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Missed Blocking Tactic

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Lately, I’ve been playing blitz games against MadChess 3.3 (not yet released) to get a feel for how strongly it plays when weakened to my patzer Elo level. Sparring against MadChess helps me calibrate its limit-strength parameters and perhaps glean ideas for classifying more unreasonable inferior moves. My most recent game begins 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 Nf6 4.Nc3 Nc6 5.Bb5 a5 6.Be3 d5 7.e5 Ng4 8.Qd2 Nxe3 9.Qxe3 cxd4 10.Nxd4 Qd7 11.O-O f5 12.e6 Qd6 13.Nxf5 Qxe6 14.Qxe6 Bxe6 15.Nd4 Bd7 16.Rad1 g6 17.a4 Nb4 18.Rfe1 h5 19.Rd2 b6. So far I’ve played well enough for a player of… Continue Reading

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Testing Strength Reduction Parameters

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I played an entertaining game against MadChess a few evenings ago. Prior to the game, I adjusted MadChess’ strength reduction parameters because I felt their values caused the engine to play too strongly for a given Elo rating. Perhaps my adjustments made the engine too weak. I’m using “feel”, a very unscientific process. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the game. I played white. MadChess played black, set to 900 Elo. Time control is blitz, 5m + 5s. The game began 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 g6 3.d4 d6 4.dxc5 Qa5+ 5.Nc3 Qxc5 6.Nd5 Qc6. Here I missed a tactic. Can you spot it? I… Continue Reading

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MadChess Blunders… Er, Wait

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I had a Frankenstein moment yesterday. I use the word “Frankenstein” in reference to MadChess. Meaning, I’ve used my powers of concentration to create this thing, a chess engine, by imagining, thinking, then writing code to “teach” it to play a game of chess. This thing becomes terribly powerful. It’s capable of playing the game I “taught” it with the strength of a super Grandmaster, far exceeding my abilities. While I’m glad I can use MadChess to analyze my games against Internet opponents (after the game is complete, of course), and rely on MadChess’ suggested improvements and variations (it is… Continue Reading