Re:Positions chess engines don't understand
by gamegoblin on Monday May 17, 2021 @07:42PM
(#27189728)
I'm an 1850 player and when I am playing under extreme time pressure (e.g. < 2 seconds remaining), I occasionally underpromote to a rook because I can execute a rook+king endgame mechanically faster than a queen+king without an accidental misclick causing a stalemate.
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That's interesting. Is it just easier because you can't accidentally move to diagonals, or it's easier in your mind because you've seen it more? If you can even tell the difference.
Re:Positions chess engines don't understand
by ryanjshaw on Tuesday May 18, 2021 @02:10AM
(#27191714)
Not OP but with rook and king you make a box and shrink it while keeping your king next to your rook, and stalemate is all but impossible. With queen and rook you have to get the queen to a knight's distance from your opponents king and mirror their moves until the edge of the board, and at the end you need a slightly bigger L (4 squares) to avoid stalemate while your bring your king around. In the former the two pieces work together, in the latter they work somewhat independently (with a quirk at the end) until the final sequence of moves and therefore there is a slightly larger risk of error. In practice you should drill this regularly to mitigate the risk.
>or it's easier in your mind because you've seen it more
I think the point OP is making is that if you need to use your mind at all with <2 seconds left you're going to lose. Pre moving safe legal moves without hitting a stalemate is definitely easier without a queen.