Any Examples of The King's Tactical Abilities?

[Steve Maughan]

Thanks everyone! These positions were just what I was looking for. I'm made an EPD file of the ones with a forced mate. You can download using this link:

https://bit.ly/TheKingMate

I compared the performance of CM9000 (which is The King 3.5) with SF17. Amazingly, based on this small set of positions, The King still usually beats SF to announcing mate, or finding the shortest mate.

— Steve

[Werewolf]

[pgn][Event ""]
[Site ""]
[Date "1994.1.26"]
[White "The King"]
[Black ""]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[Setup "1"]
[FEN "r7/8/4p2k/3p1bR1/7r/Np6/1P6/K5R1 w - - 0 1"]

1. Rh5+ *[/pgn]
r7/8/4p2k/3p1bR1/7r/Np6/1P6/K5R1 w - -

If memory serves me well this was during the WCCC in Munich 1993 and was unprecedented with the hardware of that time.

One thing I never understood is why Mephisto didn't realise a 32MHz version of Gideon 3.1 (RISC II program - which ran at 14MHz) as TASC did with The ChessMachine.

They were already close to bankruptcy, so it did not matter any longer.

That's so sad. But predictable I suppose.

I often wonder if we could somehow make a box with a ASIC Stockfish and make a new external ChessMachine to plug into the PC. Maybe when SF stops improving it could be worth it...

[JVMerlino]

Thanks everyone! These positions were just what I was looking for. I'm made an EPD file of the ones with a forced mate. You can download using this link:

https://bit.ly/TheKingMate

I compared the performance of CM9000 (which is The King 3.5) with SF17. Amazingly, based on this small set of positions, The King still usually beats SF to announcing mate, or finding the shortest mate.

— Steve

Found another one from Fischer v Sherwin (1958).
[d]5rk1/5Rp1/3p4/3B3p/R3P1nq/8/P5PP/2Q4K w - - 0 33
The King from CM9000 announces Mate in 11 in at depth 1/6, in less than 0.1 seconds, needing to search only 81,464 positions.

Also, note that the version of The King in CM9000 is v3.23.

[Jouni]

1993 position with 1. Rh5 is good example of 30+ years progress. ALL engines I tested played it instantly with 0.0 score.