Author: Tony Nichols
Date: 22:29:16 03/15/05
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On March 16, 2005 at 00:59:33, Peter Skinner wrote: >On March 15, 2005 at 23:20:36, Tony Nichols wrote: > >>Hi, Pete >> Interesting game. 21 moves of theory?! I know many masters who can't do that! >>After 22. Ne6 black is better but white has drawing chances. Amazingly Fritz >>doesn't play 29...f6! when black is winning the exchange. I will say it takes >>stones of steel to play an open scillian against a computer! You will get many >>wins against humans playing like that, but against computers you have to play >>perfectly. In the final position it looks like white can probably draw with a >>handfull of moves. >>Regards >>Tony >> >>P.S. I have played many games against my engines. Unlike you, not one of mine is >>worthy of comment! > >In all honesty I don't think I could do 21 moves of theory like that again. In >fact most the moves took longer than 2 minutes for me to move. The other sad >part I didn't know I went that far into theory until John pointed it out. Fritz >was out of book on move 14, or so it seemed. It was playing almost instantly on >all my moves (almost right up to move 30). I thought it was pondering all my >moves. Now it seems it was still book for the most part. > >Someone else emailed me and said it was amazing that Fritz didn't play 29. .. >f6!. The main goal I had for the game was to have something on each file to >control it's rooks. If there wasn't something on a file, I wanted there to be a >possible threat. Another small goal was to see how long I could hold the center. >That has been a weakness of mine. > >Once I learned as much as I could with the opening I thought I would try a game >against Fritz. I used the teachings of CM that you move the center pawns first, >knights before bishops, castle as soon as you can, and don't move your queen to >early, then develope your plan. As you can see from the game, I was looking for >play to develope on the King side, which it did. > >When I played 13. Be3 it was really only one of two moves that I could make, and >if I moved Bf2 I would have lost a pawn due to the bishop now blocking the >queen. So really I had to move 13.Be3 to gain the pawn back and still have some >play. At 14. Rxf4 I thought about this a very long time. Almost 5 minutes in >fact. I was unsure if I should re-capture with the bishop on e3, or bite with >the rook. I felt I was being setup for something. On move 17 I played Kh1 only >due to I didn't see a move that I could make that would benefit me or not get >something captured. I liked the position on the board, so Kh1 was more of a >wasted move. It didn't hurt anything, and actually provided a little more >protection for the King. Overall I think that was the best way to play it. >Moving 19. Ke2 and 20. Bc3 was simply repositioning myself on the board. I felt >the bishop on c3 was more of a deterant than the knight, and moved the black >Queen off a5. It also maintained my goal of central control, which I had at this >point. I was breaching into black territory more than black was coming into >mine. I also had _something_ on each file. Once again.. simple thinking.. not >theory :) (CM actually teaches this. An open file can be very dangerous with >queens and rooks on the board.) > >When black played 25. .. Bxe5 I only had one move to save two pieces. Moving Qg4 >did just that. It prevented the pawn from taking my rook on f5 due to the Queen >putting the King in check, and removed the bishop threat on my Queen. Black's >next move through me for a loop until I looked at it more. I was expecting bxb2 >as it would have gained the pawn, and then I could have recaptured with Rxf7. Of >course it didn't play that as it's rook on e6 would have been threatened by my >Queen on g4. So black played 26... re7 and since bxb2 was possible now I had to >protect it, thus 27. c3. After 28...kh8 29. Rg5 qxg4 30. Rxg4 kg7 31. Bd3 was >simply to clutter up a half open file. Nothing was in threat, so I played the >best "positional" move I could. It put the bishop on a longer diagonal, which is >always better. Here is where I thought I had a good draw going. Black moves >31... kf8 and I started to wonder whether I should move Rg4 or Rc1 and of all >things my flag drops. Two hours had flown by and I only got through 31 moves... >I may need to work on my time management. :) > >The only reason I played the Sicilian Defense against Fritz is because this is >the current opening I am learning/practicing. There are a few IM/GM's >(Kastor(GM) for one) on ICC that offer a course about beating the Sicilian, so >before I turned that route I tried to see how much I could do on my own with >SCID and CM. Obviously I did better than I thought. It isn't a great opening to >choose against a computer, but I have never liked anti-computer play of just >glogging up the middle with pawns and hoping the computer blunders. I prefer an >open game with alot of mobility, maybe this has been my problem in the past. > >So as you can see it wasn't _planned_ to be in theory that long, but more most >of the moves were forced due to board position. I wish I could say that is _was_ >planned, but even I know 21 moves of theory is something that Super-GM's do, and >even then not all of them. :) > >I also only posted the game as I was _very_ proud of how far I got. Recently I >have been working incredibly hard on openings and middle game tactics with CM. I >still get slaughtered with a Queen's Pawn game opening (D00). Computers know >that one _way_ to well :) > >Peter It's amazing how far one can get by just applying general principles. There is a good margin for error when selecting a plan. You can go from +/= to =/+ and it really doesn't mean much. However, If you miss 1 tactic, Splat! With all the training your doing you should progress rapidly. I wish you luck! Regards Tony
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