Author: Peter Kappler
Date: 00:46:28 01/21/03
I've always enjoyed reading the summaries from the other programmers,
so I thought I'd write something up, too.
This was Grok's first CCT since CCT1 in Feb 2000. A lot has changed.
It's a bigger event now, better organized, and has a much more
international flavor. In 9 rounds, I faced opponents from 9 different
countries:
Comet Germany
Movei Israel
Polarchess Norway
Armageddon Poland
Amyan Chile
Chezzz Denmark
Wildcat Belarus
Alarm Sweden
Tinker USA
How cool is that? It was great to meet a bunch of new people, and the
mood in channel 64 was generally light-hearted and fun. The social
aspect is really the best part of the event. Volker Richey did a
fabulous job running the tourney, and IM Jonathan Schroer was on hand
to comment on all of the games. If you've never entered or watched a
a CCT, I highly recommend it!
Round 1, Comet-Grok, 1-0
I stumbled out of bed at 5:55am, cursing the event schedule and
wishing I lived several timezones to the East. I logged in to ICC,
and right away a surprise was waiting for me. My opponent, Messchess,
was having connection problems and after 25 minutes of waiting, Volker
re-paired Grok with Comet. So, instead of facing the 45th seed, Grok
was up against the 5th seed! I was happy for the chance to face a
strong opponent, but found myself having to make a bit of a mental
readjustment. I had been preparing myself for a relatively easy game,
and instead I was a big underdog.
Grok played the Marshall Attack in the Ruy Lopez, exiting book with
17...f5 (17...Re6 is better). On move 20, Grok exchanged Queens, a
pretty stupid idea in a position where Black has gambited a pawn for
an attack.
[D]5r1k/4r1pp/p2b4/1p1p1p2/3P1P2/2P1B1Pb/PP1N3P/R3R1K1 w - - 0 22
The resulting pawn-down ending isn't pleasant, and Grok put up only
meager resistance. Comet activated its dark-squared bishop and won
routinely.
Round 2, Grok-Movei, 1/2-1/2
Movei played a Petroff Defense, and got Grok out of book quickly with
6...Nd7. Grok's 10. f3 and 11. h3 are moves that beg Black to launch
a sacrificial attack, which is exactly what happened.
[D]r3k2r/pp1b1ppp/3b4/3p4/3Pn2q/3B1P1P/PP4P1/RNBQ1RK1 b kq - 0 11
I was convinced that White would lose quickly, but it's not so easy
for Black, actually. If you analyze the above position with your
favorite engine, please let it think for a long time. Some of the
variations are very deep, and although Black can win material, he
hands the initiative back to White and can actually end up with *his*
king in danger. Feed the moves in and watch the score drop for Black.
Uri suggested 16...Ke7 as an improvement for Black, and I think he's
probably right about that, but I'm still not sure who is better there.
After 16...Kd8, Grok enjoyed the upper hand in the middlegame, but
never found anything decisive.
[Event "ICC 45 10 u"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2003.01.18"]
[White "Grok"]
[Black "MoveiXX"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ICCResult "Game drawn by repetition"]
[WhiteElo "2367"]
[BlackElo "2354"]
[Opening "Petrov: modern attack, Symmetrical variation"]
[ECO "C43"]
[NIC "RG.02"]
[Time "11:19:28"]
[TimeControl "2700+10"]
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. d4 Nxe4 4. Bd3 d5 5. Nxe5 Bd6 6. O-O Nd7 7. c4
c6 8. cxd5 cxd5 9. Nxd7 Bxd7 10. f3 Qh4 11. h3 Bxh3 12. fxe4 Bh2+
13. Kxh2 Bg4+ 14. Kg1 Bxd1 15. Rxd1 dxe4 16. Bb5+ Kd8 17. Nc3 Rc8
18. Rf1 Qh5 19. Ba4 f5 20. Nb5 Qg6 21. Bf4 Rc6 22. Bb3 Qf6 23. Rad1
Ke7 24. d5 Ra6 25. Nc7 Rd6 26. Ne6 Qxb2 27. Bxd6+ Kxd6 28. Rxf5 Rc8
29. Ng5 e3 30. Rf7 e2 31. Ne4+ Ke5 32. Re7+ Kf4 33. g3+ Kf5 34. Re1
Rc1 35. Kf2 Qd4+ 36. Kf3 Qd3+ 37. Kf2 Qd4+ 38. Kf3 Qd3+ 39. Kf2 Qd4+
{Game drawn by repetition} 1/2-1/2
Round 3, PolarChess-Grok, 1/2-1/2
PolarChess played the English Opening. I don't know any of the theory
in this particular line, but Grok was out of book after move 12, and
then proceeded to follow a line that was in PolarChess's book all the
way until move 27. This sounds neat, but it was horrible. It turns
out that PolarChess' author had manually added some analysis of a
Kramnik game into his book, including a bad variation where Black
exchanges straight into a losing ending. Grok played right down this
line, repeatedly failing low and allocating more search time. By the
time PolarChess exited book on move 27, Grok was down an exchange and
behind on the clock by a huge amount, 47 minutes to 15!
[D]5bk1/R4p1p/1p4p1/8/5P2/8/P4P1P/6K1 b - - 0 27
This is certainly lost, but somehow Grok created a passed h-pawn and
swindled a draw. PolarChess' author told me that he found bugs in his
pawn hashing right before the tournament, and had decided to play with
it disabled. Perhaps this contributed to Grok's lucky escape.
Round 4, Grok-Armageddon, 1-0
A Sicilian defense. Armageddon's 19...g5? severely weakened its
kingside, and Grok took advantage of this pretty efficiently. This
was probably Grok's smoothest game of the tournament.
[D]r1b3k1/1p1r1p2/p1p1p2p/q1b1P1p1/2Q2B2/2P3P1/P1P2PBP/1R2R1K1 w - g6 0 20
It's late here, so I'll stop now and continue with rounds 5-9 tomorrow.
-Peter
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