Advanced Chess960 Marathon SP001

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glider1001

I'll be playing through as many SP's as I can against the latest Stockfish at full strength using Komodo-9 as my kibitzer. Time control is 15/2. The exercise will be to play each SP as black and to keep playing the SP until at least a draw is achieved. I'll play the position twice; first game letting Stockfish decide it's opening move, second game I will play Stockfish's first move and let the game go on from there.

I'm hoping to learn more about Chess960 strategies using computer assistance. Feel free to comment but I would prefer if it were relevant to this start position.

SP 001 - Stockfish chooses first move:

Attempts = 4, Human moves = 4

What I learned:

In SP001 with the two rooks on the kingside, black needs to make sure he is not left short on space especially near his king. I found the ideal opening move combination ...f5/e6 which achieves control over space both in the centre and on the kingside. This is a really tough SP to play as black I found. Black is under constant pressure unless you have experience with this setup.

glider1001

SP001 - Human chooses Stockfish's first move

Attempts = 1, Human moves = 6

What I learned:

When white plays 1.d4 first, it takes pressure off black's first move because it gives black the option of playing symmetrically. On the other hand, when white plays 1.c4, white keeps pressure on black by playing a Maroczy bind on d5 and can keep d4 in reserve for a well timed pawn break. This version of SP001 was easier for me to play, as it only took one attempt to draw, and I could play more human moves.