Author: Dieter Buerssner
Date: 11:16:32 01/21/03
Note - crossposted to CCC and the WB-forum. The comments following are not based on any deep analysis. It were just the impressions. We used (of course) a current developement version of Yace. The opening books were by José Luis Jiménez. First game was vs. Tao. Yace was white, came with slight positive score out of book. The same opening was on the board later vs. Arasan. For a long time, Yace had a triple c-pawn. But it even advance, and later one c-pawn promoted (to get captured). The position got better and better, and eventually was won. Second round with black vs. Baron. The first game I (Dieter) watched. Yace showed a positive score throughout the game, but I believe it was wrong. Baron was a few moves longer in book, and aligned up his pieces for a K-side attack. To me, the scores of Yace looked very naive, and Baron was over +1 soon. Nevertheless, Yace defended well. Re8 and Nf8 were probably a good idea, and the attack of Baron did not come through. Yace found its counterplay on the Q-flank, and succeeded. I was honestly shivering during the first phase of the game. 13...Qh4 seemed really bad. Third round with white vs. Arasan. Again the triple c-pawn. IM Schroer commented about it in the sense, that this looks stupid. In 3 games the second time. Perhaps, after all, it was not that bad. In the game vs. Arasan, the triple pawn soon converted to a nice majority on the Q-side with a solid pawn structure. From then on, the score rised slowly, until it was won. Fourth round with black vs. Crafty. I think an about equal position for a long time. Both engines saw a slight positive score in their favor. Crafty had the B-pair. In the rather close position Yace actually preferred the knight. At move 44 the score of Yace dropped significantly and again the next move. I think, the game was won here for Crafty. Fifth round with white vs. Pepito. Yace came out of book in a good position. Pepito had one more book move, I think. To me, the game looked very well played for Yace. After some critics, IM Schroer gave a very nice comment: "Schroer(IM)(64): Yace won with a very nicely played Minority Attack, culminating in tactics involving the 7th rank, a passed b pawn, and a potential pin on the h1-a8 long diagonal. Not so long ago, people openly wondered if a computer would ever be able to play a Minority Attack!" Not often, an author will here such a compliment. In fact, it was probably a bit more prosaic, and some tactics was seen. 6th round with white vs. Ferret. I think an untypical game of Yace vs a very strong opponent. Somehow everything done seemed very well. Yace was building up a nice attack vs. Ferret. Sune Larsen gave some comments at http://www.talkchess.com/forums/1/message.html?278192 7th round with black vs. Searcher. Again a Spanish game. Both opponents were in book for a long time. Both came out of book with scores in their favor. After 19. d5 (first out of book move of searcher) I did not like the pos of Yace. Looked very cramped to me. But fortunately, Yace found some chances on the Q-side, and the position totally changed in few moves. I think, again a good game. Yace even allowed Bxh7 of searcher, but the missing h-pawn was not a big problem. Later Yace itself got Bxh3, and the game was decided. 8th round, again black vs. Ruffian. Yace came out of book with negative score and never recovered. Ruffian did not give it a chance. It seems to me, Ruffian had everything under the whole time, and deserved the win. 9th round with black again (3rd time in a row) vs. Comet. The opening looked very strange. Schroer: "uncharted tactical madness". Uli and me suspected, that this might end soon in some perpetual check. Fortunately (for Yace) the engines did not agree, and one or the other saw its chances. I think, it ended in an interesting endgame, where Comet had more pawns, and Yace had the B-pair vs. a R. At the start of this phase, still both engines saw an advantage for themselves. Only few pawns were left, and I think only Yace could win at this time - but perhaps not very easy. Well, in the end it succeeded :-) After this, Yace ended with a split first place. The tiebreak followed. Yace lost all 3 played tiebreak games ... A great event, great pleasure and enjoyement. Thanks to all, who made this possible: the opponents, Volker as the TD and IM Schroer for his comments. In a followup, the games with scores of Yace will be posted, in case anybody should be interested. Regards, José Luis Jimenez and Dieter Bürßner
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