AylerKupp: <<Peligroso Patzer>: LOL. Actually, I'm glad you pointed that out. With his much better-centralized king, black seemed to me to have some advantage in the final position:>Yes, but fortunately for White, it's his move. Rybka 4.1 evaluated the position to have equal chances for both sides:
[0.00], d=50: 81.Ka6 Kc6 82.Ka7 Kb5 83.Kb7 Kc5 84.Kc7 Kd5 85.Kd7 Ke5 86.Kc7 Kd5 87.Kd7 Ke5 88.Kc7 Kd5 89.Kd7 Ke5 90.Kc7 Kd5 91.Kd7 Ke5 92.Kc7 Kd5 93.Kd7 Ke5 94.Kc7 Kd5 95.Kd7 Ke5 96.Kc7
[0.00], d=50: 81.Kb8 Ke5 82.Kc7 Kd5 83.Kd7 Ke5 84.Kc7 Kd5 85.Kd7 Ke5 86.Kc7 Kd5 87.Kd7 Ke5 88.Kc7 Kd5 89.Kd7 Ke5 90.Kc7 Kd5 91.Kd7 Ke5 92.Kc7 Kd5 93.Kd7 Ke5 94.Kc7 Kd5 95.Kd7 Ke5 96.Kc7
[0.00], d=50: 81.Kb6 Kd5 82.Kc7 Ke6 83.Kc6 Ke5 84.Kc5 Ke4 85.Kd6 Kd4 86.Kc6 Ke5 87.Kc5 Ke4 88.Kd6 Kd4 89.Kc6 Ke5 90.Kc5 Ke4 91.Kd6 Kd4 92.Kc6 Ke5 93.Kc5 Ke4 94.Kd6 Kd4 95.Kc6 Ke5 96.Kc5
And that's the first time I've had the patience to wait for Rybka to go to such a great depth in its calculations. In case you're wondering, it reached d=50 in 4 minutes, 26 seconds on my computer.
Just to make sure, I tried Houdini 1.5a. Houdini has an "Analysis Contempt" parameter which, when set = 2, tries to avoid draws if at all possible. But, in spite of that setting, Houdini agreed with Rybka that the position has equal chances for both sides. But it was much more efficient, reaching d=99 (apparently the maximum that Houdini will go) in less than 1 second. Obviously Houdini uses a different search procedure than Rybka. Maybe Rybka, being a commercial program that you have to pay for, wants to make sure that you know that you are getting your money's worth.
[0.00], d=99: 81.Kb7 Ke7 82.Kc6 Ke6 83.Kc5 Ke5 84.Kb5 Ke4 85.Kc6 Kf4 86.Kd7 Kg5 87.Ke7 Kf5 88.Kf8 Kg6 89.Kg8 Kf6 90.Kf8 Kg6 91.Kg8
[0.00], d=99: 81.Ka6 Kd5 82.Ka5 Kc4 83.Ka4 Kc3 84.Ka3 Kc2 85.Ka2 Kc1 86.Ka3 Kc2 87.Ka2
[0.00], d=99: 81.Kb6 Kd5 82.Ka5 Kc4 83.Ka4 Kc3 84.Ka3 Kc2 85.Ka2 Kc1 86.Ka3 Kc2 87.Ka2
So I don't know about you, but after verification with two different engines I'm willing to concede the position to be a draw assuming, of course, best play by both sides. But I think both players should have continued the game for another 50 moves just to make sure.
Kibitzing
