Author: Mike S.
Date: 11:43:17 07/31/01
The funny chessprogram "Jaque al Perro Tocahuevos" (in Spanish, or "Schach dem
Schweinehund" in German) is now on the market for quite a while. It may not be
very well known in the english speaking countries, because there is no english
version AFAIK. Basically it's a fun product to play against humans mainly, with
adjustable playing strength, videos of a dog which insults you etc. :o)
It already had great successes in blitz competitions against humans, but among
computer chess freaks it's not discussed much (partially, I assume because it is
not equipped for automatic engine matches).
But Schach dem Schweinehund is close related to Nimzo, and I've noticed that it
is very fast especially in tactical test positions. Now, I wanted to watch it
playing against some computer opponents. El Perros permanent brain is always on,
so I ran it on my PII/333 MHz at 40/12:00 against the opposition, which did not
ponder, on P3/700 MHz at 40/8:00. No perfect test conditions, but not unfair
either I think. 16 games were played, manually. El Perro scored a little less
than I expected - but still very remarkable IMO.
Results:
40/8:00-12:00 blitz 2001
1 El Perro 7.0/16 (= Schweinehund)
2 Crafty 18.10 2.0/2
3 CM8K 32MB 1.0/2
4 Goliath Light 1.5 1.0/2
5 Shredder 5.32 1.0/2
6 Fritz 6 Light 1.0/2
7 Yace 0.99.50 1.0/2
8 Chess Tiger 14.0 1.0/1
9 Hiarcs 7.32 0.5/2
10 Gambit Tiger 2.0 0.5/1
Interesting was the high number of draws (8 of 16), which isn't "statistically
significant" of course due to the small number of games. In current computer
chess, there are approx. 30....35% draws according to my database.
Schweinehund's best game was this win against Hiarcs 7.32,
which he beat 1,5-0,5:
[Site "Pentium 700/333"]
[Date "2001.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Schweinehund"]
[Black "Hiarcs 7.32"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B11"]
[Annotator "Scheidl,M"]
[PlyCount "73"]
{32768kB, CDG.CTG. P3/700} 1. Nf3 {0} 1... c6 {3} 2. e4 {5} 2... d5 {0} 3.
Nc3 {5} 3... Bg4 {0} 4. h3 {4} 4... Bh5 {0} 5. exd5 {5} 5... cxd5 {0} 6. Bb5+ {
5} 6... Nc6 {0} 7. g4 {4} 7... Bg6 {0} 8. d4 {4} 8... e6 {0.39/8 14} 9. Ne5 {83
} 9... Qb6 {0.25/8 16} 10. Bxc6+ {35} 10... bxc6 {0.13/9 4} 11. h4 {55} 11...
Bb4 {0.08/8 11} 12. h5 {29} 12... Be4 {0.02/9 14} 13. O-O {6} 13... Bxc3 {
0.00/9 31} 14. bxc3 {33} 14... Qa5 {0.00/9 14} 15. Bd2 {36} 15... Qa4 {
0.26/8 14} 16. Qb1 {5} 16... Qb5 {0.33/9 56} 17. f3 {25} 17... Qxb1 {1.08/10 65
} 18. Raxb1 {5} 18... Bxc2 {0.95/11 11} 19. Rb7 {16} 19... Ne7 {1.22/10 11 #}
20. Bc1 {27} 20... f6 {1.50/10 22} 21. Ba3 {16} 21... O-O-O {1.69/9 11} 22.
Rxe7 {14} 22... fxe5 {1.96/9 19} 23. dxe5 {8} 23... Bd3 {1.73/9 14} 24. Re1 {27
} 24... g5 {1.76/9 14} 25. hxg6 {17} 25... hxg6 {2.13/9 27} 26. Rxe6 {8} 26...
Kb7 {2.10/9 7} 27. Re3 {0} 27... Bc4 {2.20/9 9} 28. Rxg6 {45} 28... Bxa2 {
2.20/9 7} 29. e6 {36} 29... Bb1 {2.15/8 7} 30. Rf6 {18} 30... Ra8 {2.45/8 9}
31. e7 {39} 31... Rhe8 {2.77/9 9} 32. g5 {26} 32... Rac8 {2.70/9 10} 33. g6 {53
} 33... a6 {3.39/9 23} 34. Ree6 {25} 34... Rg8 {3.61/9 16} 35. f4 {22} 35...
Rge8 {5.02/8 7} 36. f5 {34} 36... d4 {5.19/8 3} 37. cxd4 {15} 1-0
But the best move during that series of games came from Crafty 18.10:
5k2/6p1/2p2p2/P7/1Q6/2P1pqPP/7K/8 b - - 0 67
After 67.Qb4+, Crafty played 67...c5!! This ist a Master's move, the spirit of
Capablanca comes alive!
Try to figure out the idea behind the pawn sacrifice (it took me some time). Ok,
the position may have been won already, and maybe (?) black can win without this
sac too. But this is not my issue here. I want to be entertained, and by
watching that move, I surely was!
Games:
http://members.surfeu.at/mscheidl/SdSH2001.cbv (CBV)
http://members.surfeu.at/mscheidl/SdSH2001.zip (PGN)
Regards,
M.Scheidl
P.S.: El Perro Webpages (spanish and german):
http://www.chessbase.com/elturco/elturco07/index.htm
http://www.chessbase.com/perro/index.htm
http://www.schachdemschweinehund.de/
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