Bird's Opening :: Sturm Gambit

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White wins 10 (33%) Draws 6 (20%) Black Wins 14 (47%)

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I was a bit shocked by these numbers. I felt this gambit is very playable for white and I have had great results in 1 min games on chess.com. To be honest though, a bunch of the wins for Black weren't in the opening. Some very strange positions came from this gambit. Think of a cross between the Queen's Gambit Declined and the Bird Formation I posted a few posts back. Very interesting stuff.

I ran the tournament with 4 engines at their max elo. Rybka won over Fritz 11. After getting Fritz 11 I figured it would tear through all these other engines. I figured wrong. Rybka and HIARC still far very well. There were 30 games with a 4 2 time control. All games can be viewed online by click the link at the top. The results were:

sturm1 2008
Rybka 2.3.1 32-bit ***** 00½1½ 11010 111½1 9.5/152

Fritz 11 11½0½ ***** ½0½10 111½0 8.5/153

HIARCS 11.1 UCI 00101 ½1½01 ***** 00001 6.0/15 50.504

Deep Shredder 10 UCI 000½0 000½1 11110 ***** 6.0/15 41.50

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Bird’s Opening – Hobb’s Gambit :: 1.f4 g5!?

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White wins 23 (46%) Draws 11 ( 22%) Black wins 16 (32%)

After running an engine match for From’s Gambit (1.f4 e5!?) I decided to check out Hobb’s Gambit ,(1.f4 g5!?) . Of course this weakens the Kingside but it immediately challenges White and offers dynamic play. Of all the games 2.fxg5 was played and there followed 4 main replies: h6, Nc6, d5, and Bg7.

..h6 – This is the only move that directly attacks the misplaced pawn. The plan is to open up lanes for the rook and develop the bishop to the ideal square at g7. Usually White just ignores this pawn and opts for central control with d4 or e4.

Nc6, d5, and Bg7 – These moves ignore the exiled pawn and opt for central control. A plan that works well throughout the games.

All in all, this opening isn’t all that bad for Black. There are some interesting lines in there. All games can be viewed with the PGN viewer by following the link below and the PGN can be downloaded there as well.

hobbs 2008
1 Rybka 2.3.1 32-bit 9.5/13
2 Fritz 11 9.0/13
3 HIARCS 11.1 UCI 5.5/14
4 Deep Shredder 10 UCI 5.5/14
5 LoopMP 12.32 4.5/14

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f4! :: Bird's Opening

White wins 28 (47%)
Draws 11 (18%)
Black wins 21 (35%)

With the recent release of the book Play...f4!, I decided to research the Bird opening. Although common in certain circles it is still somewhat Unorthodox. Basically you open with moving your King's bishop's pawn to f4! Opening up a weakness but taking a command of the e5 square. After I ran the small tournament (w/adjusted ratings) I found a common theme in most of the opening formations and it looked like this:
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After noticing this formation I tried to achieve this in some rapid games and had some great results. Once I realised what the 'plan' was I quickly overcame my opponents. Suprising what one little thing like a formation can do for your game. Of course I followed sound opening principles like key squares and opening tactics. It was great.

So the tournament went good and I was able to use my recently acquired FRITZ 11. Wow, this program is great, it looks great and runs even better. The results looked like this:

f41 2008
Fritz 11 ***** 0½1½½ 11111 111½0 11111 16.0/20

Rybka 2.3 LK 32-bit 1½0½½ ***** 110½0 1½110 11011 12.5/20

Deep Shredder 10 UCI 00000 001½1 ***** 10101 10111 9.5/20

HIARCS 11.1 UCI 000½1 0½001 01010 ***** 1½½10 8.0/20

LoopMP 12.32 00000 00100 01000 0½½01 ***** 4.0/20

Fritz won! I was happy about this since all the engines were running at their max elo ratings. With the help of Chessbase Lite, I can now publish the games in HTML format in a easy to use PGN viewer. The PGN can also be downloaded there. Click the link below:

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My 1 min game complex

I can't get away from 1 min games. I think its because I've been focusing a bunch on Unorthodox Openings. Its so much fun pretending I'm Hikaru Nakamura. I'm still an amateur and don't know good time management, when I get into a long game I rush it and lose quickly. I win a bunch but its really not the type of wins I want. Dan Heisman says its better to lose a well thought out game than it is to win a rushed, sloppy game. (Not his exact words but you get the breeze.) Here is an example of a won game but in a BAD way. It was supposed to be a Larsen's Opening gambit but turned into a Bird.

[Event "1 min blitz"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2008.06.25"]
[Round "?"]
[White "boogaloo"]
[Black "kevin235"]
[Result "1-0"]

1. b3 e6 2. f4 Be7 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. e3 O-O5. Be2 Re8 6. Bb2 d6 7. d4 Nc6 8. Nbd2 b69. Bd3 Bb7 10. Qe2 Qd7 11. O-O-O Bd8 12. g4 Be713. g5 Nh5 14. Qg2 f6 15. h4 fxg5 16. hxg5 g617. d5 Nd8 18. Rxh5 gxh5 19. Rh1 Bf8 20. Rxh5 Bg721. Rxh7 Bxb2+ 22. Kxb2 Qxh7 23. Bxh7+ Kxh7 24. Qh3+ Kg725. Qh6+ Kf7 26. Qh7+ Kf8 27. g6 Re7 28. g7+ Ke829. g8=Q+ Kd7 30. Qxe6+ Ke8 31. Qhxe7#