Morning all, I wanted to talk about a very interesting position that occurred in the
last few weeks.
There was a lot of discussion on this position.
Something occurred in the post-mortem analysis of a blitz game against a planet named superstructure
who was high rated at time on the five-minute auto pairing.
He was playing white, 2281 in IM, I was 2123 at the time.
Here I just played the move Bb7 and I thought the worst was over.
Because it seems like the main entry points is secured by the bishop or here these entry
points seem secure.
But something amazing in post-mortem analysis was shown.
I couldn't believe it and nor could other people watching the video.
A move was suggested for white here, which was incredible, and I wanted to use the opportunity
not just to talk about the specific tactic, but somehow computers will inevitably always
beat humans.
It started in the 1980s, 1990s they are always drawn tactically and at first the brute force
approach of computers sometimes failed, because although they won material for example
sometimes, at the end of it their King safety might be compromised or there might being
pass pawns and to cure this, horizon effect not being able to see over the horizon are
basically just adding faster Hardware was starting to cure it, as well as improving
the heuristics used to evaluate positions and now you know with hardware and technology
advances, even a cursory glance with an engine when you play a blitz game will reveal phenomenal
tactical resources.
If we were transported back to the 1980s, you need probably a mainframe to get the same
thing.
So quickly these variations you can get from like an i5 or an i7 processor now with a strong
engine.
So here phenomenal tactical resource was shown here which is to be seen to be believed.
But as an illustration of what is this you know the power of brute force, a recent cafe
conversation with my brother Nick, he was going on about this magician who basically
he was predicting some future for someone and that's what we were shown, that they would
do this, they'll do this and you know this would happen and all the events actually transpired.
So, was it because you know the magician was seeing into the future?
Well the actual basis of the trick was actually the magician actually had the same conversation
with thousands of different people and actually took the one which actually worked out where
the outcomes actually came true and because we were only shown the one where actually
worked, not the thousands which didn't, we were really impressed and it's the same in
a way with brute force.
Because when an engine looks at a position, they're looking every single candidate move,
doesn't matter how ridiculous it is and indeed here there seems to be a ridiculous beyond
insignificance, as far as the human radar for a lot of people.
They wouldn't go too far into this variation.
I wonder if you can guess here what is mentioned by my stockfish as a strongest move.
I'm talking depth 29.
So, stockfish recommends me, which shocked me completely and it shattered the illusions
that blacks’ position is kind of solid.
When we talk about solid, when humans talk about the term solid, you know without clear
weaknesses and it seems logistic as the entry points here are guarded and the King seems
safe enough that it's solid.
But, it’s not really that size.
If you have high tactical precision, blacks’ position can apparently be blown away here.
If I gave you five seconds to pause the video or ten seconds pause video, what would you
consider as a totally outrageous, but potentially useful tactical move here?
So, 10 seconds starting from now.
Okay well I am opponent played a4 and it turned out later I was able to win an endgame later.
Because I managed to munch on a4 late after Queens came off later and it was a great endgame
position to have.
I'll just quickly just show you the game, just flick through the moves to show you that.
Queens came off at some point and a4 is a liability and then I was winning the endgame.
So, it was a nice win in the end.
Okay so that's the game continuation with a4.
So, I am played the move a4 here.
But stockfish, if you had to play stockfish and which I generally avoid playing engines,
even for training.
It used to be totally demoralizing, totally.
Stockfish comes up with the move Rc6 and this is like you know the magic trick, that the
engines sifted through loads and loads of what we consider junk and it turns out this
seemingly junk move initially, it is brilliant.
Some other people's engines were mentioning Bg7 as well, maybe we could check that out
in a bit.
So, what is going on with Rc6?
Well then start with taking the rook.
Here the idea is not to play this.
That is okay for black after Bc8.
The idea is created a slight weakness of the last move, which the engines calculated for
Re6, which now forks the Queen and the bishop.
So, this is the power of brute force and white, the horizon effect disappeared around 1980,
around you know for most people playing computers, the horizon effect where you could trick them
into winning through here.
It's beyond the point of repair it seems now.
What does black do in this position?
After Queen here, White has even better than taking the bishop.
There's no emotional load to win material back from an engine point of view.
It's trying to find always the top move in the position and one of the tops at a certain
depth is to play h4.
So Qd8, and you know letting black off keeping the bishop, but now D takes, and you see that
both these bishops are kind of being opened here and the Queen's got you know potentially
d5 as well.
So Rxd6 is the immediate top threat.
Cxb7 is another.
So, it's a double attack on both bishops now and blacks’ position is basically crumbling
here.
So, say Bc5, that's the suggestion.
Now the Queen's attacked, so actually though Bd5 here not only defends that Queen, but
also now fret ins Re7 discovered check and then Bxg7 will be mating.
So, for example if the bishop moved, then this is a forced mate in 8.
There's a quicker one with Qc3.
So, much for black being solid here.
Say this move, then Re8 is quick pinning the rook.
Qxg7, so black really from a human point of view might have felt solid, but it’s a tissue,
what my friend Costas Karayannis sometimes Expresses a tissue of lies, which are being
exposed by the engines brute force.
That Rc6 is such a crushing move.
If we look at this again, dxc6, weakness of last move.
Re6, I mean these are mega tactics, which the engine sees.
I mean where else could the Queen have moved here.
Qh3, dxc6 again.
So, hitting both bishops and you know Bc5 is even like less effective than before.
Bd5 here and both bishops are pointing at the Kings, not even bothering taking this
guy.
So, say Kh8, then carnage occurs.
Bxg7, for example if taking here check, yeah and blacks like mate in 3 now.
So, say if Kf7, Rd6++, Qe5 mating.
So, it's incredible the brute force, well, how embarrassing it can be if you do a post-mortem
with your games.
But it's also sometimes just shocking what resources exist.
And you might think what about bishop takes, that's better than pawn takes.
It doesn't weaken e6.
So here D takes, so an exchange sacrifice.
But white is now on this pawn hitting the Rook.
So, okay what does black play here?
If takes check and this is still very very good for example like this Re6, I mean what
does the exchange up or the exchange down mean from an engine point of view?
It doesn't mean anything.
It means, maybe on the evaluation function.
But it's going through millions of positions here and it's working out that the exchange
down doesn't mean anything at all here.
White is just better.
So, say we'll take one of the moves which is white is better.
Bc1 and the best move here is C takes, where else is the Queen moving.
Queens kind of being run out of squares here.
So, say C takes, then here Bishop takes, B takes, taking the rook, cashing out, taking
the rook, leaves white a bishop up basically, Bishop up here.
Its Bd5, white’s bishop up.
So yeah even taking with the bishop, so taken with the pawn is even worse.
Because of Re6, it's really exposing that black wasn't too solid and I think you know
obviously in the openings especially I think humans can leverage the opening you know openings,
that opening lines can be extended and qualified and made tactically more solid you know from
an engine perspective.
But here yeah, it's just an absolutely crushing position.
What can black do?
G6, Rxd6, it's just overwhelming here.
There's gaping dark square weaknesses now.
So, C takes Bishop takes is a force mate in eight or something here.
You get the idea, it's totally hopeless.
So, the position is really a tissue of lies.
So, what can we say?
We're spectators in the game of chess compared to engines.
Because we're not going to sift through all this stuff like Rc6, especially in the Blitz
game usually.
So Rc6 is a staggering resource, just for those interested, I think there was a mention
on other people's engines about Bxg7, but I'm not seeing, I'm seeing Rc6 as the top
move plus two point six eight.
Rce2, strong Bd4.
I'm pretty sure someone mentioned, maybe they had the wrong position.
Now this is losing, sorry I think they have the wrong position or maybe it was later.
Okay but Rc6, yeah, it's a shocking move and just shows you know we’re so far away now
from engines, increasingly so.
Because basically as Hardware progresses and evolves and heuristics improve, engines will
just see all this junk and they will humiliate us even more and more every single year.
It will be even worse and worse that what you thought was solid not at all solid.
Okay this video was stimulating, thought provoking, comments or questions on YouTube.
Thanks very much.