TalkChess.com

[H.G.Muller]

The Fruit system does havea weak point:

With 1 minor vs 2 Pawns, it is conceivable the minor is ahead. And because it has no mating potential, Fruit gives it mutiplier 0, which will result in a 0.00 score. The Pawns won't get a discount (multiplier 1), but that does not help them when they are behind.

Now 1 minor vs 1 Pawns will also suffer from this, as that makes it even more likely the minor is ahead. This is all fine when you are playing the minor,as it correctly tells you there is not a shred of hope to win. But when you areplaying the Pawns, it cannot see that KNKP is a tad worse than KNKPP (or even KNKPPP with very poor Pawns), and will start playing purely random moves when a positive score is beyond the horizon. This will likely blunder the Pawns away without any reason, while fighting to keep the Pawns, move your King to the center, push the Pawns when safe, could conceivably have caused positive scores to come within the horizon, and perhaps even a win. Especially against a fallible opponent...

So I guess a multiplier 0 is a bad idea, even when your chanches for winning can be mathematically proven not to exists. Because it completely blinds the side that could still win, and prevents it from even trying.