Thursday, June 29, 2006

Instinct?


BlueEyedRook vs. NN
June 27, 2006
Black to Move (and lose!)
Black is about to play 1... Ke8?? and instantly lose. Do you see why? No embarassments if you can't. It took Chessmaster 9000 a solid 8 minutes to conclude the position is a win for white.
Now I got this. What I am trying to figure out is why?! I can't articulate why this was a losing move, but instinctively I just knew it was.
Again, I note that it is not child's play. Chessmaster 9000 is a pretty solid engine, and up until the 7th minute of analysis it was calling this game a draw. I'd like to hear people's explanations if they have any. As a general rule, I was taught in these situations to bring the rook down the lower ranks (1st or 2nd) and just use the rook to constantly check the white king. But other than that little voice in my head that told me 1... Ke8 was an instant loser, I can't explain why it is.

4 Comments:

At 9:12 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

hi blueyedrook. i think white gets the advantage if he takes the opposition with Kc6, meaning the pawn can also advance next move or later. but believe me, i'm no endgame expert! it's just how it looks to me at first glance. by the way, what is the normal time control on redhotpawn? - Stevens/Chessgames.com

 
At 11:25 AM, Blogger BlueEyedRook said...

Thanks. I am still trying to figure this darn problem out!

Anyway, Redhotpawn is a correspondence chess site. Games are usually based with time limits of 7 days per move. This can be a little tedious unless you play lots (30-50) games at a time. Unfortunately, I don't recommend it unless you become a member there (I think roughly $30 a year) because otherwise you are limited to 6-8 games at a time. But without hyperbole, it is one of the best chess sites out there. If you invest in a site, invest in this one. You won't regret it.

 
At 8:25 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Also have 1 day timeouts at RHP.
6 games for non subscribers.

 
At 8:58 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

1) ...Rf6 reaches Philidor's drawing position, so this position is a book draw.

It's strange how your chess engine said it was a win on the 8th minute of running. Don't trust it, you should use endgame tablebases instead to confirm all of your endgame needs. (plus running it for an hour or so on a good computer processor would give you much more accurate results)

You can get some information about this position here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rook_and_pawn_versus_rook#The_black_king_is_on_the_queening_square.2C_the_Philidor_position

crptone/Chessgames.com

ps. I like your survey!!

 

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