PERFECT KNOWLEDGE REVISITED

Database research slowly arrives at the stage where perfect knowledge allows us to grasp simple endgames which, in most instances, show pathologies never thought of by Grandmasters' intuition. For some endgames, the maximin exceeds FIDE's 50-move rule, thus precipitating a discussion about altering the rule. However, even though it is now possible to determine exactly the path lengths of many 5-men endgames (or of fewer men), it is felt there is an essential flaw if each endgame should have its own limit to the number of moves. This paper focuses on the consequences of a k-move rule which, whatever the value of k, may change a naive optimal strategy into a k-optimal strategy which may well be radically different. © 1990.