"Learn from me inferior mortals!"-Stockfish
As technology has increased, it has been involved in every phase of life. A recent boost in the chess world is due to chat GPT games. Youtubers and streamers like IM Levy Rozman and GM Hikaru Nakamura had made videos on it.
"Inevitably the machines must win, but there is still a long way to go before a human on his or her best day is unable to defeat the best computer."
-Garry Kasparov
There have been so many chess engines working on different depths made till now. Some of them are,
1- Stockfish
2- Houdini
3- Komodo
4- Leela Chess Zero
5- AlphaZero
and many more.
The Stockfish has consistently ranked first or near the top of most chess-engine rating lists and, as of February 2023, is the strongest CPU chess engine in the world. Its estimated Elo rating is over 3500.
When it comes to Engine games most renowned opponent for stockfish is AlphaZero. In the estimate of the 1000-game match, AlphaZero won with a score of 155 wins, 6 losses, and 839 draws.
Anyways currently the top engine is stockfish and this blog includes a match of stockfish against another engine where stockfish shows complete dominance.
Considering dominance here is what Magnus has to say,
"Some people think that if their opponent plays a beautiful game, it’s OK to lose. I don’t. You have to be merciless."
- Magnus carlsen
Stockfish-
( Stockfish is a free and open-source chess engine, commonly used to calculate the optimal move in various chess scenarios needed for a checkmate. It is available for various desktop and mobile platforms and can be used in chess software through the Universal Chess Interface. It has won the Top Chess Engine Championship 13 times and the Chess.com Computer Chess Championship 19 times.)
Leela Chess Zero-
(Leela Chess Zero (abbreviated as LCZero, lc0) is a free, open-source, and deep neural network–based chess engine and volunteer computing project. Development has been spearheaded by programmer Gary Linscott, who is also a developer for the Stockfish chess engine. )
So to start the match this is played between Stockfish and Leela chess zero.
Stockfish has white pieces, and Leela has black.
Stockfish decided to go for the most aggressive system and play the king's gambit.
So,
1) e4-e5
2) f4-exf4
3) Nf3
and here, Leela plays a weird move h5 which is not a regular move.
So what do you do when someone plays an absurd move, Take center equity. Stockfish plays d4. g5 is played by Leela defending the f4 pawn.
Here stockfish immediately starts asking Leela questions by h4. What is the purpose of g pawn push. Leela plays g4, attacking the knight.
Knight moves to g5 and, Leela pushes f6.
As the first question arises, isn't the knight just trapped? Yes, it is.
What might be the reason is stockfish will get two pawns for the knight and plus the kingside will be open for attack. So as per the claim, Stockfish takes two pawns for a knight by playing bxf4. Leela plays fxg5 and stockfish takes the second pawn by bxg5 with an attack on the queen.
be7 by black and Qd2 by white is played. d6 plays Leela indicating she wants to develop bishop.Nc3 develops the stockfish. be6 developing and centralizing move by Leela. bd3 by stockfish.bxg5 takes Leela and hxg5 by stockfish.Nbd7 develops Leela and stock fish castle straight into the attacked side ( kingside ) o-o. Leela plays Qe2 indicating a long castle.
But why would stockfish allow Leela to castle and get safe? No stockfish has this move. find the move, which will create a threat, and the opponent can't castle.
If you said Nb5, you are correct. Stockfish played the same move. This threatens the Nxa7 and also the Nxc7 fork. Leela castled long anyways, saying I don't mind losing a pawn. Now if a threat exists and you can create more threats, You should do it. Stockfish played Qc3. Leela plays c6, attacking the knight. Nxa7 plays stockfish. Kb8 plays stockfish. Now we are technically down a piece also knight is also trapped, so why not play a desperate move? So here, white plays Nxc6.bxc plays Leela.Qb4 check is played, by stockfish now.
Black plays Ka7. Qa5 check plays white.kb8 backs Leela. ba6 plays stockfish trying to make the mating net.ka7 plays black. Stockfish plays Rad1 planning to uplift the rook.Rda8 plays black. Here stockfish decides to sack another piece by playing Qc7 check.Kxa6 plays black. This is our third piece of sacrifice here. Qxc6 plays white, Ka7 replies leela.Rd3 thretning mate by stockfish. Kb8 runs king.
Here in this position, you want to play Rb3, but it is not possible right now to make a move that makes it possible.
So the move is Rf5. The deflection tactics and also Rb5 is a threat. If you have been watching carefully this is our fourth sacrifice.Ra7 plays Leela.Rb5 plays stockfish.Nb6 blocks the check.Rxb6 plays white.Rb7 blocks the rook.
Now here find a tactic to win the piece.
Fairly obvious moves,
Rxb7-Qxb7
Qxd3-Qc7
Qxe6
Ne7 develops Leela. Rb3 check by stockfish.Ka7 runs the king.Ra3 checks, and Kb8, is played. Qa6 threatening Qa8.Qc6 offering trade and protecting a8 square. Qa7 check now. Kc8 running for life. Qxe7, now taking knight.Re8 plays Leela attacking the queen. Ra8 plays stockfish. Qxa8 -Qxe8. Kb7 moves up and Qxa8 and Kxa8.
Rest is a simple conversion of the end game as follow,
Overall game-
Engine games are also worth watching since they show you how simple it is to cross the opening phase and build an attack. It also develops our psychology to think in higher depth. It increases our brilliancy capturing skills. It also develops our piece's sacrifice choices at the correct moment.
Learning from this game-
1- Attack developing.
2- Piece activity.
3- Openings.
4- Don't resign even down a piece.
and last but not least,
“When you see a good move, look for a better one”
-Emanuel Lasker
