Author: James Robertson
Date: 00:37:24 11/03/99
Hi guys! My father, grandmother, and I are spending the week in Vienna (my grandmother's home town). It is beautiful here, and I am very impressed with the sunny weather and friendly people; I have always heard most of Europe is often cloudy. The first week of the Dutch Open was a lot of fun. I was seeded 6th, but even so I am very happy to have made 3.5/6. The games against ANT and ChessTiger were the most interesting for me. Against ANT I came out of the book with a small advantage that grew when I doubled and isolated ANT's KPs. I was afraid through the rest of the game I wouldn't be able to win because my program does not know it should keep the pawns off squares of the bishop's color. I cannot remember the name of ChessTiger's operator, but he was very nice and interesting to talk too. We played a drawish opening, and my program was very happy with its position after black played Nc6 early in the game. We were surprised when Insomniac played Rb4?, but I don't think white was at a disadvantage until he played Rb1? instead of c3. I think black blundered with e5?; it seems like the kind of move only an insomniac would play. :) Tiger continued to like its position more and more, but neither program seemed to have any kind of plan. My program eventually embarked on the unusual idea of g4 with a kingside advance. But.... I guess a bad plan is better than no plan at all. :) Tiger was very happy with the position (+.70 for black after g4), but this score dropped to below 0 after h4! Several moves later Insomniac got a passed pawn and Tiger grabbed the draw by perpetual. There were a lot of spectators, so I felt really proud of my program. The game against The King was horrible. I showed +1.0 after I grabbed the second pawn on e5, but this fell to +.5 after Qd6, and to below zero after Qf8 (The King had f6 in its book). When the game first started about 4 or 5 people started taking pictures of Johan de Koning.... I have never sat across from a celebrity before, so that was somewhat interesting. :) Morphy made many blunders in our 11 move game, and the result was never in doubt. Chessica had a nice middlegame position, but after we traded queens, Insomniac weakened all black's pawns and broke through with Rxd6. My program played too greedily against Nimzo and got killed down the e file. I'm running out of time on this computer (10 schillings for 10 minutes) so I'll finish. Looking forward to next week! James
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