Recent Elephant Gambit game

I ran the engine match below for my upcoming submission to the UON.  I believe this game shows how tactical the opening can get in the elephant gambit.  White wins here and it was beautifully done.  Basically, what NOT to do with Black.

(1) Fritz 11 - Strelka 2.0 B [C40]

 Elephant Gambit Bd6b Baltimore (1.1), 15.10.2008

[1.26;0.92]

Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.20GHz 3192 MHz W=14.7 ply; 937kN/s; 3 TBAs B=12. 9 ply; 837kN/s 4.Nc3   1.26/14 10 4...Nf6   0.92/13 11 5.Bc4   1.14/14 8 5...c6 (0-0)   0.81/12 6 6.0-0 (Qe2)   0.84/14 9 6...b5 (0-0)   0.46/13 5 7.Bb3 (Be2)   0.23/14 8 7...b4   0.76/12 6 8.d4   0.83/14 14 8...e4   0.87/13 12 9.Nxe4   0.67/16 12 9...Nxe4   0.65/13 5 10.Re1   0.89/15 6 10...cxd5   0.97/13 6 11.Bxd5   0.89/14 4 11...Bxh2+   0.85/14 8 12.Kxh2   0.42/16 10 12...Qxd5   0.86/14 8 13.Ng5   0.72/15 5 13...f5   0.63/13 5 14.Qh5+   0.41/14 4 14...g6   0.67/14 8 15.Nxe4   0.61/15 7 15...0-0   0.71/13 5 16.Qg5   0.44/15 5 16...Nd7 (Qxd4)   0.88/13 9 17.Nc5   0.97/14 9 17...Nxc5   0.88/12 1 18.dxc5   0.96/14 3 18...Bb7   1.07/13 11 19.Be3   1.11/14 6 19...Rae8   1.39/12 17 20.f3   1.08/13 5 20...Bc6 (Qc4)   1.40/12 5 21.Rad1 (Qf4)   1.06/14 6 21...Qe5+   1.34/12 4 22.f4   1.07/16 5 22...Qe7 (Qf6)   1.46/13 6 23.Qg3 (Rd6)   1.12/13 5 23...Qf7 (Qc7)   1.06/12 3 24.b3 (Rd6)   1.14/14 7 24...Qc7 (Re6)   1.07/12 6 25.Rd6   1.46/16 6 25...Rd8   1.06/13 4 26.Bd4   1.19/15 3 26...Rxd6   1.15/14 4 27.Be5   1.49/14 3 27...Qd7   1.56/13 16 28.cxd6   1.57/13 1 28...Rc8 (Be4)   1.59/12 3 29.Qh4 (Rc1)   1.74/14 4 29...Rf8 (Qf7)   1.88/13 11 30.Re3 (c4)   1.95/14 4 30...Qd8   1.88/13 10 31.Qh6 (Qf2)   2.30/15 4 31...Rf7   1.99/12 2 32.c4   2.48/16 9 32...bxc3 (Rd7)   2.11/12 2 33.Rxc3   2.54/16 4 33...Qc8   2.14/12 3 34.Qh3 (Qh4)   2.67/16 4 34...Qb7 (Qe8)   2.36/12 3 35.Rc5 (Qd3)   2.99/15 3 35...Qb6   2.52/11 2 36.Qc3 (b4)   3.08/14 1 36...Bd7   3.14/13 6 37.Rc7   3.68/15 5 37...Qb8 (Be6)   3.32/13 3 38.Qc4   3.61/14 1 38...Qe8   3.41/13 3 39.Bc3   3.79/15 2 39...h6   3.56/12 3 40.Rxa7   3.81/15 2 40...g5   3.93/12 4 41.a4   3.84/15 3 41...Qe6   4.29/12 2 42.Ra8+   4.11/15 3 42...Kh7   3.98/12 2 43.a5 (Qd4)   4.60/15 3 43...Qxc4   4.31/13 2 44.bxc4   4.36/15 0 44...Bc6   5.48/16 23 45.Ra6   5.67/15 2 45...Bd7   5.62/15 1 46.c5   6.22/16 2 46...gxf4 (Kg6)   5.80/14 2 47.Rb6 (c6)   6.72/14 1 47...f3   8.76/16 13 48.gxf3   7.83/15 1 48...Kg6   12.06/18 12 49.c6 (a6)   10.00/15 1 49...Bxc6   7.46/12 0 50.Rxc6   11.12/15 0 50...Kg5   12.75/13 1 51.a6   11.21/14 1 51...h5 (Rd7)   15.99/15 6 52.Rc7   14.69/12 0 52...Rf8   18.36/13 1 53.a7 (d7)   17.51/13 0 53...h4 (Rd8)   18.36/12 1 54.d7   21.94/14 1 54...Rd8   #9/12 2 55.Rc8   #12/13 0 55...Rxd7   0.01/5 0 56.a8Q   #11/9 0 56...Rd8 (Re7)   #5/6 0 57.Rxd8   #4/7 0 57...Kh5 (Kf4)   0.01/4 0 58.Qc6   #3/7 0 58...Kg5 (h3)   0.01/2 0 59.Bd2+   #2/7 0 59...Kh5   0.01/1 0 60.Rh8#   #1/7 0 1-0

Current Project...

I  haven't posted in a while and wanted to post this to get me back in the habit.  So much has been going on with my life and chess.  I'm currently working on a big project that I hope will be accepted into the Unorthodox Opening Newsletter.  It revolves around the elephant gambit and its variations.  I'm having a lot of fun analyzing this gambit with Fritz 11.  Thought I'd take a break from all the different UCOs and focus on just one at a time.  To be honest it is more fun than a learning experience... I still can't play the gambit right!  I guess its because I'm not used to holding onto the initiative.  Maybe this will teach me?  Anyways.. I'll post more later.  I plan on finishing the project by the end of next week.

Bird's Opening - Batavo Polish Attack

.

.

1.f4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.b4?!

I first came across this opening when I was flipping through Schiller's Unorthodox Chess Openings book. If I recall correctly, Eric said to just take a pawn and smile. I'll have to see though because this opening isn't as bad as it looks. It was brought to my attention recently in The Gambit Gang's group forum on chess.com by a member named Birdbrain. What interested me initially is the fact that its a Bird and Orangatang opening all mixed up. Of course you'll worry about your pawns being all scattered about but it does have some advantages. In a hypermodern way it controls the center from the outside, a Bishop will soon be deployed to b2, and a timely push by the f4 pawn to f5 can create some very interesting positions. This was the reason this line was brought up by Birdbrain. I had initially posted about a crazy/unsound opening that I was using in Blitz games: 1.f4 g6 2.f5?? . In 1 min games this opening gets wild and although I scored well I wanted to see how the computer would defend against it. Of course the computer stuck to sound opening principle and out of 20 some games only 1 was won by white. In response to the Batavo-Polish Attack, Birdbrain suggested f4 Nf6 Nf3 g6 d4 Bg7 c4 0-0 Nc3 d6 f5! . This appears to be a very solid line. I wanted to see what the computer would do against the BPA.

Of course the engines would not move the Knight to d5. They would first develope the Bishop to g7. The white Knight would then come to c3. Seems pretty even to me. See for yourself in the PGNs.

Fritz 11 6.5 Fruit 2.3.1 3.5

White Wins 5 Draws 1 Black Wins 4

PGN Viewer and Download

Sicilian Defense - Halasz Gambit

. .

1.e4 c5 2.d4 cxd4 3. Bd3

An interesting line. Clyde Nakamura said that he is currently playing this line. As I do not play 1.e4 I will probably not use this line. The games were still interesting to analyse though. I enjoy going over crazy positions. One word of advice that I took from Mr. Nakamura is that he says he likes to change his opening repertoire every 6 months to throw off his opponents. I recently changed up my repertoire online and have had great success. I changed from 1.Nf3 lines to 1.f4 lines. My ususal opponents were definitely caught off guard.

Fritz 4.0 Fruit 3.0 Rybka 2.0 HIARCS 1.0

White wins 1 (10%) Draws 3 (30%) Black wins 6 (60%)

.

PGN Viewer and Download

.

The Computer Rules, Why? Rules 5, 6, & 7

The Computer Rules, Why? - Rule 4
1. "A solid center is FIRST priority."
2. "Trade on your terms, not your opponents".
3. "Protect your pieces with aggressive/attacking pieces."
4. "There is an inbetween move 90% of the time"

Rule #5 - "Keep all pieces safe at ALL times."

Many times the opponent will attack a piece, and in fear of losing a tempo, I leave the piece there where it gets traded off. So the piece was protected and there was no loss in points BUT now your army is missing a major player, be it a pawn or minor piece.... or whatever. While watching the computer I've noticed that it doesn't trade off pieces lightly. If a piece is attacked it simply moves it, and it moves it to a sometimes better position. So although a tempo may be lost, you can gain it back later by more active pieces. Pieces are very important to the computer.

Rule #6 - "Your king is a reliable and ACTIVE piece."

The computer always uses the King when the time comes. It is not scared or worried about an open King. In fact, it seems like the computer just treats the King as a pawn on steroids. It backs up other pieces and craftly moves across the board. Of course I haven't seen the King come out in the early game but once there only a couple of minor pieces left.. the King WILL move.

Rule #7 - "Its OK to give a piece back."

I have seen this many many times. The computer will totally sneak a piece and the score jumps from an almost even -.35 to a 2.10! The computers battle it out and then out of nowhere the computer that is up a point or so will totally Sac a piece for a gain in a different area of the game. Whether it be for tempo, space, initiative, or whatever. The computer seems crazy. This is almost opposite of rule #5. I guess its ok to give a piece back, just when is the real question.

Set back.

Well I guess I reached my 100mb limit with my provider. I can't post any more content for now. Posting up all the games to my engine tournaments was the best part of starting this blog. I loved coming here and just going over the games. It looks like now I'm going to have to cut back a lot of the games and limit each opening to only 5 games. I think you'll get a good overview of the opening. Of course there will still be PGN viewers to make games easier to go over but the whole PGNs will have to be downloaded from the Unorthodox Opening Group at yahoogroups.com (dare I say egroups.com!). Whenever possible I will also try to link you to other great site like Clyde Nakamura's Opening pages at Chessville.com.

I will work on cutting back the content tonight or tomorrow as I have many great openings still to publish. Sorry for the setback.

Polish Defense w/ c4 :: 1.c4 b5??

. .

195 Games w/ 1 1 time control

White wins 98 (50%) Draws 39 (20%) Black wins 58 (30%)

Yeah, don't use this opening. Its kinda like 1.e4 b5, you give up the pawn for virtually nothing. The main idea is rapid development of the c8 Bishop. As you can see in the games, Black doesn't follow up with Bb7 immediately. The Bishop does come out but at a cost, White ends up developing a huge center. It does score 30% but I think most of these are in the endings. I will use this in rapid games 'rarely'.

Engine Notes: Fruit didn't win this time. Sad cause I was beginning to favor it but it does show the power of Rybka. I have Fritz 11 at work now so look forward to some great games. Tournament details looked like this:

c4b5 2008
1 Rybka 2.3.1 32-bit 45.5/65

2 HIARCS 11.1 UCI 39.0/65

3 Fritz 9 33.5/65

4 Fruit 2.3.1 33.0/65

5 Naum 2.0 22.5/65

6 Deep Shredder 10 UCI 21.5/65

.

PGN Viewer and Download

.

Polish Defense w/ 1.d4

.

60 Games w/ 1 1 Time Control

White wins 28 (47%) Draws 16 (26%) Black wins 16 (27%)

Inspired by the last tournament I decided to run 1.d4 b5. Black wins are close to 30% and I have been faring well with it in bullet games. Very well actually. Many sneaky traps in the opening. It would be worth it to go through these games or download the PGN and create an opening tree to run in chessbase or Fritz. Definitely a deceptive opening.

I ran a 6 engine tournament and Fruit 2.3.1 came in first. I can't wait to throw this up against Fritz 11. The results were as such:

d4b5 2008
1 Fruit 2.3.1 **** 1½10 ½001 10½0 111½ 1111 13.0/20

2 HIARCS 11.1 UCI 0½01 **** 10½½ 0111 1½½0 1½½1 11.5/20

3 Rybka 2.3.1 32-bit ½110 01½½ **** 0½01 101½ 0011 10.5/20

4 Deep Shredder 10 UCI 01½1 1000 1½10 **** 10½1 ½½00 9.5/20

5 Naum 2.0 000½ 0½½1 010½ 01½0 **** 1½01 8.0/20

6 Fritz 9 0000 0½½0 1100 ½½11 0½10 **** 7.5/20
.

PGN Viewer and Download

.

Polish Defense after Nf3 :: 1.Nf3 b5?

.


.
90 Games w/ 2 1 Time control
White wins 44 (49%) Draws 25 (29%) Black wins 20 (22%)

Again I ran a tournament because I was a bit stumped in a couple of 1 min matches on Chess.com. Although I held off in a few games, the guy still got me a couple of times. The tournament was run so I can see the good defense. I was mistakingly following up b5 w/ e4 and that usually left my pawn structure messed up or some piece running around the board all crazy like. It seems e3 or a kingside fianchetto is the appropriate defense. Suprisingly, the move ...Bb7 wasn't used right away by Black. Well, now I like this defense. It adds some 'flava' to the opening and I can usually throw off the opponent and in some cases win the h1 Rook. Kinda like how the h8 rook can drop in the Orangatang when the beginning is played horribly wrong. Also, since this opening is way below 30% for Black, I'm gonna stick to the good'ol Nf6... for now.


Engine note: So I ran this tournament with a bunch of engines. I downloaded some new ones too and my new favorite 'free' engine is Fruit 2.3.1. That engine is baaaaaad. I haven't squared it off against Fritz 11 because my laptop went out at home and my Fritz cd is stuck inside. I didn't have a chance to bring it to work. Still, Rybka would beat out Fritz a bunch and now Fruit is giving Rybka a run for its money. Naum 2.0 is good but I'd like to see 3.o. Now to the details:


nf3b5 2008
1 Rybka 2.3.1 32-bit ** 11 ½½ ½0 1 11 ½1 ½1 1½ 11 13.0/17
2 Fruit 2.3.1 00 ** 01 1½ 01 11 10 1½ ½1 11 11.5/18
3 Naum 2.0 ½½ 10 ** 11 ½0 00 11 ½½ ½1 1½ 10.5/18 90.25
4 HIARCS 11.1 UCI ½1 0½ 00 ** 1½ ½1 1½ ½0 1½ 11 10.5/18 86.25
5 Fritz 9 0 10 ½1 0½ ** 10 11 01 ½½ ½1 9.5/17
6 Twisted Logic 20080620 00 00 11 ½0 01 ** 0½ 11 1½ 00 7.5/18 63.25
7 Deep Shredder 10 UCI ½0 01 00 0½ 00 1½ ** 11 01 10 7.5/18 60.50
8 Glaurung 2.1 (JA) ½0 0½ ½½ ½1 10 00 00 ** 10 ½1 7.0/18
9 Alaric 707 0½ ½0 ½0 0½ ½½ 0½ 10 01 ** 01 6.5/18
10 Aristarch 4.50 00 00 0½ 00 ½0 11 01 ½0 10 ** 5.5/18
.

PGN Viewer and Download

.

Nimzovitch Defense :: Wheeler Gambit

.

1.e4 Nc6 2.b4!

White wins 17 (35%) Draws 7 (14%) Black wins 25 (51%)

.

Now I liked this opening from the very beginning . White gives up the b pawn in order to develope a big center. I enjoy playing the Orangutang in bullet games so I thought this would be nice to add to the repertoire, or maybe find some crazy lines in there. I was disappointed by the wins by White but what I've been learning with a lot of these gambits is that if you win by 30% or more then the opening is very playable. Especially since I'm at a low level I enjoy throwing slightly higher players off by taking them into uncharted waters. I did a big tournament with 10 engines. I was looking into the best free engines. Some are really good. 49 Games in all. The results looked like this:

wheeler 2008
1 Rybka 2.3.1 32-bit * 1 0 1 1 1 1 ½ 1 ½ 7.0/10 32.75

2 Deep Shredder 10 UCI 0 * 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 7.0/10 27.50

3 Fritz 11 1 0 * 0 1 ½ 0 1 1 1 6.5/10

4 HIARCS 11.1 UCI 0 0 1 * 0 1 1 1 1 1 6.0/9

5 Gambit Fruit 1.0 Beta 4bx 0 0 0 1 * ½ 1 0 ½ 1 5.0/10

6 Naum 2.0 0 1 ½ 0 ½ * 1 0 ½ 1 4.5/10 20.25

7 Toga II 1.4 beta5c 0 1 1 0 0 0 * ½ 1 1 4.5/10 20.00

8 LoopMP 12.32 ½ 0 0 0 1 1 ½ * 1 0 4.0/9

9 Glaurung 1.2.1 0 0 0 0 ½ ½ 0 0 * 1 3.0/10

10 Zappa Mexico ½ 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 * 1.5/10

.

PGN Viewer and Download

.