Hi all 😀. I have another fascinating game to show you today. Leela (Neural Network) again Stockfish. Leela
playing white this is in a chess com blitz bonanza final five minutes with two
second increments so let's have a look at this particular game. e4 e5 Nf3 Nf6
The very solid Petrov defence 🛌💤 we have d4 for
the modern Steinitz attack variation Bishop d3 d5 Knight takes e5 Knight d7
Knight takes bishop takes white castles 🏰 Bishop d6 and you see here that this
pawn is actually not protected by anything at the moment and it's hits with
Knight c3 another theoretical move is c4 here to hit that pawn for example this
position where White can actually play queen h5 hitting h7 and d5 but this is
known as a kind of gambit position but it's about equal this particular
position so there's a lot of theory here. Nc3 though is played which
does accept doubled pawns. Is this worth it? Now after castling queen h5 black is
forced into a compromise here because of this double attack black plays f5 a
little bit of shutting down of the bishop here putting pawn on the light
square it's not an ideal move it does shield the Queen away from that d5 pawn
so if say g6 yes then taking there's not too much compensation for black here
White is getting a big advantage so f5 bit of a concession Bishop g5 Queen e8
The Queen moves to f3 hitting d5 again a counter attack on the Bishop
Bishop d2 now that pawn the attack is renewed its defended with Bishop c6
Now with have h3. Rae8 Bishop f4 White is starting to put pressure
on the dark squares Queen f6 Queen g3 now g6 this is a bit of a curious
one I thought because pawns
don't go backwards - isn't that weakening the dark squares a bit too much here.
Isn't there any other alternatives I just investigated briefly say Queen d7
without touching the g pawn - it seems plausible this kind of thing seems
plausible and it should be about equal this kind of thing so anyway I thought
this was an interesting structural decision from stockfish we have Rae1
Bishop d7 h4 Bxf4 Queen takes - now the queen is eyeing here
h6 and in fact what is potentially having the dreaded thorn pawn to h6 as
well c5 rook e5 which shields the structure
and makes use of that e5 point rook takes e5 dxe5 which gives white
a blockaded or an easily blocked e pawn and the pawn structure is
shattered is absolutely shattered over here it seems we have rook e1 b6 c4 d4
and now h5 on the upside there's a thorn pawn coming in here
King g7. If black had been greedy to take this then actually simply Queen f3 might
be best hitting h5 and for example this position is just nice for white so
possibly Queen f3 is the strongest e6 is also tempting for example like
this is devastating but black doesn't have to go in for that black could play
Bishop e8 and it should be about even but yeah probably the best is Queen f3
if this greedy move had been entertained which it wasn't so the thorn pawn now
it's tempting to install a thorn pawn with check and it is. King g8 Qg3
okay so here we have the pawn on e5 blockaded f4 Bishop c6 Queen g5 which is
actually a really interesting move it's got a subtle idea behind it
king f7 I wonder if you can spot what the idea of Queen g5 was if I give you
five seconds here .. okay g4 yes g4 is now possible trying to increase the
pawn mobility trying to potentially bright break black with f5 now a
defensive tactic is used here - rook g8 stopping G takes in its tracks if
black had played fxg4 f5 is pretty dangerous g takes this position
is very very nice for White here. Things are crashing through there's two passed
pawns now doesn't matter it doesn't matter about this structure over here
White is getting a big advantage so these scenarios are pretty dangerous if
we look at this again this situation yeah this is actually the very strongest 💪
it seems e6 might not be too strong - if Qxh7 there is e7. Here
King c7 White is only getting a small advantage.There's different ways of playing it but
all the opportunities are with white there if taking so rook g8 trying to
defends so that's impossible to take here because of G takes so the king
actually just goes to f2 now renewing G takes without the Queen being pinned if
we just put that on the board if G takes G takes the Queen is pinned to the king
so King f2 just renews gxf5 fxg4 and Leela has really got what
she wanted there and there's extra pawn mobility now so the potential of f5 and
in fact shutting down the opponent's pawn mobility at the same time. I don't
know if that's a new kind of tactic where subsequently after you you shut
the opponents pawn mobility after increasing your own. But here black is in a very
dangerous situation and after Bishop f3 there's an
exceptionally clever idea so f3 not only protects the G pawn - it
also controls d1 however sometimes the bishop in this scenario might be useful
for hanging around to protect the d8 square if it was on c6 you know or
b7 it could go to d7 now you might think well how on earth does white get the
potential for a Bishop to d7 I thought this was really really nifty well first
of all I thought the whole g4 and King f2-g3 idea was
extremely nifty but this move is kind of super nifty as well so white play here
how can white activate this Bishop which at the moment okay it does continually
threaten potentially f5 as well under the right circumstance but how can it be
given extra opportunities if I give you five seconds here White's play .. this is a
hard one to consider okay I might giving you a clue though with these arrows so
what would you play here with white? Okay c3 yeah another pawn sacrifice after D
takes white just plays Bishop c2 now this D takes has also compromised
the d file. If the bishop isn't guarding
d1 here then white could play rook d1 rook d6 crashing through that would be
really horrible hitting the Queen and supporting e6 check unblockading the e
pawn so black starting to be overloaded because there's also a threat now of
Bishop a4 to d7 and if it takes there's e6.
So a lot of opportunities have suddenly emerged here.
And I went a bit crazy analyzing the responses from this particular position
because I wondered about the principal threat. I thought this might be in the principal
threat Bishop a4 but it seems the bishop is very useful while it's on c2 for f5
under numerous circumstances here. If by the way lets rule out why Bishop c2 and
not f5 immediately. f5 immediately just taking check - this is fine for black
there's no problems at all. Queen g6 there and there shouldn't be any problems so but
this is like almost like a little a form of zugzwang if we look at the
possibilities for black here. Say rook e8 then f5 is indeed very effective here. So
for example here taking this is really crashing through this position even
giving up the rook the pawns are winning there after f7 the king can't help
Nothing can help f8 queening you can see that the bishop is not very helpful at
all in these in these circumstances so we can rule out rook e8 we can rule out
Queen takes e4 because check for example e6 and then rook d1 threatening
Rd8 and black would have to give up the Queen that's not very pleasant at
all to stop the mate so we've if we have a look also let's
see Bishop b7 Bishop going back then rook e3 s good here for example Bf3
going there now taking this off and it's now rook re3 and now indeed Bishop a4
is clear and imminent danger of Bishop d7 so this idea is put on the board in
this particular variation with white getting a big advantage. Let's have a
look at rook h8. So f5 the bishop remains strong supporting f5 let alone any
Bishop a4 idea and that's crashing through let's say Bishop c6 yes I had
fun with this position rook d1. Then the bishops has given up d1 we just
crash through with rook d6 check and then e6 for example this position is
absolutely winning - that that pin being exploited
against the queen winning material it's nice that the queen is also protected by
the pawn on f4 so extreme prophylaxis from white for all the tactical
possibilities so yeah it does seem as though this is a really really
interesting position Rf8 if we haven't covered it just just to recap
here Queen g7 Bishop takes h7 is a big advantage so this does seem an
extremely difficult position as if all of a sudden black's in a kind of
zugzwang and during the livestream it's as if Stockfish really did change its mind
significantly that it was actually having a massive disadvantage it started
to totally agree with White's optimistic seemingly optimistic evaluation it just
seems a very very strange thing to have occurred given White had such structural
damage on the Queen side and this very very strange pawn sac kind of strange
pawn sac and blockade over here and now a kind of pawn sac and liberation over
here playing on both sides of the board with the potential with the potential of Rd1-d6
as well a Bishop a4 to Bishop d7 so I thought this is absolutely fascinating
game so b5 which seems to just parry the idea Bishop a4 which is something to do but now
White is getting this pawn majority of course on the Queen side so securing down a
lot of end games which are now going to be very advantageous and in fact so a4.
The pawns start being pushed a5 rf8 Rd4 Rd8 and now Ba4
Kh8 Rd1 yeah Black's really getting stretched
out here on a torture rack and now Queen takes g4 this ending here is horrendous
It's black that has ended up with a terrible pawn structure rather strangely
given the opening the structure for white in after the opening it's black
now that it has a terrible ending here. This thorn pawn here is actually handy in
the endgames that duality of the thorn pawn - it's not just useful in the middle
game but also the endgames. So here look at this. This is just a mop-up
The king could also be more active than the black King here going on these dark
squares so this g5 f5 that swaps the f-pawn for the C pawn ... exchange of
prisoners as Aron Nimzovich would say that protects the thorn pawn with check and
now yeah there's a potential passed pawn over here and in the center of course
so here bishop g6 b6 this is just yeah this outside 'a' pawn in particular is
just going to be winning material now the king's coming in over there e7
Blacks really overloaded. White is putting pressure queening there so winning
that bishop now the rooks gonna be won pretty soon yeah it's kind of all over
Bishop takes g4 and it's it's in time to catch the H pawn the king and rook are
in time yep so if the pawn Queens here then just play the check and win the
Queen just put that on the board just play the check win the Queen so it's
it's hopeless this pawn is dropping and then not too long to go for the
checkmate to be demonstrated with the king and rook
checkmate so I thought there was some very nifty
operations here which seemed extremely unusual to me and what's
kind of funny is the outcome of the structure you'd think white would
definitely have the worst endings but something really dynamic happened there
on both sides of the board so the temporary pawn sack on the Kings side
and then there's kind of pawn sacrifice on the Queen side and all of a sudden black
just seemed to be in this zugzwang so I looked at
a few of the possibilities and it seemed very interesting at move 33
how you know there was very very little it seen black could do apart from giving
white winning end games with that b5 basically so fascinating game if you
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