Russ, I've noticed some games with only kings left on the board. Is there any way to automatically award a draw for this? I know either player can claim the draw, but I think that should be automatic. Also, timeouts ( with only kings left ) count as losses. Over the board, timeouts count as draws under these same circumstances. kingbishop99 recently fell victim to this and surely many other players also had this happen.
@apawnocalypse saidLong overdue.
Russ, I've noticed some games with only kings left on the board. Is there any way to automatically award a draw for this? I know either player can claim the draw, but I think that should be automatic. Also, timeouts ( with only kings left ) count as losses. Over the board, timeouts count as draws under these same circumstances. kingbishop99 recently fell victim to this and surely many other players also had this happen.
There is code that looks for checkmate and stalemate after each move. That same bit of code could also scan for insufficient material and enforce a draw.
It should be that way for K v K, K + N v K, and K + B v K.
@BigDoggProblem
Absolutely true. Draws should be automatic for each of those scenarios. For K v K + N + N, I would not have the automatic draw as checkmate is possible despite not being forced. These scenarios could potentially cost players tournaments too. Especially Hardcore tournaments in which timeouts are way more common.
@apawnocalypse saidSo you just agree with BigDoggProblem.
@BigDoggProblem
Absolutely true. Draws should be automatic for each of those scenarios. For K v K + N + N, I would not have the automatic draw as checkmate is possible despite not being forced. These scenarios could potentially cost players tournaments too. Especially Hardcore tournaments in which timeouts are way more common.
This (automatic draws where there is no possible wins) has been proposed before. I support that.
I'll have a looks to see if KvK can be called without risking introducing problems.
Whatever the outcome of above, I'm currently nearing the end of months of effort to rewrite the internals that processes exactly this kind of thing*. So I'll make sure that it is definitely added to the new code.
*New core code that supports 960, and a whole lot more...stay tuned!
@russ saidGood News indeed
I'll have a looks to see if KvK can be called without risking introducing problems.
Whatever the outcome of above, I'm currently nearing the end of months of effort to rewrite the internals that processes exactly this kind of thing*. So I'll make sure that it is definitely added to the new code.
*New core code that supports 960, and a whole lot more...stay tuned!
@Very-Rusty
A valid point. K vs K+N+N is not an automatic draw. If the last pieces come off the board in a favourable position for the side with the 2 knights, mate is possible.
@moonbus saidYes, I just finished one of those games, but wasn't able to get my opponents king in the corner. He was one of the more active players on the site and told me it wasn't possible. I told him it was, but he played it well, and I didn't play my two knights well enough to chase his K in the corner.
@Very-Rusty
A valid point. K vs K+N+N is not an automatic draw. If the last pieces come off the board in a favourable position for the side with the 2 knights, mate is possible.
It is the first end game of this type I've ever come across including over the board games. I once saw how it was done in an end game in a book for endgames.
-VR
@russ saidWill you ask some People in the private club to test this?
New (unreleased) code will now correctly auto-draw on :
King vs king with no other pieces.
King and bishop vs king.
King and knight vs king.
King and bishop vs king and bishop of the same coloured square.
Still some way from getting this released though, as the testing requirement is huge on this.
@Ponderable
Definitely. There are quite a few dependancies on other things that also need to be updated right now before this can even get close to a release.
Regarding the testing of this new code, a new (public) live chess test site running the new code will be available soon. If it works well, it will almost certainly replace the blitz here too in the future.
Once available, I would like as many people as possible to check that out. I'll post more details later.
If that all goes well, then I can start migrating RHP over. Although the new code supports variants, the current RHP board UI also needs updating for this purpose.
So lots of changes that need to be carefully managed overt the next 6 months.
@russ saidGood luck with the work!
@Ponderable
Definitely. There are quite a few dependancies on other things that also need to be updated right now before this can even get close to a release.
Regarding the testing of this new code, a new (public) live chess test site running the new code will be available soon. If it works well, it will almost certainly replace the blitz here too in the future.
On ...[text shortened]... his purpose.
So lots of changes that need to be carefully managed overt the next 6 months.