Polish Defense w/ 1.d4

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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
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PGN Viewer and Download

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Bird's Opening :: Sturm Gambit

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

PGN Viewer and PGN Download

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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PGN Viewer and Download

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Bird's Opening :: 1.f4 e5

White wins 56 (47%)

Draws 38 (31%)

Black wins 26 (22%)

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Another reason I was researching the Bird's Opening was because a post in the Unorthodox Opening group on Yahoo. They were discussing From's gambit. I wanted to see if the computer would play the From. It did in some games but the results were varied. As you can see in the stats, White can hold after this gambit. What suprised me the most was that the engines would constantly move the King after a Queen exchange in order to get a Pawn in the center (see rule #1). Even after giving up the right to castle white still has a decent game. Although the position was a bit 'different' I started to see common themes and formations. The King came out often and Black castled Queenside. This was an engine match between Rybka 2.3.1 and HIARC 11.1. Rybka won with : +46 -36 =38 . This is a position that is common in the late opening.

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White has given up the right to castle and Black has just castled Queenside. Despite the looks of the position, White seems to be better. All 120 games and the PGN can be found below.

PGN Viewer and Download

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:

PGN Viewer and Download

Alekhine Defense : Krejcik Gambit w Bxf7

Alright, I ran the engine tournament and was suprised that Deep Shredder 10 won. Rybka has been the reigning champion. I was very pleased with this engine tournament. The path to victory for Black is clear now. Although the king has moved and unable to castle, Black still has an advantage in the opening. This is probably due to the advanced pawns and the fact that you gain tempos by attacking the queen. In the games, if the queens can be traded off early then Black gains the big center and more active pieces. I'm ready for this attack now and will gladly accept the gambit. Here are the results:

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krejcikBxf7 2008
Deep Shredder 10 UCI 22.5 - 9.526.5 - 5.5** 49.0/642

Rybka 2.3.1 32-bit 9.5 - 22.516.0 - 16.0 ** 25.5/643

HIARCS 11.1 UCI 5.5 - 26.516.0 - 16.0 ** 21.5/64

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The 96 game PGN can be found here: http://www.lockism.com/engine/KrejcikBxf7.pgn

Here is a sample game of how Black can gain a good center and even destroy the Whites pawn structure.

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[Event "krejcikBxf7"]

[Site "?"]

[Date "2008.06.25"]

[Round "5.1"]

[White "HIARCS 11.1 UCI"]

[Black "Deep Shredder 10 UCI"]

[Result "0-1"]

[PlyCount "111"]

[EventDate "2008.06.25"]

[EventType "tourn"]

1. e4 Nf6 2. Bc4 Nxe4 3. Bxf7 Kxf7 4. Qh5+ Kg8 5. Qd5+ e6 6. Qxe4 d5 7. Qe3 d4 8. Qe2 d3 9. Qxd3 Qxd310. cxd3 Nc6 11. Na3 e5 12. Nf3 Bg4 13. Nc2 Bxf3 14. gxf3 Kf7 15. b3 Bc5 16.Bb2 Rad8 17. Ke2 Rhe8 18. Rac1 a5 19. Rhg1 g6 20. Rg4 h6 21. h4 b6 22. Rcg1 Re623. Bc3 b5 24. Re4 b4 25. Bb2 Rde8 26. Rc1 R8e7 27. Rc4 Bb6 28. Re4 Rd6 29. Ne3 Bd4 30. Nc4 Rf6 31. Bxd4 exd4 32. Re1 Rfe6 33. Kd1 Kf6 34. Kc2 Kf7 35. h5 gxh5 36. Rh1 Kg6 37. Reh4 Re1 38. R1h3 Rf1 39. Rxh5 Ree1 40. Rxh6+ Kf7 41. Rh7+ Ke842. Rh8+ Kd7 43. a4 Rb1 44. R3h7+ Ne7 45. Rh1 Rxh1 46. Rxh1 Rxh1 47. Nxa5 Nc648. Nc4 Ke6 49. f4 Kf5 50. Kb2 Kxf4 51. Kc2 Ne5 52. Na5 Kf3 53. Nc4 Nxc4 54.dxc4 Ke2 55. d3 Rd1 56. a5 Rxd3 57. a6 Rc3+ 58. Kb2 d3 0-1

Alekhine Defense : Krejcik Gambit

1. e4 Nf6 2. Bc4!? An interesting line with only one real trap to it. I was caught by this in a 1 min blitz game and wanted to see what the refutations were. There were many interesting games. Rybka won again. I really need some new engines. Something to give Rybka a run for its money. I'm going to run a tournament between Rybka, Hiarcs, and Deep Shredder 10 for the line 1. e4 Nf6 2. Bc4 Nxe4 3. Bxf7+ . This was the line that kinda threw me and in the tournament there were only a couple of games that ran this line. I will post the results when the games finish. I'd like to do a 40-60 game tournament with the 3 engines. The results to the initial Krejcik Gambit tournament with 5 engines and 40 games was as follows:

krejcik 2008

1 Rybka 2.3.1 32-bit 6.0/8

2 HIARCS 11.1 UCI 4.5/8

3 Deep Shredder 10 UCI 3.5/8 13.50

4 Fritz 9 3.5/8 13.25

5 Shredder 10 UCI 2.5/8

The PGN can be downloaded here: http://www.lockism.com/engine/Krejcik.pgn

Mokele Mbembe Engine tournament

I ran an engine tournament for the Mokele Mbembe Variation of the Alekhine defense. There were 420 games total. The result looked like this:

Mokele 2008

Rybka 2.3.1 32-bit 91.5
HIARCS 11.1 UCI 79.5
Shredder 10 UCI 69.5
Deep Shredder 10 UCI 67.5
Naum 2.0 57.5
Aristarch 4.50 32.5
Ruffian 1.0.1 22.0

The PGN file can be located here http://www.lockism.com/engine/MokeleEngine.pgn

Alekhine Brooklyn Variation

1. e4 Nf6 2. e5 Ng8!

The Brooklyn Variation of the Alekhine Defense. I ran across this variation on the Unorthodox Chess Openings yahoogroups. They constantly talk about new and interesting openings. This one is 'somewhat' interesting. Its more for the shock value than anything else. I viewed a couple of games they posted and wanted to view more. Following Clyde Nakamura's lead I decided to run a chess engine mini-tournament. There were 12 games in all and they were very interesting. Not suprising though was the fact that black only won one of the games. There were many draws and many wins. While watching some of these games though I realized that for lower rated players (like me) could easily equalize and stun the opponents. Most likely in a 2 or 1 min game. I have come across these positions before so I will try this opening soon. The resulting over extended center kinda reminds me of positions I've reached with the Nimzovitch defense. I will post more about that after I practice this Brooklyn Variation. The games can be found here: http://www.lockism.com/engine/ The file name is Brooklyn_Variation and the results of the games were as so:

Oh.. and this was my first Chess Engine Tournament. I think I could have tweaked it more but am pleased with the results. My analysis can only get better from here on out.

The Chigorin Defense

Although I'm researching Gambit lines right now I've decided to keep with my 'uncommon' approach to openings and start studying the Chigorin (1.d4 d5 2.c4 Nc6). After my loss to J.Martinez (2012), I've felt that a need for a more solid defense with black is needed. Of course I could study standard Queen's Gambit Declined/Accepted Lines or the Nimzo-Indian but I try to follow the road less traveled. Sticking with my old stand by, 'All warfare is based on Deception.' My first choice to battle 1.d4 was the Dutch Defence, as it is reliable up to 2200 players and definitely is not standard movement. Unfortunately, I got dissed by a book seller on Amazon and have yet to receive the book. I have instead decided to study the Chigorin since I already have the book, it throws people off, and I believe former world champion Kramnik uses it frequently. I look forward to studying this opening and using it in the future.

Some nice mates....

Well for me at least.

I play blitz on gameknot.com frequently. Its a great way to stay on top of your game and learn to think quick. The competition is vicious on the weekends and mostly in the evenings. Of course me having two jobs this is when I play. I enjoy playing these people but its interesting because in the beginning of the night I am fine but by the end I'm usually as drunk as a Cedar Waxwing during berry season. I have two snapshots of some mates I've done and would like to share them.

1. Crazy Mate

This mate was crazy because I was drunk as all hell and only had one thought on my mind. 'take away escape squares'. It worked out so well that I ended up checkmating the guy. To his surprise and mine. (The king on f5 was checked by the rook on g5 which was protected by the knight on e4. The bishop on f6 could not take because of the pin by the queen on f7. With the rook check I sac'd my knight and then mated with Qh7#(mate).) I love playin chess shitfaced.

2. Drunken Mate

There isn't much to this mate except that it was a fight till the end! Or more like a stumble to the toilet. This kid was schooling me. By looking at the picture you can see that I am down a piece and down an exchange. One less rook and one less minor piece. I was running hard from this kid and decided to go all out and launch a queenside attack. My first plan was to make the long pawn chain and trap his pieces, then trap his king in the corner and mate him. His mistake was leaving the pawn chain intact. I was amazed that I mated him and was proud that 'I never gave up'. Even if it was alcohol fueled and more of a Red Dawn, Wolverines!!!!, mentality.

Ahhhhhh.... Chess and Liquor. Is there anything they can't do?

Tomorrow, if I remember, I will post my online training schedule for chess.

First of many.

Ok... here is the first of many chess games that I am going to publish to this blog. I am still an 'amateur' but all my friends think I'm the chess expert, especially the ones the don't play chess. Funny though, my goal is to acheive the Expert title. Its gonna be difficult since I'm just a hobbyist but as a lifetime goal I believe it is do-able.

The game below is from Gameknot.com . They have their own viewer but unfortunately it doesn't work in for this site. The game is from a mini tournament that I started with the theme being the 'Nimzovich Defense'. It is a hypermodern opening and I am quite fond of these openings. The main idea being that you control the center of the board with outside pieces instead of actually occupying the center. I could dig deeper into it but do not want to bore you. (if I haven't already) Play through the game and see what you think. I made a bunch of mistakes but he made more. I am 'Boogaloo' and am playing as black. Enjoy!






Whoa... that thing is kinda bright. I'm gonna find a way to switch up that background.