Author: Francesco Di Tolla
Date: 06:32:54 04/24/03
Go up one level in this thread
I don't complain cause we have excellent programs. Even freeware are amazing.
Think about what Crafty or Ruffian, Yace... can do, and how easy it is to get
smashed from them...for free!
Still sometimes I feel they tend to bee a bit greedy. It is not always simple to
show they were faulty, and usually when I have lsot a pawn I'm simply a pawn
down, not like Kasparov that is starting to punish the opponnet.
Still when I see game like the following one I think the programs can still
improve: from a simple blitz game
[Event "Computer chess game"]
[Site "-"]
[Date "2003.04.23"]
[Round "-"]
[White "Ruffian 1.0.1"]
[Black "fditolla"]
[Result "0-1"]
[TimeControl "300"]
1. c4 Nc6 {the first provocative move} 2. d4 d6 3. Nc3 e5
{nothing new, just a way to bring him out of book} 4. dxe5 Nxe5 5. Bf4
{It dosen't look good, the bishop will not last there for a long time}
5... Ng6 6. Be3?! {a bit clumsy, white can go for the fianchetto there on the
king side. But are sure that this is his plan?} 6... Nf6 7. Qa4+?!
{I see! White wants to show that black has a weak queenside with the king knight
shifted to g6. May be he can grab a pawn sometime.
All in all his king is not yet under any attack, he does not need to castle to
soon...}
7... Bd7 8. Qb3 {...you see the pawn in b6 is weak....} 8... Bc6
{...or not? Well 8...b6 was good as well, may be even better.}
9. Nf3 Be7 10. Nd4
{Again white pushes hard against the queen side: he's going to get a doubled
weak pawn and the bishop pair at the simple cost of few tempos.
Black is going straight on with the development. Who's right?}
10... O-O 11. Nxc6 bxc6 12. Qb7
{Perfect! Now two pawns are under attack and white manages to show it
to us investing another tempo in a "smart" queen move.}
12... c5
{Well: so what? I see only a bad displaced white army with a queen
out of place}
13. O-O-O
{Again attacking c5 e.g. 13...Ne5 14.Bxc5 Nxc4 15.Bxa7 and white would
be a pawn up, but unsafe. Anyway I did not want to experiment
this sort of compensation, and kept it closed}
13... Nd7 14. b3?! Bg5!
{Now black wants to show that white play is faulty starting a counterattack}
15. Nd5 {Defending and attacking again a pawn in c7} 15... Bxe3+ 16. fxe3?
{What for? Of course to preserve the attack against c7!
White is not playing to attack the black king and checkmate: it only wants to
grab some damn queenside pawn. After 16.Nxe3 Ne7 would preempt any attacking
possibility against c7...
No no no we can't play it!}
16... Rc8 17. g3 {The pawn is there in a7. Defenceless.
And Ruffian does not like it anymore. May be it saw that after
17.Qxa7 c6 18.Nc3 Ra8 19.Qb7 Nde5 the position is troublesome e.g.
20.Bg2 Qa5 21.Kc2 Rfb8 and it is over.
Well better to start thinking at the development again.
After 17 moves the bishop gets some way to move around.}
17... Nb6 18. Bh3!?
{18.Nxb6 was like admitting that the previous play was faulty,
and if black moves the rook again c7 is lost}
18... Nxd5!
{With some tactics black shows he is control of the game}
19. Bxc8 Nc3 20. Bf5
{20.Rd3 Nxa2+ 21.Kb1 Nb4 was not better:
e.g. 22.Bf5 Qf6! 23.Bxg6 Qxg6 and the white king is not totally safe}
20... Nxd1 21. Rxd1 Qg5?!
{Not the best one: 21...Ne7 or 21...Ne5 were both in black favour}
22. Bxg6! Qxe3+ 23. Kb1 hxg6 24. Qxc7
{White want to sweep the pawns now, but his king in not 100% safe yet.
Still after 24.Qf3 Re8! black is better.}
24... Qe4+ 25. Rd3 d5!?
{To try to keep the king under some minimal pressure}
26. Qc6!
{26.cxd5 Qxe2 was the idea still 27.Rc3 should hold.
Also 26.Qxc5 should be fine.}
26... Qh1+ 27. Kb2 Qxh2 28. Rxd5 Qxe2+ 29. Ka3
{Now the king is a bit safer and the extra pawn will soon fall but...}
29... Qe1 30. Qxc5 Qxg3 31. Qxa7 Qe1
{...black can continue to put some pressure on the king.
For white it is not easy to get the pawns into motion}
32. Rd7! Qc1+ 33. Kb4 Qe1+ {Black speculates on the fact that white
probably feels better due to the doubled pawns and does not like
to repeat moves with 34.Ka3. But for black it is not possible to win with the
rook locked in f8, the queen alone can't do the job}
34. Kb5 Qe5+ 35. Ka4 g5
{But now, with the centralized queen, the pawns can roll}
36. Re7 Qf5 37. Kb4 g4 38. Qe3 Rb8+ 39. Kc3 Kf8! 40. Qe5 Qf3+
41. Kb2 Qf2+ 42. Kc1 Rd8 {Black has got some advantage now.
Some threats and the pressure have brought the king into open space.}
43. Rd7!? Re8
{Of course the rook can't be taken, otherwise a perpetual would follow.
Going for a perpetual, the engine is clearly admitting to be worse,
otherwise it would avoid the draw as it did when it did allow
the queen manoeuvre to e5. This gives you a nice feeling}
44. Qd6+ Kg8 45. Rd8 {This is like resigning.
The king will get a shelter from the pawns and the g pawn will force the win.
At blitz we can still speculate on the horizon effect.
Still the game was difficult for white even with other moves}
45... Rxd8 46. Qxd8+ Kh7 47. Qd7?! g3 48. Qh3+ Kg6 49. Qg4+ Kf6 50. Qh4+ g5
51. Qh6+ Kf5 52. Qh5 f6 53. Qh7+ Kf4 54. Qc7+ Kg4 55. Qd7+ f5
{White resigns. After 56.Qd1 Qf3 there are no more useful checks.}
0-1
actually it happens to me quite rarely to win like that, but if you exclude
blundered games several time I can hold till a decent endgame, rarely I win.
Still this was not to show that Ruffian is a bad program. Actually I like it so
much cause it is very good, and I need some luck to be able to specuulate on its
weaknesses.
regards
Franz
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