Author: JNoomen
Date: 12:39:50 11/19/05
Go up one level in this thread
On November 19, 2005 at 15:02:59, Vincent Diepeveen wrote: Hi Vincent, As I proposed to you: I would like to play a rematch Fruit - Diep with the move 19.Kb1 being played. As I now have a 3-0 with Fruit against Fritz 9 with 19.Kb1, I am confident that Fruit will beat Diep as well. So name a time, a place and a date, I am ready for it! Jeroen PS For the readers here at CCC: I proposed to play a game with 19.Kb1 after the match ended, which was refused by Vincent >On November 18, 2005 at 17:28:55, JNoomen wrote: > >So Jeroen, > >Regarding the game fruit-diep : > >It was not we who fell in your trep, but an already tested line by Arturo in the >past trapped you. He had already tested with the f7-f5? move against Fruit and >realized after some games that this Kasparov line is 1-0 always. We love to play >that line against Kasparov with white too. > >However when removing the move f5 from book. It was all 0-1 against Fruit. It >doesn't know about opposite wings. If it would have played Kb1 from book, some >move later it would have lost the game, as it gets a massive amount of points >for winning pawns and not for king safety, unlike Diep, which happily sacraficed >a pawn against Fruit and won the game eyes-closed. > >So it was you who was outprepared there by Arturo as he had tested Kasparov's >losing f5 move already, not an 'unlucky' Kb1 move you missed. > >Vincent > >>Hi all, >> >>After a very busy week at work I finally found some time to comment on a few >>games from the Dutch Open, that ended last Sunday. Especially the game Fruit >>against Diep needs some clarification. Each game has its own story, so has the >>game Fruit-Diep and I want to tell you the whole story about it. But let's start >>at the beginning. >> >>When I started the tournament with the new Fruit version (with EGTB), I had of >>course high hopes for a tournament victory. My nature is optimism and when I >>play, I play to win. This has some disadvantage, of course, since any result >>worse than 1st place would be some disappointment for me. On the other hand, >>such optimism also gives me a certain drive, that is needed for computer >>tournaments. >> >>In the first round Fruit beated IsiChess in quite a brilliant way. My 6. Be3 >>Najdorf turned out to be a strong weapon and when Isi mixed some ideas, Fruit >>punched with the strong moves g6!, Bc4! and the hammer blow Nf5!! to clinch the >>game in great style. OK, that is a nice start! >> >>Next game was the game against Pro Deo. Avoiding a Sicilian discussion (Pro Deo >>is a monster in playing the White side of the Sicilian) I opted for a quieter >>Ruy Lopez, in which Pro Deo avoided the dull Berlin Wall. To my surprise Fruit >>quickly sacrificed an exchange, never thought it was worse and punished some >>weakening moves by Pro Deo in nice style. So that meant 2 out of 2, with 2 >>excellent games being played. >> >>Looking at the pairing, in round 3 Fruit had White against Diep. This >>immediately posed a question for me, a dilemma most bookexperts know: what to >>play? It was very tempting to play solid and never give Diep a chance to show >>its real potential. So the big question was: go for a sharp Najdorf, or play a >>solid line? After a tussle, I finally decided to go for the 1st option. I had >>several reasons to do so: >> >>1. The crushing win against IsiChess showed that Fruit is well capable of >>handling these kind of lines. >>2. The 6. Be3 line in the Najdorf is very well covered in my book. >>3. I wanted to keep other lines in reserve. >>4. I wanted to 'trick' Vincent into another line of the Sicilian. >> >>Call reason number 1 'over-optimism' and reason 4 'a big gamble', but chess >>would be dull without taking risks and I think taking risks are necessary to win >>games against strong opponents. Looking back, I think I made the wrong decision. >>But that is alway easy to say afterwards. As my analysis show, the game could be >>easily the other way around. Now let's go to the game: >> >>Fruit - Diep Dutch open 2005, round 3 >>------------------------------------------------------------- >>1.e4 c5 2.Nc3!? >> >>This is the trick I mentioned in point 4. If now Black plays the 'normal move' >>2... Nc6, Fruit would play 3.Nge2! followed by 4.d4 and Diep is unable to reach >>its favoured Najdorf lines. Furthermore, I think Diep would find itself in lines >>that were never tested before, a big advantage for the opponent. We never know, >>though, how that game would have ended. >> >>2... d6! >> >>Alas, Diep is knowing the trick and avoids the line given above. A pity, but I >>still felt confident. >> >>3.Nge2 Nf6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Nxd4 a6 6.Be3 >> >>So we are again having a 6.Be3 Najdorf. This decision can be questioned, because >>Diep likes the resulting positions. On the other hand, testgames with Fruit >>showed me that it scored very heavily with this line, so there was no reason for >>me to have doubts. >> >>6... e5 7.Nb3 Be6 8.f3 Nbd7 9.g4 b5!? >> >>Diep repeats the line it played against Fritz in the WCCC some years ago. That >>could turn out to be a risky business. >> >>10.g5 b4 11.Nd5 >> >>An interesting moment. Databases show a higher score for 11.Ne2, but nowadays >>GM's agree this move is worse than 11.Nd5. The mentioned game Fritz-Diep went >>11.Ne2 and Fritz was clearly better, but I was sure that Diep would not repeat >>the risky move Nc5 from that game, but play the solid g6! instead. After that >>move it is hard to get an advantage for White, but at least there is no Black >>attack. So all in all the move is a good alternative, on the other hand, the >>risk the game might peter out into a draw is quite big. It is not my nature to >>go for a solid, drawish alternative. So I chose the more agressive text move >>instead. >> >>11... Nxd5 12.exd5 Bf5 13.Bd3 Bxd3 14.Qxd3 Be7 15.Rg1 O-O 16.O-O-O a5 17.Nd2 >> >>Of course the white knight is doing nothing on b3 and merely 'asks for' a >>a6-a5-a4 attack, so it hastens to approach the wonderful e4 square. >> >>17... a4?! >> >>Interesting: Diep avoids the known 17...f5. But this turns out to be a highly >>risky decision. Because it didn't put me out of book, on the contrary! >> >>18.Ne4! >> >>A very clever move and of course a very natural one. The square e4 is a >>wonderful centralised post for the white knight, that can assist in defence and >>attack at the same time. Fruit played it from my book and I had still some >>variations in it. Now Diep was out of book and immediately Vincent started to >>look worried. I explained him that black needs f7-f5 in this line, but Diep >>wanted to play otherwise and showed a clear advantage for White here (I believe >>something like +0,5 for White, Vincent will correct me if I'm wrong). >> >>18... Qc7? >> >>A clearly second rate move. 18... f5! is the right move. But this was the clever >>side of 18.Ne4! When thrown out of book, no program wants to play 18... f5! as >>after 19.gxf6 the g-file is opened, with the rook on g1 'viciously' looking at >>g8. So progs refrain from the best move and now they all go for one plan: attack >>on the queen's side with queen, 2 rooks and the stormram a4-b4. In many test >>games I have seen this plan to be inadequate. And there is a simple reason for >>that: Black has only 3 heavy pieces to attack, but all white's pieces can assist >>in the defence. Furthermore, there is no way for Black to open the files, as >>b4-b3 can always be answered by cxb3!,axb3 a3! shutting the door and leaving >>black with no targets. >> >>Take a look at black's minor pieces: the bishop is passive at e7, while white's >>counterpart on e3 is very active. The knight on d7 would like to assist, but Nc5 >>or Nb6 will be answered by Bxc5 and Bxb6 respectively. In the remaining position >>the wonderful knight on e4 would be superior to the helpless bishop on e7. >> >>So the verdict is clear: without the move f7-f5 the attack initiated by black is >>doomed to fail. White has a clear advantage. Black will go for b4-b3 (they all >>play like that), white closes the position with cxb3!,axb3 a3! and calmly picks >>up the pawn at b3. After that Black is dead. I recall Pro Deo won many games in >>this line, against various progs like Fritz and Shredder. >> >>There is one 'but'. Fruit now HAS to play the move 19.Kb1! It is the only good >>move and the move that will preserve White's clear lead. Diep expected that move >>and showed a clear white plus. >> >>19.h4? >> >>O, horror! A very natural move, but a bad one! The king had to leave c1, to make >>cxb3 possible after b4-b3. >> >>19... b3! >> >>At the last moment, after calculating for several minutes, Diep comes up with >>this hammer blow. Believe it or not, but I think that now White is lost.... I >>remember Vicent saying that b4-b3 was played with only seconds to spare and with >>a small margin over the 2nd best move (Vincent will correct me if I am wrong >>here). >> >>After this move it was my turn to become very nervous. This was going the wrong >>way! My optimism quickly vanished and I was at this moment not only feeling >>quite down, but also I started asking myself 'why did you not go for the solid >>approach'? Alas, it was too late. >> >>20.axb3 axb3 21.Qxb3 Rfb8 >> >>This is of course a big difference: with the a-file being opened, as well as the >>half-open b-file, black has a murderous attack. The rest of the game is >>therefore only for the statistics. Diep played excellent and pushed home the >>attack in great style. I want to express my admiration for Diep's play, as >>especially the move 33 ... h5!! is a high class move. It prevents White's only >>counter possibility h4-h5-h6 and as gxh6 fails to Bf6!, white has no play at >>all. Furthermore, the move 33 ... h5! pins the white pawn down at h4, where it >>was eventually lost. >> >>So Fruit lost and I was quite angry at myself for not going the solid way. Now, >>one week later, I know that such thoughts are irrelevant. You take a decision, >>after that you can only watch how it all ends. The 'ifs' and 'thens' do not >>count. Just to be curious, I started a game between Fruit and Fritz 9, with the >>move 19.Kb1! being played instead of the weak 19.h4? Here is the game: >> >>Fruit - Fritz 9 >>------------------ >>Move 1 to 18: see above. 19.Kb1! Rfc8 20.h4 b3? As expected, but it is going >>to lose a pawn for nothing. 21.cxb3 axb3 22.Qxb3 Qa5 23.Bd2 Qa6 24.Bb4 f5 >>25.gxf6 e.p. Nxf6 26.a3 Qb6 27.Rc1 The game is already over. Black is a pawn >>down for nothing, has no attack and white's pieces dominate. 27... Kh8 28.Qd3! >>Nh5 29.Ng5! No need to go further. Fritz 9 sees it is lost. >> >>So, one little move: 19.Kb1! and we might have a different outcome.... As a book >>expert, the loss is being counted, though. And rightly so. It is like climbing >>the Everest: if you succeed, people will praise you. If you fail, everybody will >>tell you it was a bad idea anyway.... >> >>Hope you liked the story, I will give some more details on other games if I find >>the time to do so. >> >>Best wishes, Jeroen
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