's time to resign. 
In my personal practice, it worked every time.

>	As an aside question, is it a workable mate if you have two bishops
>of the same color and a king vs. a king?
>
Of course, NOT !

--- Norbert
Norbert Geissler, SIEMENS-NIXDORF AG, SNI AP 154, Munich, Germany
E-MAIL: norbert.geissler@sniap.mchp.sni.de   
..for chess, that superb, cold, infinitely satisfying anodyne to life, I feel
the ardour of a lover, the humility of a disciple.  (Herbert Russel Wakefield)