Author: Will Singleton
Date: 13:08:29 02/19/99
Go up one level in this thread
On February 19, 1999 at 11:26:15, Andrew Williams wrote:
>Hi,
>
>This is the first time I've posted one of my program's games here. I was
>wondering what other programs think of the Knight sac (well, Knight for
>two Pawns) that my program made. Obviously, it didn't work out, but it
>*is* based purely on positional considerations. My program got to depth 7
>before playing the move and it felt it had a score of +0.14. Had it reached
>depth 8, it would have switched to Nh4, with a slightly negative score
>(-0.15 I think), so on deeper consideration it felt that axb4 has a score
>of less than -0.15.
>
>What it liked about axb4 was the passed Pawn, plus the exposed White King on
>the g-file. At the time, I thought it had overestimated the value of the Pawn
>and later the h-file was opened by White anyway. So, does the move axb4
>deserve a !? or a ?! or a ? or a ?? ? Any comments or advice welcome.
>
>The opponent was GNUchess v4.15, running on a PII 450. Its rating is now
>2400+ and it seems still to be on the up...
>
>Anyway, here's the game:
>
>[Event "ICC 5 0"]
>[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
>[Date "1999.02.18"]
>[Round "-"]
>[White "GNUChess"]
>[Black "PostModernist"]
>[Result "1/2-1/2"]
>[WhiteElo "2309"]
>[BlackElo "2430"]
>[Opening "Caro-Kann: Steinitz variation"]
>[ECO "B17"]
>[NIC "CK.09"]
>[Time "17:37:46"]
>[TimeControl "300+0"]
>
>1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nd7 5. Bc4 Ngf6 6. Nxf6+ Nxf6 7. c3 Ne4 8.
>Nf3 Nd6 9. Be2 e6 10. O-O Be7 11. Re1 O-O 12. Bd3 Re8 13. Bf4 Nf5 14. b4 a5 15.
>g4 axb4 16. gxf5 bxc3 17. Qc2 Qd5 18. Be4 Qc4 19. fxe6 Bxe6 20. Bxh7+ Kh8 21.
>Bf5 Bxf5 22. Qxf5 Bf6 23. Be5 Be7 24. Rac1 Kg8 25. Re3 f6 26. Bg3 Bb4 27. Qd7
>Rxe3 28. fxe3 c2 29. Qxb7 Rxa2 30. Qc8+ Kh7 31. Qf5+ Kg8 32. Bf4 Ba3 33. Qc8+
>Kh7 34. Qh3+ Kg8 35. Qc8+ Kh7 36. Qf5+ Kg8 37. e4 Bxc1 38. Qc8+ Kh7 39. Qf5+ Kg8
>40. Qc8+ Kf7 41. Qd7+ Kf8 42. Qc8+ Ke7 43. Qc7+ Ke6 44. Qd6+ Kf7 45. Qd7+ Kg8
>46. Qe8+ Kh7 47. Ng5+ fxg5 48. Qh5+ Kg8 49. Qe8+ Kh7 50. Qh5+ Kg8 51. Qe8+ Kh7
>{Game drawn by repetition}
>1/2-1/2
>
>Best regards
>
>Andrew
Hello Andrew,
Interesting game! You must have put in some heavy terms for opening up the g
file on the king, as well as the passed pawn. I’d have to agree overall with
Laurence’s analysis, but it is certainly interesting play. Wonder what CSTal
would do. Though I wouldn’t call it an outright blunder, but rather highly
speculative.
On the other hand, on ply 5 Amateur likes axb4, thinking GNUchess will sac it’s
knight on f3 to get the h7 pawn:
5 -53 0.47 32043 axb4 gxf5 bxc3 Qc2 Qd5 fxe6 Qxf3 Bxh7 Kf8
But then black is still hurting.
Amateur gives the following scores for black’s move 15:
15… Nh4 +0.31
15… axb4 +1.24
That’s a pretty large difference.
Looking at GNUChess’ previous move, I’d say 15. g4 looks odd as well. Amateur
prefers 15. a3 by 1/3 pawn.
17. Qc2 is also not Amateur’s choice, preferring 17. fxe6.
24. Rac1 is also strange. Amateur alternates between Qh5+, Rb1, and Re3, all
with +2.70 or so. It misses the best move, Bxg7+, which is difficult to see.
But Rac1? Hmmm…
GNUchess seems to be making some odd choices here. No wonder you escaped with a
draw.
Will
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