Quote:
Originally Posted by watergun7
A bit of "fun" now. Idk if you guys ever played the game where you start with 8 pawns only- who ever queens first wins. This game is probably a forced win for someone (I'm thinking black), but it's hard to prove.
(Edit: oops, I thought you meant 8 pawns on each side, i.e. K+8P vs K+8P. Also, I assumed that the objective is to checkmate, not just to queen first, which, I reckon, would be even easier for White.)
(Edit 2: and of course I had forgotten to install the relevant 6-man Syzygy tablebases beforehand, so the effort is wasted
)
I'm not sure what exactly position you mean, but the thing is that either the position with the kings on e1 and e8 or the one with the kings on d1 and e8 (all the pawns being at their initial places) isn't won by Black; if one of them is won by Black, then the other is necessarily won by White. That's because, in the former, White can play 1. Kd1 and mirror Black's winning strategy for the latter (if it exists; with the files being flipped as well), and analogously, in the latter, White can play 1. Ke1 and mirror Black's winning strategy for the former if it exists.
Hence, when playing one starting game from each of these two positions ideally, White scores at least one point.
I've just launched 6 classical games (90+30) of Stockfish 6 against itself from the former position, let's see how well White does
(I know that engines play the endgame poorly, so it will hardly give an ultimate answer.) I think that both positions are drawn.
Last edited by coon74; 02-27-2015 at 07:40 PM.