Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Non-Random Chess960 Trial Game 9: SP864
Here is the next trial in a series of trial opening we are playing through for very difficult SPs that black must face. The PGN database for these trials is here.
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Chess960: Opening Puzzle No. 10
Whoa, more than a year since I posted the last Chess960 puzzle! Well to celebrate the tenth chess960 puzzle, here is a real beauty. This puzzle has some important theoretical significance once you understand it:
The answer is surprisingly simple!
SP486: What is the most important reason why
1.d4 is not a very good opening move by white?
The answer is surprisingly simple!
Enjoy the solution given below
The answer is (drumroll)...:
1. Because the long diagonal a8-h1 is weak!
If you thought the answer was:
2. Because the king is exposed along a5/e1,
white can easily defend against that and
continue development with moves like Bd2/Nc3.
white can easily defend against that and
continue development with moves like Bd2/Nc3.
Explanation:
1. d4 ... b6!(b5)
2. Nf3 ... Bb7
And now white's f1 bishop is thematically trapped,
since moving either e or g pawn results in:
3. g3? ... Bxf3 followed by ...Qxf3
if instead:
2. e3?! ... Ba6!
3. Ne2 ... Bxe2
and 4.Kxe2 is essential because if:
4. Bxe2 ... Qxg2 -/+
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Non-Random Chess960 Trial Game 8: SP868
The PGN database for these trials is here.
Our journey through the opening of SP868 has concluded. Incredibly on the second run through this opening black has found an absolutely perfect defensive setup despite all odds, and I as white was unable to crack it. Towards the end of the trial the position I was seeing on the board looked so powerful for white, but actually in the cold hard light of objectivity the position was equal. Here is the trial variation as we concluded. Check the database out for greater detail and comments.
Clearly white's moves were suboptimal. The most serious question marks are:
An important heuristic in this fiendishly difficult SP:
Mark has come up with an excellent way of looking at this fiendishly difficult start, SP868. The idea is that black's apparent inability to castle is almost equivalent of being a pawn down. So black's strategy is to sacrifice a pawn and retain the ability to castle thus connecting the rooks and allowing more active play.
Sounds good! From what I am seeing of this SP, there is a serious game of cat and mouse at work. First strategy to rule out all together in my view, is for black to castle queenside, or to slide the king over to the queenside. Once white sees this strategy, they simply castle kingside and hit the queenside hard. Really hard. It might possibly work under special conditions as idea no.2 shows.
To me the strategy is for black to wait until white commits to the kingside, and then slide or castle the king to the kingside very carefully themselves. The combined QBB combination now tends to equalise, because both white and black's king will be the subject of their crossfire, with black's king a little less secure than white's.
Now that we are studying this SP in greater detail, here are a collection of ideas:
Our journey through the opening of SP868 has concluded. Incredibly on the second run through this opening black has found an absolutely perfect defensive setup despite all odds, and I as white was unable to crack it. Towards the end of the trial the position I was seeing on the board looked so powerful for white, but actually in the cold hard light of objectivity the position was equal. Here is the trial variation as we concluded. Check the database out for greater detail and comments.
Clearly white's moves were suboptimal. The most serious question marks are:
- 7. O-O?! white decides to try the same thematic castling idea that worked so well on our first trial run (see database)
- 9. Ba3?! a wasted tempo since black can match it with ...Bd6. White thought that ...Bxf5 where black drops the bishop pair would have to be good for white. However black didn't need both bishops to equalize.
SP868: Black's perfect defensive technique
An important heuristic in this fiendishly difficult SP:
Mark has come up with an excellent way of looking at this fiendishly difficult start, SP868. The idea is that black's apparent inability to castle is almost equivalent of being a pawn down. So black's strategy is to sacrifice a pawn and retain the ability to castle thus connecting the rooks and allowing more active play.
Sounds good! From what I am seeing of this SP, there is a serious game of cat and mouse at work. First strategy to rule out all together in my view, is for black to castle queenside, or to slide the king over to the queenside. Once white sees this strategy, they simply castle kingside and hit the queenside hard. Really hard. It might possibly work under special conditions as idea no.2 shows.
To me the strategy is for black to wait until white commits to the kingside, and then slide or castle the king to the kingside very carefully themselves. The combined QBB combination now tends to equalise, because both white and black's king will be the subject of their crossfire, with black's king a little less secure than white's.
Now that we are studying this SP in greater detail, here are a collection of ideas:
SP868 idea no.1: 1)...e6!?
The idea here is that the e7 square will become a temporary safe haven for black's king. It's worthy of some serious consideration!
SP868 idea no.2: ...2.Nh5!?
One of the fascinating things in the above variation is how the black king transfers over to the queen-side using the bishops and queen as protection rather than the traditional pawn shelter. (Note that 23.b5?! is met with 23...Nxe4!)
One of the fascinating things about the above variation is how black manages to get the time to reorganise the Military Knights and how well they do as a cooperative unit. White still has an edge but black has a lot of play and the slightest slip from white and a lot of the advantage is gone.
SP868 idea no.3: The Amazing Military Knight defenders!
One of the fascinating things about the above variation is how black manages to get the time to reorganise the Military Knights and how well they do as a cooperative unit. White still has an edge but black has a lot of play and the slightest slip from white and a lot of the advantage is gone.
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Non-Random Chess960 Trial Game 7: SP749
The PGN database for these trials is here.
In this run through of SP749, the engines and CCRL database are indicating that white has a significant start advantage. Playing as white, I tried an early development of the queen. The idea did not work out all that well. Yes the queen can come out early in this SP because there are many squares that cannot be attacked. However, she is not all that effective unless well supported by other pieces. Here is a key moment:
This is a key moment because white has pushed back black's knight to the back row, and I assumed that yet another move where black does not advance forward and develop, would have to be crippling. However, black's move 7....Qe8 simultaneously defending d7, attacking e5 and indirectly controlling the e-file was amazingly effective. White's queen is now without a target and she blocks the g1 bishop. White could play Nf3 but that would block the d1 bishop.
In this trial, I never solved the problem about what to do with the d1 bishop. Bg4 is obvious, but more difficult to achieve than I thought, since black has counter-play; the very thing I was trying to stop by the hyper rushed queen attack. Note that black's equivalent bishop on d8 can get to g5 but in black's case, there is no knight that impedes it's path there.
Good luck to the future generations of Chess960 players playing this SP as white or black. Is there a forced win for white? I think black could well be OK in this SP for at least a draw, but it is going to require memorization of the basic concepts, otherwise in practical play black will run out of time on the clock.
In this run through of SP749, the engines and CCRL database are indicating that white has a significant start advantage. Playing as white, I tried an early development of the queen. The idea did not work out all that well. Yes the queen can come out early in this SP because there are many squares that cannot be attacked. However, she is not all that effective unless well supported by other pieces. Here is a key moment:
SP749 trial: key moment
This is a key moment because white has pushed back black's knight to the back row, and I assumed that yet another move where black does not advance forward and develop, would have to be crippling. However, black's move 7....Qe8 simultaneously defending d7, attacking e5 and indirectly controlling the e-file was amazingly effective. White's queen is now without a target and she blocks the g1 bishop. White could play Nf3 but that would block the d1 bishop.
In this trial, I never solved the problem about what to do with the d1 bishop. Bg4 is obvious, but more difficult to achieve than I thought, since black has counter-play; the very thing I was trying to stop by the hyper rushed queen attack. Note that black's equivalent bishop on d8 can get to g5 but in black's case, there is no knight that impedes it's path there.
Good luck to the future generations of Chess960 players playing this SP as white or black. Is there a forced win for white? I think black could well be OK in this SP for at least a draw, but it is going to require memorization of the basic concepts, otherwise in practical play black will run out of time on the clock.
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Non-Random Chess960 Trial Game 6: SP408
The PGN database for these trials is here.
This time we are going to work through the first ten moves of some of the SP's Mark found in this post to be possibly dangerous for black. First up is SP408 = RBQNBNKR.
This SP is really "diabolical" to quote Mark. White's first move 1.d4 has so many good things about it including:
This time we are going to work through the first ten moves of some of the SP's Mark found in this post to be possibly dangerous for black. First up is SP408 = RBQNBNKR.
This SP is really "diabolical" to quote Mark. White's first move 1.d4 has so many good things about it including:
- Develops two pieces at once
- Claims territory in the center
- Threatens d5 which closes down black development options
- Although undefended, black cannot attack it with without a compromised development
- The pawn does not hinder any of white's other pieces in the slightest
Black on the other hand has no such luxury. As Mark put it:
"First, the minor pieces don't coordinate well. The Knights are competing for the same square on the e-file and the Bishops have no obvious optimal deployment. Second, the weak e-Pawn, which is not easily defended, is easily attacked by the Knights. Third, the castling option is limited; the King has to stay on the h-side."
The question is what can black do about 1.d4? At first we followed the CCRL database (see "cool links" top right). One possibility is for black to build a dynamic safety net around his king thus:
"First, the minor pieces don't coordinate well. The Knights are competing for the same square on the e-file and the Bishops have no obvious optimal deployment. Second, the weak e-Pawn, which is not easily defended, is easily attacked by the Knights. Third, the castling option is limited; the King has to stay on the h-side."
The question is what can black do about 1.d4? At first we followed the CCRL database (see "cool links" top right). One possibility is for black to build a dynamic safety net around his king thus:
SP408 "The Diabolical SP" Hypothetical: 1.d4...c5!?
The variation above is now scored at almost 0.00 by Houdini-2c. This is where it get's interesting. Mark has decided to forget about the CCRL database altogether and play by gut feel! So we have the situation 1.d4 d5!? a symmetrical opening and not one engine in the CCRL database even considers this move. Houdini2c scores white's lead at almost half a pawn.
After the almost automatically good move for white 2.c4 Mark finds what I think is the needle in the haystack 2....Ned6!? that saves blacks position at least for longer. Studying the continuations after this move, I found this surprising line that actually does produce the possibility of long side castling for both colours!
Now at move 7 in the real game, clearly white has all the initiative (see below). I played 6.e3 which is strictly not a developing move but it sure is a positional move. This actually has given black a free tempo and here at move 7 Mark actually uses it!
The move is sure got me both interested and a bit stumped for now. 7...b6 seems not to aid development and the c5 pawn doesn't need protecting yet. Also, a tempo is lost if later ...b5 is necessary. Perhaps it's a case of black not having a better move? Here is Mark's thoughts on it:
...A useful move that prepares various a-side deployments, strengthens the c-Pawn, and leaves Black's options open.
After this move I played 8.Qc2 a very simple developing move that also waits to see what black does. White doesn't want to castle yet in case the h-file opens and doesn't want to move the e1 bishop until the c3 square is cleared. Notice the important feature that white has, a free clearance square or intermediate square on e4 to park a knight so that the c3 square is cleared. This is typical Chess960 stuff where we need a free square so that our position can be improved.
So now we have:
7....b6 8.Qc2 Nd6
Again another interesting move by black. I think if black would have played 8....Nxg3 the opening of the h-file would have been a fairly serious problem for black since white is just continuing development and pressuring the king side.
However now after 8...Nd6 I'm studying the crazy possibility black has of playing ...h5/h4/h3!? and potentially developing the rook to h5 as well as disturbing white's kingside! Take note that the edge pawn rush is a very common feature of Chess960 when a knight sits on Nb3/Nb6/Ng3/Ng6 and get biffed by the edge pawn. The pawn then marches on to undermine b2/b7/g2/g7 in concert with a bishop or queen on the long diagonal! But that is not the reality in this SP.
Here is a special milestone reached in this trial game, black has played ...f5!?, a really interesting move to say the least. How can such a move work with black's b8 bishop blocked in while all white's minor pieces are aiming at the king.
After 12...f5 I castled g-side. Mark's immediate comment was "...I was surprised to see White castle. I expected h2-h4 at some time, using the h-pawn to disrupt the h-side". I then tried the idea of a4/b3/Bb2 to keep long term pressure on the long diagonal.
So here is the final position reached in this trial:
My own thoughts are that black has defended amazingly well. It is remarkable that both black's rooks have had to transpose to the 7th rank so early in the game. I think the difficulty is that although black's piece position is compromised, white has only created one weakness when two are needed. Mark's comment at the end of the trial were:
"...The Bc3 is certainly a better piece, but the difference between the two positions is probably nothing more than the difference between these two bishops"
Lastly, please see the comments to this blog for the details of what we were thinking move by move in this trial run at the very difficult SP408 where white calls all the shots and black is very much in the hot-seat.
After the almost automatically good move for white 2.c4 Mark finds what I think is the needle in the haystack 2....Ned6!? that saves blacks position at least for longer. Studying the continuations after this move, I found this surprising line that actually does produce the possibility of long side castling for both colours!
SP408 Hypothetical: Long side casting both colours is possible!
Now at move 7 in the real game, clearly white has all the initiative (see below). I played 6.e3 which is strictly not a developing move but it sure is a positional move. This actually has given black a free tempo and here at move 7 Mark actually uses it!
SP408: 7...b6, what does it achieve?
...A useful move that prepares various a-side deployments, strengthens the c-Pawn, and leaves Black's options open.
After this move I played 8.Qc2 a very simple developing move that also waits to see what black does. White doesn't want to castle yet in case the h-file opens and doesn't want to move the e1 bishop until the c3 square is cleared. Notice the important feature that white has, a free clearance square or intermediate square on e4 to park a knight so that the c3 square is cleared. This is typical Chess960 stuff where we need a free square so that our position can be improved.
So now we have:
7....b6 8.Qc2 Nd6
Again another interesting move by black. I think if black would have played 8....Nxg3 the opening of the h-file would have been a fairly serious problem for black since white is just continuing development and pressuring the king side.
However now after 8...Nd6 I'm studying the crazy possibility black has of playing ...h5/h4/h3!? and potentially developing the rook to h5 as well as disturbing white's kingside! Take note that the edge pawn rush is a very common feature of Chess960 when a knight sits on Nb3/Nb6/Ng3/Ng6 and get biffed by the edge pawn. The pawn then marches on to undermine b2/b7/g2/g7 in concert with a bishop or queen on the long diagonal! But that is not the reality in this SP.
Here is a special milestone reached in this trial game, black has played ...f5!?, a really interesting move to say the least. How can such a move work with black's b8 bishop blocked in while all white's minor pieces are aiming at the king.
SP408 black continues to play actively!
Here is one way that ...f5!? proceeds:
SP408 white insists on attacking g7
After 12...f5 I castled g-side. Mark's immediate comment was "...I was surprised to see White castle. I expected h2-h4 at some time, using the h-pawn to disrupt the h-side". I then tried the idea of a4/b3/Bb2 to keep long term pressure on the long diagonal.
So here is the final position reached in this trial:
SP408 End of trial at move 16
My own thoughts are that black has defended amazingly well. It is remarkable that both black's rooks have had to transpose to the 7th rank so early in the game. I think the difficulty is that although black's piece position is compromised, white has only created one weakness when two are needed. Mark's comment at the end of the trial were:
"...The Bc3 is certainly a better piece, but the difference between the two positions is probably nothing more than the difference between these two bishops"
Lastly, please see the comments to this blog for the details of what we were thinking move by move in this trial run at the very difficult SP408 where white calls all the shots and black is very much in the hot-seat.
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Non-Random Chess960 Trial Game 5: SP468
This SP is part of 108 SP's that feature the combination of a rook, a king and a queen in the corner, leaving most of the opposite side of the board to the minor pieces and a lone rook. Learning the overarching concepts of these SP's will mean that at least 1 in 10 games of Chess960 are covered!
There are so many possibilities in this SP I can only start by analyzing what Mark and I chose for our trial. Please see the comments to this post for a detailed discussion of the reasons we played what we played, as well as some of the interesting variations at the bottom of this post.
To keep it short, Mark played a fantastic defensive move at move 3 which surprised me because the knight blocks the dark bishop. The move left my plan to attack the d-file long term, in tatters:
White now starts to get confused about long term objectives. Had Mark not played the move above, I would have exchanged pawns, attacked the rook on a8 and put my own rook on the d-file to attack a future backward pawn on d7, a long term weakness.
My attention as white now swung over to try and develop the queen ASAP. In order to escape black's dark bishop attacking the queen across the long diagonal, I decided to develop the queen along the h-file. Mark on the other hand, chose to develop the queen in it's most efficient way, simply playing ...g6.
SP468 hypothetical no.1 - The horses bolt the paddock!?There are so many possibilities in this SP I can only start by analyzing what Mark and I chose for our trial. Please see the comments to this post for a detailed discussion of the reasons we played what we played, as well as some of the interesting variations at the bottom of this post.
To keep it short, Mark played a fantastic defensive move at move 3 which surprised me because the knight blocks the dark bishop. The move left my plan to attack the d-file long term, in tatters:
SP468 move 3: black plays a fantastic defensive move:
My attention as white now swung over to try and develop the queen ASAP. In order to escape black's dark bishop attacking the queen across the long diagonal, I decided to develop the queen along the h-file. Mark on the other hand, chose to develop the queen in it's most efficient way, simply playing ...g6.
SP468 move 8: two different approaches to developing the queen!
The problem here is that black's queen has more scope even if white's position is more flexible generally. Black now finds a second spectacular defensive move temporarily entombing my queen, which once again left me speechless because I was not expecting it:
SP468 move 9: black's next fantastic defensive idea
Mark's play as black deserves a lot of study, particularly the moves I have shown above. He deliberately leaves his g6 pawn backwards and this could be an important theoretical point who knows! The rest of the game we played up to move 20. I found a fantastic double pawn sacrifice to activate my rooks, where I tried to lever my more active rooks up onto the 7th rank and in some lines to attack the backward g6 pawn, but I could find nothing solid that really compensated for the material loss of the pawns. Here is the game up to where we concluded it:
SP468: The opening as we played it
Just to finish up, here are some bizarre lines I found while we were playing this SP!
And another..
SP468 hypothetical no.2 - A hyper accelerated center attack!?
And another..
SP468 hypothetical no.3 - The bishop fianchetto to f3!
And another...
SP468 hypothetical no.4 - The Bishop and Queen play cat and mouse!And another!
SP468 hypothetical no.5 - The g-pawn goes for a long walk!
And another!
SP468 hypothetical no.6 - the great g-side implosion!
And another!
SP468 hypothetical no.7 - is the g4 attack Mark is talking about?
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Non-Random Chess960 Trial Game 4: SP959
The PGN database for these trials is here.
Mark and I have finished up our non-random trial of the 'barbecue' BBQ SP's with SP959. Depending on how you number the first position in Chess960, the very first position in all of the 960 starts is a BBQ or 'barbecue SP', but is also the very last! Now in retrospect having studied them in detail, I think they have their wonderful place in the Chess960 repertoire for sure! I first assumed that there would be no way that black would have time to castle at all, that his king would be stuck in the corner, but I was wrong. I also thought that the game would have too few options, but essentially I was wrong about that as well, if you take out the first few moves as almost "inevitable". Note that I have played the 'barbecue' gambit 2.b4 with a reasonable game in our previous trials.
In the sample opening we played through below, the feature is that not only do we have a broadside bishop attack on the king, but the king is on the c-side and thus castling long could leave the kings safety even more exposed than in SP000 (SP960). That said, Mark made the classic mistake that all Chess960 players of this age including myself make, and this is to confuse in one's mind, the c-side from the g-side. Mark based all his early thinking on the plan to castle short, but that just so happens to be on the extreme opposite side of the board! Amazingly, it turned out fine in any case.
SP959 Nf3 variation: What are white's castling intentions?
Here are my thoughts on SP959:
These 'barbecue' SP's are actually surprisingly stealthy start positions because it turns out that all three castling options are possible, castling c-side, g-side and not castling at all, stealthy because neither side want's to reveal what their castling intentions will be until the last minute, for obvious strategic reasons. We also noticed that with some solid principled play, black maintains strong fighting chances. That said, the pressure is definitely on black to play solidly! This confirms an educated "guess" about Chess960, that there are roughly 50 start positions that have to be studied in detail and memorized so that black specifically knows how to play them.
Here are Mark's comments playing as black:
"..The pieces from the d- to h-files develop naturally. The big question is what to do with the RKR.....Good observation that many chess960 SPs offer three castling options for both sides. SP518 (the traditional start), with the King starting in the center, offers only two, with a few exceptional variations where a King doesn't castle. If I wanted to play it safe, I would move 10.Bf4, but I'm ready for a fight...Move 10.Qf2 prepares O-O and defends against 10...Re8 with a tactical trick. That's ten moves for me, but the game is just getting started. White can't claim any advantage and it will be a tough battle ahead."
I will leave it to someone else to work out what Mark meant by "10.Qf2 defends against 10...Re8 with a tactical trick". In our trial, Mark and I accidentally had been playing by book up to move 6 from the CCRL 40/4 FRC database where Mark deviates from Baron170 by exchanging knights. The game that we were accidentally following includes a stunning but curious migration of white's king and a double rook lift to the second rank! What was the computer thinking?
These 'barbecue' SP's are actually surprisingly stealthy start positions because it turns out that all three castling options are possible, castling c-side, g-side and not castling at all, stealthy because neither side want's to reveal what their castling intentions will be until the last minute, for obvious strategic reasons. We also noticed that with some solid principled play, black maintains strong fighting chances. That said, the pressure is definitely on black to play solidly! This confirms an educated "guess" about Chess960, that there are roughly 50 start positions that have to be studied in detail and memorized so that black specifically knows how to play them.
Here are Mark's comments playing as black:
"..The pieces from the d- to h-files develop naturally. The big question is what to do with the RKR.....Good observation that many chess960 SPs offer three castling options for both sides. SP518 (the traditional start), with the King starting in the center, offers only two, with a few exceptional variations where a King doesn't castle. If I wanted to play it safe, I would move 10.Bf4, but I'm ready for a fight...Move 10.Qf2 prepares O-O and defends against 10...Re8 with a tactical trick. That's ten moves for me, but the game is just getting started. White can't claim any advantage and it will be a tough battle ahead."
I will leave it to someone else to work out what Mark meant by "10.Qf2 defends against 10...Re8 with a tactical trick". In our trial, Mark and I accidentally had been playing by book up to move 6 from the CCRL 40/4 FRC database where Mark deviates from Baron170 by exchanging knights. The game that we were accidentally following includes a stunning but curious migration of white's king and a double rook lift to the second rank! What was the computer thinking?
SP959: Baron170 migrates the king from g1 to b1 starting move 22
Finally, here is a further sample of a hypothetical line in this opening. In some Chess960 start positions, the game proceeds almost as if it is playing itself (where the moves are so natural as to be inevitable). Normally, once this inevitable position is reached, then things get interesting. To complement the above opening system where in the resulting game the king manually migrates laterally across the board, here is a hypothetical variation where white castles kingside?!
SP959: White castles kingside?!
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