Endgame Advice from Greenpawn

Originally posted by heinzkat
Eh... I mean, theoretically won endgames are blundered away into draws, drawn endgames are blundered away into losses.

yes yes, i understood only afterwards what you meant, but by then it was too late, was it not some famous chess player who stated that before the endgame the Gods have placed the middle game! and not without reason me thinks!

Edit. Damn, beaten to the punch. But my solution had comments!

I use a modified version of Crafty to help me coach endgame problems. I changed the source code so that it never resigns (the normal version of Crafty will resign once it sees a forced mate, even if you set the value of "resign" to zero in crafty.rc). My version will fight on to the bitter end.

isn't the idea that white uses two mate threats repeteadly, so that in the end the black has to step back and get mated?
the two potentials mates being

1. White: Kg6 and Rf8 and Black Kh8;
2. White: Kf(x), Rh1 and Black Kh(x).

So that you play something like:
(First part) 1. Kg2 Kg7 2. Kg3 Kg6 3. Kg4

(Second part) 3... Kh6 4. Kf5 Kg7 5. Kg5 Kh7 6. Kf6 Kg8 7. Kg6 Kh8 8. Rf8 ++

- the point is that you have to take the opposition correctly when kings are going towards each other. and later, to mate and not stalemate.

- if the black king stays near his original position, you just go pick him up

- if instead of going back on the g-file, in the second part, black stays on the h-file, you just follow the guy, and it goes quicker.

Oh ok, some guys gave the answer more quickly...

Originally posted by greenpawn34
I don't check maths. [b] I check Kings.

In the tournament I'm playing in I started with a grade of 1960
I've won 9, drawn 3, Lost 0 and my grade has gone down 🙂

I'm sandbagging by accident.

Speaking of which, did you notice this.

http://www.chess.co.uk/twic/chessnews/events/moscow-open-2010

Alexei Gubajdullin has been booted out of a Russian tournament for doing just that.[/b]

Sandbagging is right, as you were clearly better when you offered me a draw, which I graciously accepted like congressman taking a bribe!

Now my rating is artificially inflating, and when I get the inevitable engine-use accusation, I am going to say I use Greenpawn 3.4 😉

Hi Paul.

Not to sure, which game was I better. Game 7141662 is heading down theory
that I cannot as Black avoid and White ends up with a slight pull.

and Game 7141641 I am a pawn up but you have the better minor pieces
and King.

I declined a chance to stir things up there, should have played 17.Rxf6 and if 17...Ng4 18.e5.

But thought I was going to get double Rooks on the f-file so went that way
just spotting in time your wee trap 19.Raf1 Bf5!

I prefer Black in that game, OTB I may have declined the draw as Black.

Originally posted by Fat Lady
Edit. Damn, beaten to the punch. But my solution had comments!

I use a modified version of Crafty to help me coach endgame problems. I changed the source code so that it never resigns (the normal version of Crafty will resign once it sees a forced mate, even if you set the value of "resign" to zero in crafty.rc). My version will fight on to the bitter end.

I just use some ridiculously large numbers in crafty.rc like:

resign 50 400

(for example, resignation threshold of 50 pawns and 400 moves before resigning)

Crafty hasn't resigned on me yet. I'm guessing that specifying the 400 moves overrides Crafty's desire to resign 2 moves before a forced mate.

I've never had Crafty needing to resign against me 😕

Originally posted by heinzkat
I've never had Crafty needing to resign against me 😕

He He,
Well, neither have I. Of course, I meant against other engines. 🙂

Edit - Actually, if you use an executable that was compiled with the skill switch, you can set Crafty to play a really bad game...

Originally posted by greenpawn34
Hi Robbie.

I know that!

But this is Ruxton's stuff and these good players use their endgame supremacy
as middle game blackmail to force you into doing rash things to avoid the ending.

Did anybody solve this? Nobody in Bates Motel did.

White to play and win.
The Rook is only allowed to make one move and that is to deliver mate.

(I like ...[text shortened]... eless).

[fen]6k1/8/8/8/8/8/8/5RK1[/fen]

Post solution as one of those PGN moving things.

Opposition puzzles... 🙂

...I tried solving it, it was too hard. 😞

😉 Your mate gets 3 rec's from me this month, one for each portion of the endgame
series you've transplanted from Bates Motel. Love it!

Well worth the recs! We need to get your friend on some good rook endings...
Then we're really in there!


-GIN

Originally posted by Mad Rook
I just use some ridiculously large numbers in crafty.rc like:

resign 50 400

(for example, resignation threshold of 50 pawns and 400 moves before resigning)

Crafty hasn't resigned on me yet. I'm guessing that specifying the 400 moves overrides Crafty's desire to resign 2 moves before a forced mate.

Have you tried it in an ending? My problem was that I was using it to teach children how to win basic endings and Crafty would resign before being checkmated.

I found a message in a chess program forum from Dr Hyatt (the author of Crafty) which indicated that the values used by "resign" were ignored if there was a forced mate, and when I checked the code this seemed to be the case. I must admit, I didn't know about the second value of "resign" (the number of moves after falling below minus the first value that it should resign).

Originally posted by Fat Lady
Have you tried it in an ending? My problem was that I was using it to teach children how to win basic endings and Crafty would resign before being checkmated.

I found a message in a chess program forum from Dr Hyatt (the author of Crafty) which indicated that the values used by "resign" were ignored if there was a forced mate, and when I checked the code ...[text shortened]... ign" (the number of moves after falling below minus the first value that it should resign).

I just mated it in a KR vs K ending. Crafty fought to the bitter end. 🙂

Isn't the point of the exercise 1. Kg2 Kh8 and then what