[pbmserv] Interesting ethical issue: perpetual check

["Ezequiel Martín Cámara" <ezequiel.martin.camara@gmail.com>]

Hello fellow PBeMers.

In this terrace game 149, I am in a hopeless situation, with a sure
loss in two moves. But...

But I also have my opponent's key piece locked in such a way that I
can perpetually attack it and avoid the loss for as long as I want.

Now, Terrace rules say nothing of this situation. The game ends when
capturing the opponent's key piece, getting a key piece to the
opponent's low point, or when both sides agree to a draw. I guess that
last point was supposed to take care of any deadlock situation. In
some other terrace webpage (http://www.terracegames.com/rules.html),
it says that the game is a draw if a player cannot make an allowed
move.

There is an interesting angle to this situation: recently, at the end
of a go game, this player started passing. There is no automatic end
to go games in this server, and one of the players is supposed to
concede and resign. An external arbiter had to intervene. But that was
different, as the rules of go cover the situation but the server does
not enforce the rules.

In this case, neither the server nor the rules (as far as I have been
able to confirm) cover the possibility of a perpetual repetition of
movements. So a rule has to be made up. Options:

A) Positions/movements cannot be repeated. This follows the spirit of
the ko rule in go. Then I have lost (or maybe he would have, if the
movement that cannot be done is that of his key piece out of the
check).

B) A repetition of a position/movement is a draw. This follows the
spirit of chess. Then finding a perpetual check is the same as
obtaining a draw.

As I cannot channel the spirit of the creators of terrace, ¿how do we
resolve grey areas in the rules? ¿How are lockups, perpetual
repetition, and related situations handled? ¿Am I just trying to sneak
out of a loss?

--
Ezequiel Martín Cámara
ezequiel.martin.camara@gmail.com