Author: Laurence Chen
Date: 20:50:48 12/13/98
I am getting tired of hearing people making statements that their chess engine is the most dynamic and it plays sacrifices for the initiative. Really?! I say that is not always true, I believe that most of the sac which the chess engine performs are pseudo sacrifices and very very very few indeed are true or real sacrifices. I would suspect that Chess System Tal would be an exception because I've seen games which CST makes lots of sacrifices,it knows no fear. I have the following position for all of you CM 6000 supporters which claim that CM always create winning situations and is always ready to perform a sacrifice for the initiative. I've seen the type of sacrifices which CM performs, most of them are pseudo-sacrifices, I've yet to see one which is a true sacrifice. So here's my challenge to all of you CM supporters which claim that CM always make sacrifices for the initiative, I would like you to get a copy of the book, Modern Chess Sacrifice, by Leonid Shamkovich, and test all the positions in the book and tell me how many true sacrifices CM finds. Seriously, before you make any claim make sure you got some proof to back up your statement. I give the following position: r1bq1rk1/pp2nppp/4p3/2n5/8/2NBPN2/PP3PPP/R2Q1RK1 w - - 1 0. It is from the book mentioned above, the game between Capablanca and Molina, Buenos Aires, 1911. Capablanca anotates this game in his book, My Chess Career. My chess engines, Fritz 5.16, Junior 5, and CM 6000 failed to find the best move which Capablanca played. You guessed right, it is a sacrifice, and the chess engines I used failed to find the best move 12. Bxh7+! The game continued with the following moves, 12. ... Kxh7 13. Ng5+ Kg6 14. Qg4 f5 15. Qg3 Kh6 16. Qh3+ Kg6 17. Qh7+ Kf6. Quoting the book anotations to this position, "White's operation has finally lost all the clarity and unambiguity of a combination. Black has repulsed the first onslaught, is a piece up, and even threatens to win White's Queen with 18. ... Rh8. White has several tempting options of attack: 18. Rad1, 18. Qh4, and others. But which one should he choose?" And once again in this position CM 6000 fails to find the best move 18. e4!. I probably will get a lot of yeah but, surely there are positions which CM will find sacs, my question is it a true sacrifice or a pseudo one? Pawn sacs are very common, so please don't give me examples of pawn sacs. So besides CST which I would suspect that it would play the move 12. Bxh7!, I could be wrong, I would like to know if other chess engines are able to solve this position which started as very quiet and simple and changed to a complex one.
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