Test Position: Qh8+!!

[swami]

[d] 1q2r1k1/5pb1/2bppnp1/p1p5/Nr2PPP1/1BBP4/1PP4Q/2KR3R w - - 0 1

Solution: Qh8+ !!

Evaluation and Difficulty:

* Check Mate in 9 moves.
* Most programs should be able to find it!

Explanation: Look for Open files and Diagonals. White Controls them with Rook ands Bishop. So you could consider contemplating about sacrifices.

What's the time taken in seconds?!

[Marc MP]

On my PIV 3.2Ghz, Fruit 2.3.1 (with extends checks = true) takes 6.5 sec, Bright 0.3a 7.5 sec, SlowChessBlitz 35sec, Chess Tiger 2007.1 Gambit 8min 43 sec. It looks like your mileage will vary quite a bit here.

[swami]

yes, this is quite easier, this is mainly for authors of 2200-2500 rated engines.

[bob]

[d] 1q2r1k1/5pb1/2bppnp1/p1p5/Nr2PPP1/1BBP4/1PP4Q/2KR3R w - - 0 1

Solution: Qh8+ !!

Evaluation and Difficulty:

* Check Mate in 9 moves.
* Most programs should be able to find it!

Explanation: Look for Open files and Diagonals. White Controls them with Rook ands Bishop. So you could consider contemplating about sacrifices.

What's the time taken in seconds?!

takes 20 secs on my laptop:

Code: Select all

]
               14    20.87     +1   1. Qh8+!!  (3.7Mnps)             
               14    21.38     +3   1. Qh8+!!  (3.7Mnps)             
               14    21.63     +M   1. Qh8+!!  (3.7Mnps)             
               14    21.75  Mat09   1. Qh8+ Bxh8 2. Rxh8+ Kg7 3. Rh7+ Kxh7
                                    4. Bxf6 Bxe4 5. dxe4 g5 6. f5 exf5
                                    7. Bxf7 Rb3 8. Rh1+ Rh3 9. Rxh3# (s=4)
               14->  21.89  Mat09   1. Qh8+ Bxh8 2. Rxh8+ Kg7 3. Rh7+ Kxh7
                                    4. Bxf6 Bxe4 5. dxe4 g5 6. f5 exf5
                                    7. Bxf7 Rb3 8. Rh1+ Rh3 9. Rxh3# (s=12)
               15    22.27  Mat09   1. Qh8+ Bxh8 2. Rxh8+ Kg7 3. Rh7+ Kxh7
                                    4. Bxf6 Bxe4 5. dxe4 g5 6. f5 exf5
                                    7. Bxf7 Rb3 8. Rh1+ Rh3 9. Rxh3# (s=11)
               15->  36.88  Mat09   1. Qh8+ Bxh8 2. Rxh8+ Kg7 3. Rh7+ Kxh7
                                    4. Bxf6 Bxe4 5. dxe4 g5 6. f5 exf5
                                    7. Bxf7 Rb3 8. Rh1+ Rh3 9. Rxh3# (s=6)
               16    37.62  Mat09   1. Qh8+ Bxh8 2. Rxh8+ Kg7 3. Rh7+ Kxh7
                                    4. Bxf6 Bxe4 5. dxe4 g5 6. f5 exf5
                                    7. Bxf7 Rb3 8. Rh1+ Rh3 9. Rxh3# (s=5)

the dual-quad core I used in the last CCT event takes just over 3 seconds...

[Dann Corbit]

Rybka:

Code: Select all

3) Qh8+;                
    Searching move: Qh2-h8
    Best move (Rybkav2.3.2a.w32): Qh2-h8
    identical moves! Found in: 02:29
      5	00:00	       3.721	79.381	+0.54	Qh2h4 Qb8d8
      6	00:01	       6.092	65.665	+0.47	Qh2h4 Qb8d8 Bc3xb4
      7	00:01	      13.711	63.818	+0.27	Qh2h4 Qb8d8 Bc3xb4 a5xb4 g4g5
      8	00:01	      32.235	63.846	+0.24	Qh2h4 Qb8d8 Bc3xb4 a5xb4 g4g5 Nf6h5
      9	00:01	      58.246	69.272	+0.07	Qh2h4 Qb8d8 Bc3xb4 a5xb4 g4g5 Nf6h5 f4f5
     10	00:04	     203.718	67.401	+0.16	Qh2h4 Qb8d8 Bc3xb4 a5xb4 g4g5 Nf6h5 f4f5 Qd8a5
     11	00:05	     271.628	67.413	+0.25	Qh2h4 Qb8d8 Bc3xb4 a5xb4 g4g5 Nf6h5 f4f5 Qd8a5 f5f6
     12	00:09	     545.196	65.548	+0.54	Qh2h4 Qb8d8 Bc3xb4 a5xb4 f4f5 c5c4 d3xc4 e6xf5 e4xf5 Bc6xh1 Rd1xh1 g6xf5 g4xf5 Nf6e4
     13	00:13	     774.217	65.461	+0.47	Qh2h4 Qb8d8 Bc3xb4 a5xb4 f4f5 c5c4 d3xc4 e6xf5 e4xf5 Bc6xh1 Rd1xh1 g6xf5 g4xf5 Nf6e4
     14	00:19	   1.175.872	65.135	+0.50	Qh2h4 Qb8d8 Bc3xb4 a5xb4 f4f5 c5c4 d3xc4 e6xf5 e4xf5 Bc6xh1 Rd1xh1 g6xf5 g4xf5 Nf6e4
     15	01:54	   7.042.427	63.378	+0.91	Qh2h4 d6d5 Bc3e5 Qb8d8 Na4xc5 a5a4 e4xd5 e6xd5 Bb3a2 Qd8e7 d3d4 a4a3 b2xa3 Rb4b6
     16	02:21	   8.693.424	63.176	+0.99	Qh2h4 d6d5 Bc3e5 Qb8d8 Na4xc5 a5a4 e4xd5 e6xd5 Bb3a2 a4a3 b2xa3 Rb4b6 g4g5 Nf6h5
     16	02:29	   9.205.668	63.578	+3.02	Qh2h8+ Bg7xh8 Rh1xh8+ Kg8g7 Rh8h7+ Kg7xh7 Bc3xf6 g6g5 f4f5 e6xf5 Bb3xf7 Bc6xe4 d3xe4
     16	02:29	   9.228.539	63.642	+M9	Qh2h8+ Bg7xh8 Rh1xh8+ Kg8g7 Rh8h7+ Kg7xh7 Bc3xf6 g6g5 f4f5 e6xf5 Bb3xf7 Bc6xe4 d3xe4 Rb4b3 Rd1h1+ Rb3h3 Rh1xh3+
     17	02:29	   9.256.619	63.708	+M9	Qh2h8+ Bg7xh8 Rh1xh8+ Kg8g7 Rh8h7+ Kg7xh7 Bc3xf6 g6g5 f4f5 e6xf5 Bb3xf7 Bc6xe4 d3xe4 Rb4b3 Rd1h1+ Rb3h3 Rh1xh3+
     18	02:30	   9.341.798	63.912	+M9	Qh2h8+ Bg7xh8 Rh1xh8+ Kg8g7 Rh8h7+ Kg7xh7 Bc3xf6 g6g5 f4f5 e6xf5 Bb3xf7 Bc6xe4 d3xe4 Rb4b3 Rd1h1+ Rb3h3 Rh1xh3+
     19	02:32	   9.537.933	64.347	+M9	Qh2h8+ Bg7xh8 Rh1xh8+ Kg8g7 Rh8h7+ Kg7xh7 Bc3xf6 g6g5 f4f5 e6xf5 Bb3xf7 Bc6xe4 d3xe4 Rb4b3 Rd1h1+ Rb3h3 Rh1xh3+
     20	02:39	  10.195.933	65.670	+M9	Qh2h8+ Bg7xh8 Rh1xh8+ Kg8g7 Rh8h7+ Kg7xh7 Bc3xf6 g6g5 f4f5 e6xf5 Bb3xf7 Bc6xe4 d3xe4 Rb4b3 Rd1h1+ Rb3h3 Rh1xh3+
     21	03:18	  13.437.744	69.732	+M9	Qh2h8+ Bg7xh8 Rh1xh8+ Kg8g7 Rh8h7+ Kg7xh7 Bc3xf6 g6g5 f4f5 e6xf5 Bb3xf7 Bc6xe4 d3xe4 Rb4b3 Rd1h1+ Rb3h3 Rh1xh3+
   5/29/2008 7:52:22 PM, Time for this analysis: 00:05:00, Rated time: 12:29

[kgburcham]

[D] 1q2r1k1/5pb1/2bppnp1/p1p5/Nr2PPP1/1BBP4/1PP4Q/2KR3R w - -

Zappa Mexico II x64
13/45 0:19 +M9 1.Qh8+ Bxh8 2.Rxh8+ Kg7 3.Rh7+ Kxh7 4.Bxf6 g5 5.f5 Bxe4 6.dxe4 exf5 7.Bxf7 Rb3 8.Rh1+ Rh3 9.Rxh3+ (40.619.741) 2076

Rybka 2.3.2a mp x64
15.01 0:27 +M9 1.Qh8+ Bxh8 2.Rxh8+ Kg7 3.Rh7+ Kxh7 4.Bxf6 g5 5.f5 exf5 6.Bxf7 Bxe4 7.dxe4 Rb3 8.Rh1+ Rh3 9.Rxh3+ (10.325.476) 380

Deep Hiarcs Paderborn 2007:
+- (#9) Depth: 14/41 00:00:28 40547kN
1.Qh8+ Bxh8 2.Rxh8+ Kg7 3.Rh7+ Kxh7 4.Bxf6 g5 5.f5 Bxe4 6.dxe4 d5 7.Rh1+ Qh2 8.Rxh2+

Little Thought v1.03 x64
13/40 1:21 +1.80++ 1.Qh8+ Bxh8 2.Rxh8+ Kg7 3.Rh7+ Kxh7 4.Bxf6 g5 5.f5 Qb6 6.Nxb6 exf5 7.gxf5 Rxb6 8.Bxf7 Rh8 9.Bxh8 Kxh8 10.Kb1 (102.148.139) 1250
13/40 2:05 +299.83 1.Qh8+ Bxh8 2.Rxh8+ Kg7 3.Rh7+ Kxh7 4.Bxf6 g5 5.f5 exf5 6.Bxf7 Bxe4 7.dxe4 d5 8.Rh1+ Qh2 (147.018.950) 1174

Deep Shredder UCI x64
15/48 2:01 +M9 1.Qh8+ Bxh8 2.Rxh8+ Kg7 3.Rh7+ Kxh7 4.Bxf6 Bxe4 5.dxe4 g5 6.f5 exf5 7.Bxf7 Rb3 8.Rh1+ Rh3 9.Rxh3+ (344.201.040) 2828

[swami]

Little Thought v1.03 x64
13/40 1:21 +1.80++ 1.Qh8+ Bxh8 2.Rxh8+ Kg7 3.Rh7+ Kxh7 4.Bxf6 g5 5.f5 Qb6 6.Nxb6 exf5 7.gxf5 Rxb6 8.Bxf7 Rh8 9.Bxh8 Kxh8 10.Kb1 (102.148.139) 1250
13/40 2:05 +299.83 1.Qh8+ Bxh8 2.Rxh8+ Kg7 3.Rh7+ Kxh7 4.Bxf6 g5 5.f5 exf5 6.Bxf7 Bxe4 7.dxe4 d5 8.Rh1+ Qh2 (147.018.950) 1174

The author Nathan Thom will be delighted to find this!

[JuLieN]

What's the time taken in seconds?!

At last! I managed to produce a version of Prédateur that solves this puzzle! (Yes, I've not stopped the development!) Last year I tried with the old Prédateur 0.1.5 and dropped the calculation when it reached the 400 billions nodes computed and still seemed far from the goal. Here's the result with my current Prédateur 2.0 beta version :



Well, let me calculate how many seconds make 11 hours, 19 minutes and 52 seconds! Hmmm... that will do 40,792 seconds!

Note that Prédateur delivered its result as soon as it found a checkmate, hence the not optimal solution (+M15). It'll eventually find the optimal one if I let it search the 18th ply, which I won't, 11 hours were enough. :p

Ok, that may seem a lot, but it's still a milestone to me, and a real benchmark : I'll have to reduce the nodecount to the solution (currently over 16 billions nodes). Also, this version has futility pruning turned off, as it is broken.


PS: And, yes, next Prédateur will jump from v0.1.5 to 2.0 directly.

[Albert Silver]

[d] 1q2r1k1/5pb1/2bppnp1/p1p5/Nr2PPP1/1BBP4/1PP4Q/2KR3R w - - 0 1

Solution: Qh8+ !!

Evaluation and Difficulty:

* Check Mate in 9 moves.
* Most programs should be able to find it!

Explanation: Look for Open files and Diagonals. White Controls them with Rook ands Bishop. So you could consider contemplating about sacrifices.

What's the time taken in seconds?!

C2D @3.6GHz

Analysis by Rybka 3:

1.Qh4
+/- (0.72) Depth: 11 00:00:03 324kN
1.Qh4
+/- (0.92) Depth: 11 00:00:03 403kN
1.Qh4 d5 2.Be5 Qd8
+/- (1.06) Depth: 11 00:00:06 716kN
1.Qh4
+/- (1.26) Depth: 12 00:00:09 1048kN
1.Qh4
+- (1.46) Depth: 12 00:00:15 1781kN
1.Qh4 d5 2.Be5 Qd8 3.Nxc5 a4 4.Ba2 Rb6 5.exd5 exd5 6.g5 Nh5 7.Bxg7 Kxg7 8.f5 a3 9.bxa3 Rb5 10.d4 Qa5
+- (1.44) Depth: 12 00:00:19 2239kN
1.Qh8+
+- (1.86) Depth: 12 00:00:20 2362kN
1.Qh8+
+- (2.66) Depth: 12 00:00:20 2378kN
1.Qh8+
+- (4.26) Depth: 12 00:00:20 2400kN
1.Qh8+
+- (7.46) Depth: 12 00:00:20 2456kN
1.Qh8+
+- (13.86) Depth: 12 00:00:21 2496kN
1.Qh8+
+- (26.66) Depth: 12 00:00:21 2513kN
1.Qh8+
+- (52.26) Depth: 12 00:00:21 2525kN
1.Qh8+
+- (103.46) Depth: 12 00:00:21 2536kN
1.Qh8+
+- (205.86) Depth: 12 00:00:21 2545kN
1.Qh8+
+- (#9) Depth: 12 00:00:21 2563kN


Analysis by Stockfish 1.6.2 JA 64bit:

1.Qh4 Qd8 2.Bxb4 axb4 3.f5 c4 4.dxc4 Bxe4 5.Rh2 gxf5 6.gxf5 Bxf5 7.Rhd2
+/- (1.05) Depth: 10 00:00:00 178kN
1.Qh4 Qd8 2.Bxb4 axb4 3.f5 c4 4.dxc4 Bxe4 5.Rh2 gxf5 6.gxf5 Bxf5 7.Rhd2
+/- (0.80) Depth: 11 00:00:00 247kN
1.Qh4 Qd8 2.Bxb4 axb4 3.f5 c4 4.dxc4 exf5 5.gxf5 Bxe4 6.fxg6 Bxh1 7.Rxh1 Re4 8.gxf7+ Kxf7 9.c5+ d5
+- (1.49) Depth: 12 00:00:00 944kN
1.f5 Bxa4 2.fxg6 d5 3.Be5 Qa7 4.g5 Nh5 5.Bxg7 fxg6 6.Bc3 Bxb3 7.Bxb4 Bxc2 8.Kxc2 axb4
+- (1.53) Depth: 12 00:00:01 3146kN
1.f5 Rxb3 2.cxb3 e5 3.g5 Nh5 4.f6 Bxf6 5.gxf6 Qxb3 6.Nxc5 dxc5 7.Bxe5 Ba4
+- (2.10) Depth: 13 00:00:05 10847kN
1.f5 Rxb3 2.cxb3 e5 3.g5 Nh5 4.Qc2 Qb5 5.Bd2 Rb8 6.Nc3 Qxb3 7.Qxb3 Rxb3 8.f6 Bf8 9.Kc2 Rb8
+/- (1.33) Depth: 14 00:00:07 15560kN
1.f5 Rxb3 2.cxb3 e5 3.g5 Nh5 4.Bxa5 Qxb3 5.Nb6 Rb8 6.fxg6 fxg6 7.Nc4 Bxe4 8.dxe4 Qxc4+ 9.Qc2 Qa6 10.Bc7 Qa1+ 11.Kd2
+/- (1.29) Depth: 15 00:00:11 24023kN
1.f5 Rxb3 2.cxb3 e5 3.g5 Nh5 4.fxg6 fxg6 5.Qc2 Qb5 6.Be1 Rb8 7.Qc4+ Qxc4+ 8.dxc4 Rxb3 9.Nc3 Bf8 10.Kc2 Rb4 11.b3
+- (1.45) Depth: 16 00:00:16 36177kN
1.Qh8+ Bxh8 2.Rxh8+ Kg7 3.Rh7+ Kxh7 4.Bxf6 g5 5.f5 Bxe4 6.dxe4 exf5 7.Bxf7
+- (2.14) Depth: 16 00:00:19 42359kN
1.Qh8+ Bxh8 2.Rxh8+ Kg7 3.Rh7+ Kxh7 4.Bxf6 g5 5.f5 Bxe4 6.dxe4 exf5 7.Bxf7
+- (5.57) Depth: 17 00:00:19 42441kN
1.Qh8+ Bxh8 2.Rxh8+ Kg7 3.Rh7+ Kxh7 4.Bxf6 g5 5.f5 Bxe4 6.dxe4 exf5 7.Bxf7
+- (19.31) Depth: 18 00:00:19 42456kN
1.Qh8+ Bxh8 2.Rxh8+ Kg7 3.Rh7+ Kxh7 4.Bxf6 g5 5.f5 Bxe4 6.dxe4 exf5 7.Bxf7
+- (#13) Depth: 19 00:00:19 42459kN
1.Qh8+ Bxh8 2.Rxh8+ Kg7 3.Rh7+ Kxh7 4.Bxf6 g5 5.f5 Bxe4 6.dxe4 exf5 7.Bxf7 Rb3 8.Rh1+ Rh3 9.Rxh3#
+- (#9) Depth: 20 00:00:51 137mN

[Paloma]

Hi Julien,
which GUI is it? I suppose Arena 2.01? I use Arena 1.1, there the columns for time and nodes very small. Your Output looks better.