Sam has closed his piano and gone to bed ... now we can talk about the real stuff of life ... love, liberty and games such as Janus, Capablanca Random, Embassy Chess & the odd mention of other 10x8 variants is welcome too
For posting: - invitations to games (you can also use the New Game menu or for particular games: Janus; Capablanca Random; or Embassy) - information about upcoming tournaments - disussion of games (please limit this to completed games or discussion on how a game has arrived at a certain position ... speculation on who has an advantage or the benefits of potential moves is not permitted while that particular game is in progress) - links to interesting related sites (non-promotional)
Of course my database stopped after 64 plies worth of iteration! I am an idiot!! In each byte of data, in which there are 8 bits (8 digits of 1 or 0) I needed to use 2 bits for win, loss, draw, or unknown.
unknown = 00
win = 01
draw = 10
loss = 11
That leaves only 6 bits available for distance to win, and 2 to the 6th power is 64!
So, as the database looped around, after iteration 64, nothing further could be resolved, so it stopped!
Now, either this is extremely coincidental, or I need to recompute this thing. I can get the distance to win up to 128 plies using a trick. I just divide the distance to win by 2 when I write it into the byte. If the win-loss-draw bits indicate a win, I double this number and add 1. If is it a loss, I just double the number. All wins are odd (mate in 1 ply, mate in 3 plies, etc.) since the winning side makes the last move.
Stay tuned folks, I will recompute the database today, this time doing it properly.
Now, now, now! Enough of this self-effacing rhetoric!! Anyone who calls himself an idiot and then promptly proceeds to demonstrate the contrary is, per se, a walking oxymoron; provided, of course, that he can walk.
So, if you will please stand to be corrected, Ed: you are obviously not an idiot, but a moron, that is, an OXYmoron.
O X Y M O R O N S O F T H E W O R L D, U N I T E!!! /Fx/