A lovely game from AlphaZero: AlphaZero tempts Stockfish into accepting a double pawn sacrifice right from the opening after which Stockfish's queenside pieces - in particular the rook on a8 and knight on b8 - are extremely passive. Some great thematic ideas from AlphaZero - in particular exchanging the opponent's active pieces to leave it with passive pieces - turn this dynamic advantage into a decisive material advantage as Stockfish feels compelled to return material to try to break free.
Underrated channel. Definitely deserves more views! On the other hand, I feel lucky that I am only one of the few people that actually know these outstanding ideas! How does A0 react to Catalan and Kings Indian attack? I would love to see that for sure. Thanks!
Thanks a lot! Glad you're enjoying the channel! I don't think Stockfish 8 was a Catalan fan so I can't think of any games where AlphaZero had to face that: in the normal match it was 1.e4 all the way from Stockfish! And AlphaZero definitely doesn't like the French as Black so not much chance of seeing the KIA in a normal game. I would not have thought it would be super happy to be honest: in our book "Game Changer", we show the game "Python Squeeze" which reaches a KIA-type structure where AlphaZero is White... AlphaZero is very optimistic for White and really enjoys itself! Best Wishes, Matthew
@@GameChangerChess For what it's worth, LC0 11258 (at least running on my CPU) gives a clear edge to Black (-0.39 at depth 6) in the position arising after 1. Nf3 d5 2. g3 Nf6 3. Bg2 c5 4. 0-0 46 5. d3 Nc6 6. Nbd2 Be7 7. e4 0-0 8. Re1 b5 9. e5 Nd7.
Hi Garry, interesting I hadn't thought of doing that! Good idea! On my machine (Lc0 ID 32335 I believe) I get an evaluation of -0.10 for the main line with some pretty interesting lines. Fingers crossed that something like that pops up in the ongoing TCEC championships!
@@GameChangerChess It's definitely one of those positions where I'm inclined to use Leela more than Stockfish for analysis. Have you seen Game 52 of the ongoing TCEC Premier Division between AllieStein and Fire? That played out like a textbook old-school KIA.
Wow, very nice spot - I'd missed that one! Really interesting - such a big difference in the quality of insight between the 2 engines in this type of position. AllieStein's evaluation was huge before Fire understood there was anything to worry about!
I'm glad I found your channel. Very instructive content, I will look forward to more videos and will look to pick up your book as well. It's amazing how chess engines are making chess even more interesting!
Thanks! Glad you're enjoying the channel! Yes with the contrast of styles of standard engines and NN engines like AlphaZero and Leela Zero, there are some wonderful games being played by engines at the moment! Hope you enjoy the book too! Best Wishes, Matthew
Pretty nice defense by Stockfish as usual, but also very computer-like :P. It's striking how much AZ0 doesn't care about the queenside in these "queenside" openings like the Catalan or when playing the Carlsbad structure (actually not going for the minority attack in the Carlsbad is downright shocking!). Well, maybe AZ0 knows something we don't :). The line you show with Kh1 is so beautiful O_O. 16. g4 is an absolutely insane move, and another idea that I will definitely take note of!
Yes that really is quite striking! I wonder whether this is due to a mixture of AlphaZero's centralisation of its pieces, and the way Stockfish is sometimes slightly "loose" with its kingside defences (it calculates deeply that it can keep danger at bay with a minimal number of pieces and doesn't look to bolster its defences until the last moment.) That encourages AlphaZero to play on the kingside and if it finds ideas like 16.g4... then trouble can strike suddenly! Best Wishes, Matthew
This line had been played in correspondence up until the move prior to g4! (White played a weaker move and drew). I suspect it will not be played again in correspondence... (Black can play Nbd7 earlier to avoid this line).
Interesting! I have quite a few correspondence databases and didn't find any games... Which game is that? Quite nice actually that g4 is the novelty: it is the absolute star move of the game! Yes, it looks like accepting the double pawn sacrifice is too risky which is quite interesting for the line in general.
@@GameChangerChess It was a game published in 2018 -- K. De Smet(2150) v A. Conde Poderoso(2374), www.iccf.com/game?id=1025278 . There was also a 2013 game where White played 15.Rac1 instead of 15.bxc3 . Although I realize now that this would have been after the AZ-Stockfish game was played, so AZ gets novelty credit for 15. bxc3 :) I assume White in this game did not realize he was following the AZ game otherwise he would have played g4 too.
actually stockfish 12 nnue analysis shows the right play is dont exchange the bishops and black can maintain the equal position(at least in a fast game against itself)
Hi, not quite sure at what point you mean...? But I definitely agree that the latest generations of engines will find better defences! Best Wishes, Matthew
Ah, just that it's difficult to cover every variation in 15-20 minutes of video! After 16...Qxc3 the main line was 17.g5 Qb4 18.Rd4 Qb2 and now I looked a lot at 19.Rb1 but AlphaZero preferred 19.Rad1 when if 19....Qxe2 20 Be3 Qxa2 21.R4d2 Qa5 22.h4 is an 80.1% expected score for White. The pawn is just racing up to h6 (or even supporting g5-g6 from h5) while Black is still not close to freeing its queenside. A real long-term sacrifice of 4 pawns! Best Wishes, Matthew
1d4 d5 2 c4 e6 3 Nf3 Nf6 4 g3 dxc4 5 Bg2 c5 6 0_0 Nc6 dxc5 7 dxc5 Qxd1 8 Rxd1 Bxc5 . After these sequence of moves it would be interesting to see how whether Alpha Zero can defeat Stockfish 10 or not
Hi Michael I am enjoying your commentary I remember from the George Goodwin rapid tournaments I don't believe we ever played I still play on the England team when I get the chance my handle is alanmike75 on chess.com
Humans can play better in the opening, because they have the advantage of being intelligent and using the output of an engine. Stockfish is poor when it comes to play the opening with the best accuracy. So Stockfish instead castling, plays the committal Bb7, a move I would never play because he could wait to see what are white's intentions with ..0-0 and secondly places the bishop in a passive square (b7). I would go all the way for castling first and later Ba6.
A lovely game from AlphaZero: AlphaZero tempts Stockfish into accepting a double pawn sacrifice right from the opening after which Stockfish's queenside pieces - in particular the rook on a8 and knight on b8 - are extremely passive. Some great thematic ideas from AlphaZero - in particular exchanging the opponent's active pieces to leave it with passive pieces - turn this dynamic advantage into a decisive material advantage as Stockfish feels compelled to return material to try to break free.
Underrated channel. Definitely deserves more views! On the other hand, I feel lucky that I am only one of the few people that actually know these outstanding ideas! How does A0 react to Catalan and Kings Indian attack? I would love to see that for sure. Thanks!
Thanks a lot! Glad you're enjoying the channel! I don't think Stockfish 8 was a Catalan fan so I can't think of any games where AlphaZero had to face that: in the normal match it was 1.e4 all the way from Stockfish! And AlphaZero definitely doesn't like the French as Black so not much chance of seeing the KIA in a normal game. I would not have thought it would be super happy to be honest: in our book "Game Changer", we show the game "Python Squeeze" which reaches a KIA-type structure where AlphaZero is White... AlphaZero is very optimistic for White and really enjoys itself! Best Wishes, Matthew
@@GameChangerChess For what it's worth, LC0 11258 (at least running on my CPU) gives a clear edge to Black (-0.39 at depth 6) in the position arising after 1. Nf3 d5 2. g3 Nf6 3. Bg2 c5 4. 0-0 46 5. d3 Nc6 6. Nbd2 Be7 7. e4 0-0 8. Re1 b5 9. e5 Nd7.
Hi Garry, interesting I hadn't thought of doing that! Good idea! On my machine (Lc0 ID 32335 I believe) I get an evaluation of -0.10 for the main line with some pretty interesting lines. Fingers crossed that something like that pops up in the ongoing TCEC championships!
@@GameChangerChess It's definitely one of those positions where I'm inclined to use Leela more than Stockfish for analysis. Have you seen Game 52 of the ongoing TCEC Premier Division between AllieStein and Fire? That played out like a textbook old-school KIA.
Wow, very nice spot - I'd missed that one! Really interesting - such a big difference in the quality of insight between the 2 engines in this type of position. AllieStein's evaluation was huge before Fire understood there was anything to worry about!
I'm glad I found your channel. Very instructive content, I will look forward to more videos and will look to pick up your book as well. It's amazing how chess engines are making chess even more interesting!
Thanks! Glad you're enjoying the channel! Yes with the contrast of styles of standard engines and NN engines like AlphaZero and Leela Zero, there are some wonderful games being played by engines at the moment! Hope you enjoy the book too! Best Wishes, Matthew
Extremely well-played game from Alphazero and really nice commentary, TY!
Thanks! Lovely to hear! Best Wishes Matthew
Pretty nice defense by Stockfish as usual, but also very computer-like :P. It's striking how much AZ0 doesn't care about the queenside in these "queenside" openings like the Catalan or when playing the Carlsbad structure (actually not going for the minority attack in the Carlsbad is downright shocking!). Well, maybe AZ0 knows something we don't :). The line you show with Kh1 is so beautiful O_O. 16. g4 is an absolutely insane move, and another idea that I will definitely take note of!
Yes that really is quite striking! I wonder whether this is due to a mixture of AlphaZero's centralisation of its pieces, and the way Stockfish is sometimes slightly "loose" with its kingside defences (it calculates deeply that it can keep danger at bay with a minimal number of pieces and doesn't look to bolster its defences until the last moment.) That encourages AlphaZero to play on the kingside and if it finds ideas like 16.g4... then trouble can strike suddenly! Best Wishes, Matthew
@@GameChangerChess That might be it TBH...Most strong human players wouldn't be so "loose," as you say. An interesting experiment to conduct for sure!
Such a beautiful game! A0 is amazing.
Yes this is a wonderful game with great variations! Best Wishes, Matthew
Thank you wherry mach, be for you information I've improved my game!
Great to hear! Best Wishes, Matthew
This line had been played in correspondence up until the move prior to g4! (White played a weaker move and drew). I suspect it will not be played again in correspondence... (Black can play Nbd7 earlier to avoid this line).
Interesting! I have quite a few correspondence databases and didn't find any games... Which game is that? Quite nice actually that g4 is the novelty: it is the absolute star move of the game! Yes, it looks like accepting the double pawn sacrifice is too risky which is quite interesting for the line in general.
@@GameChangerChess It was a game published in 2018 -- K. De Smet(2150) v A. Conde Poderoso(2374), www.iccf.com/game?id=1025278 . There was also a 2013 game where White played 15.Rac1 instead of 15.bxc3 . Although I realize now that this would have been after the AZ-Stockfish game was played, so AZ gets novelty credit for 15. bxc3 :) I assume White in this game did not realize he was following the AZ game otherwise he would have played g4 too.
Thanks! Brilliant, I'll add the game to my file! Thanks a lot, always nice to get new information like this 😀 Best Wishes, Matthew
actually stockfish 12 nnue analysis shows the right play is dont exchange the bishops and black can maintain the equal position(at least in a fast game against itself)
Hi, not quite sure at what point you mean...? But I definitely agree that the latest generations of engines will find better defences! Best Wishes, Matthew
Why didn’t you go over what happens if Qxc3 after g4? Did I miss it? It’s one of the arrows but I didn’t see a variation for it.
Ah, just that it's difficult to cover every variation in 15-20 minutes of video! After 16...Qxc3 the main line was 17.g5 Qb4 18.Rd4 Qb2 and now I looked a lot at 19.Rb1 but AlphaZero preferred 19.Rad1 when if 19....Qxe2 20 Be3 Qxa2 21.R4d2 Qa5 22.h4 is an 80.1% expected score for White. The pawn is just racing up to h6 (or even supporting g5-g6 from h5) while Black is still not close to freeing its queenside. A real long-term sacrifice of 4 pawns! Best Wishes, Matthew
@@GameChangerChess
Thank you for the answer!
Did leelachess seen g4
I haven't checked that yet. I'll try that when I get a moment.
Yes, on my hardware, after a little period spent on 16.h4, Leela switches quickly to 16.g4 too! Best Wishes, Matthew
Nice
Caruana playing all his opening like leela also word champion
1d4 d5 2 c4 e6 3 Nf3 Nf6 4 g3 dxc4 5 Bg2 c5 6 0_0 Nc6 dxc5 7 dxc5 Qxd1 8 Rxd1 Bxc5 . After these sequence of moves it would be interesting to see how whether Alpha Zero can defeat Stockfish 10 or not
We'll have to look out in Leela's games to see I guess!
Hi Michael
I am enjoying your commentary I remember from the George Goodwin rapid tournaments I don't believe we ever played I still play on the England team when I get the chance my handle is alanmike75 on chess.com
Hey Michael! I certainly recognise that handle :-) Glad you're enjoying the commentary! Best Wishes, Matthew
Humans can play better in the opening, because they have the advantage of being intelligent and using the output of an engine. Stockfish is poor when it comes to play the opening with the best accuracy. So Stockfish instead castling, plays the committal Bb7, a move I would never play because he could wait to see what are white's intentions with ..0-0 and secondly places the bishop in a passive square (b7). I would go all the way for castling first and later Ba6.
:)