7-men : Breaking news

[kronsteen]

Very interesting news In this thread in rybkaforum :
http://rybkaforum.net/cgi-bin/rybkaforu ... l?tid=8477

[crplr]

Comparison of DTM and DTC tables for kqbnkqn looks as natural. It seems that it is serious work. The question is only how he receives results so quickly.

[guyhaw]

There's a lot of rubbish in the rybkaforum thread cited - but the idea of videoing an endgame and overlaying a sound track to communicate extra inforamtion is interesting.

Marc's EGT is to DTC so the fact is that 'Depth to Conversion' = 517 moves (given that the two sides are respectively minimising and maximising this figure).

The fact that one can tack on a 7-move DTMate-optimal 6-man phase does NOT mean that DTM = 524 moves in the original endgame.

What is quite likely is that Black hangs in there too long, trying to defer the capture of its man to the last minute, when in fact - to make sure White caught a later bus - it should have let the defence of its material go somewhat earlier. The only limit on DTM for the 7-man endgame is 517m +maxDTM for the subsequent 6-man endgame(s).

Equally, it may be that if White had gone for mate directly, it could have mated in less than 524 moves, but it would still have required 517 moves or more, so there's not much downside here. There's a classic case in KBBKNN: the maxDT50 win in KBBKNN involves White rejecting the offer of a Black Knight because this will lead to a KBBKN phase which is longer than 50 moves: the mate in fact comes in about 24 moves and is an elegant quadrille worth watching on John Tamplin's website.

g

[mbourzut]

The work by user Volodya on the Rybkaforum looks legitimate and very interesting.

[guyhaw]

Interesting - are you saying that the 2nd version of the 'mate in 545m' makes apparent sense when viewed in DTC terms?

I'd certainly expect the DTC-minimaxing and DTM-minimaxing lines to go along in coincidence for quite a long time.

Good to have more expertise on the block if that's the case.

We're hanging by a single MB/YK thread at the moment, even if that thread is very strong.

g

[Ed Trice]

Mark showed me this ending way back in 2006.

http://www.gothicchess.com/endings/ches ... n/game.htm

It's a 517 move conversion.

[guyhaw]

Marc' 'showed' everyone inteested the result - in that it was communicated by the relevant forums on or before 26th May 2006, q.v. e.g. http://www.xs4all.nl/~timkr/chess2/diary_16.htm

g

[Ed Trice]

Maybe I should rephrase:

Marc emailed me the position and the moves, and asked if I would link it into one of my javascript pages on the Gothic Chess site, and I said "Sure, no problem."