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H. G. Muller wrote on Sat, Feb 15, 2020 04:59 PM UTC:

This is very strange. Why do you need custom evaluation for KRK in the first place? Fairy-Max had absolutely no trouble to win KRK on its normal evaluation. (Which has Rooks completely neutral, and use the parabolic centralization table for Kings.) In the latest Fairy-Max version I use what you could call custom evaluation for checkmating a bare King (it just multiplies the centralization bonus for that King by a large factor), but that was only needed for end-games with many centralizing pieces (such as KFFFK in Makruk), because these did not bother to leave the center just for driving a single piece into a corner. Checkmating with Rook is very easy on any size board; you almost need no search depth for it at all. You just shephard the King towards the corner with your Rook, keeping the latter protected from behind by your King.

I suppose you do switch off null move?

The only thing I can think of that causes what you describe is contamination of the hash score with draw scores resulting from repetitions. What happens when you disable repetition detection (accepting PV hash cutoffs)? I don't really understand how a line that makes progress could get draw scores from this, though.

Can you post a game of how it typically plays KRK? (Best would of course be one that it bungles.)

Here is thinking output from a version of Fairy-Max that doesn't use the special bare-king evaluation, for position 8/8/8/5k2/3R4/8/5K2/8 w - 0 1 : 

mover viewpoint		fewer / Multi-PV margin = 0 / more
exclude: none best +tail                                          
dep	score	nodes	time	(not shown:  tbhits	knps	seldep)
28	  #12 	121.4M	1:17.65	1. Kf3 Ke5 2. Rd3 Kf6 3. Re3 Kg5 4. Re5 Kg6 5. Kg4 Kf6 6. Re4 Kg6 7. Rf4 Kh6 8. Kf5 Kg7 9. Kg5 Kh7 10. Kf6 Kh8 11. Kf7 Kh7 12. Rh4 
27	  #13 	61.4M  	0:40.03	1. Kf3 Ke5 2. Rd3 Kf6 3. Re3 Kg5 4. Re6 Kf5 5. Re4 
26	  #12 	46.8M  	0:30.38	1. Kf3 Ke5 2. Rd3 Kf6 3. Re3 Kf5 4. Re4 
25	  #12 	28.3M  	0:18.23	1. Kf3 Ke5 2. Rd3 Kf6 3. Re3 Kf5 4. Re4 
24	  #12 	15.6M  	0:09.85	1. Kf3 Ke5 2. Rd3 Kf6 3. Re3 Kf5 4. Kg3 
23	  #12 	10.3M  	0:06.45	1. Kf3 Ke5 2. Rd3 Kf6 3. Re3 Kf5 4. Re4 
22	  #13 	7.44M  	0:04.55	1. Kf3 Ke5 2. Rd3 Kf6 3. Re3 Kf5 4. Re2 Kg5 5. Re5 
21	  #14 	5.88M  	0:03.52	1. Kf3 Ke5 2. Rd3 Kf5 3. Re3 Kg5 4. Re5 Kg6 5. Kg4 Kf6 6. Kf4 
20	  #18 	4.72M  	0:02.74	1. Kf3 Ke5 2. Rd1 Ke6 3. Kf4 Kf6 4. Re1 Kg6 5. Re3 Kf6 6. Re5 Kg6 7. Kg4 
20	  #22 	4.50M  	0:02.59	1. Ke2 Ke6 2. Kf3 Kf6 
20	+4.59 	3.68M  	0:02.07	1. Ke3 Ke5 2. Rd8 Kf5 3. Re8 Kg5 4. Ke4 Kf6 5. Re5 Kg6 
19	+4.57 	2.37M  	0:01.27	1. Ke3 Ke5 2. Re4 Kd5 3. Kd3 Kc6 4. Kd4 Kd6 5. Re5 Kc6 6. Rd5 Kc7 7. Kc5 Kb7 8. Rd6 Kc7 9. Kd5 Kc8 10. Ke4 
18	+4.56 	1.54M  	0:00.81	1. Ke3 Ke5 2. Re4 Kf5 3. Kf3 Kg6 4. Rf4 Kg5 5. Kg3 Kh5 6. Rg4 Kh6 7. Rg8 
17	+4.55 	1.12M  	0:00.57	1. Ke3 Ke5 2. Re4 Kf5 3. Kf3 Kg6 4. Rf4 Kg5 5. Kg3 Kg6 6. Kh4 Kg7 7. Kg5 Kh7 8. Rf7 Kg8 9. Kf6 
16	+4.54 	729185	0:00.35	1. Ke3 Ke5 2. Re4 Kf5 3. Kf3 Kg6 4. Rf4 Kg5 5. Kg3 
15	+4.54 	518699	0:00.25	1. Ke3 Ke5 2. Re4 Kf5 3. Kf3 Kg6 4. Rf4 Kg5 5. Kg3 
14	+4.54 	354924	0:00.15	1. Ke3 Ke5 2. Re4 Kd5 3. Kd3 Kd6 4. Kd4 Kc6 5. Re6 Kc7 6. Kd5 Kd7 7. Ke5 
13	+4.53 	218794	0:00.09	1. Ke3 Ke5 2. Re4 Kd5 3. Kd3 Kd6 4. Kd4 Kc6 5. Re6 Kb5 6. Kd5 Kb4 7. Ke5 
12	+4.53 	150300	0:00.06	1. Ke3 Ke5 2. Re4 Kf5 3. Kf3 Kg5 4. Rf4 Kg6 5. Kg4 Kh6 6. Kf5 Kh5 
11	+4.52 	107753	0:00.04	1. Ke3 Ke5 2. Re4 Kf5 3. Kf3 Kg6 4. Kf4 Kf6 5. Re3 Kg6 6. Ke4 
10	+4.50 	54436  	0:00.01	1. Ke3 Ke5 2. Re4 Kf5 3. Kd4 Kf6 4. Re5 Kg6 5. Ke4 Kf6 
9	+4.52 	36093  	0:00.01	1. Ke3 Ke5 2. Re4 Kf5 3. Kd4 Kf6 4. Re5 Kg6 5. Ke4 
8	+4.51 	20251  	0:00.00	1. Ke3 Ke5 2. Re4 Kf5 3. Kd4 Kf6 4. Re5 Kg6 
7	+4.50 	9192    	0:00.00	1. Ke3 Ke5 2. Re4 Kf5 3. Re8 Kf6 4. Ke4 
6	+4.49 	5719    	0:00.00	1. Ke3 Ke5 2. Re4 Kf5 3. Kd4 Kf6 
5	+4.49 	2747    	0:00.00	1. Ke3 Ke5 2. Re4 Kf5 3. Kd4 
4	+4.48 	559      	0:00.00	1. Ke3 Ke5 2. Re4 Kf5 
3	+4.48 	223      	0:00.00	1. Ke3 Ke5 2. Re4 
2	+4.48 	23        	0:00.00	1. Ke3 Ke5 
1	+4.49 	13        	0:00.00	1. Ke3

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