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<\/a><\/p>\nYesterday I played a training game against Shredder, the computer program, that really highlighted the one significant weakness that I have discovered in it. I’ve noticed before that a significant fraction of my most crushing wins against it involve attacks on an open h-file. The program just doesn’t seem sufficiently aware that an open h-file, if it is controlled by\u00a0your\u00a0opponent, is a kiss of death when you are castled kingside.<\/p>\n
All chess programs, I believe, slightly underestimate the danger of a kingside pawn storm. A decade ago, when I used to play against Fritz 7, I was always happy when it played the King’s Gambit Declined as Black, because it\u00a0usually meant that I would get to play f5, g4, g5 etc. and just blow the kingside open. I think that computers find it difficult to properly evaluate such attacks because they take quite a few moves to develop. But\u00a0those moves are extremely easy ones for a human player to find: just push, push, push the pawns.<\/p>\n
But Shredder is even weaker than most programs at defending against kingside pawn storms, because it seems to feel that exchanging h-pawns will help. Here’s my game from yesterday that proves the point.\u00a0Note: Its rating was set at 2201 for this game, so it isn’t full-strength Shredder that we’re talking about. Full-strength Shredder would probably have played a little better.<\/p>\n
FEN: r4r2\/pp1qn3\/3p1k1p\/n2p1pp1\/3P3P\/P2QPN2\/1P2NPP1\/2R2RK1 w – – 0 18<\/p>\n I’m playing Black here. It isn’t a wonderful position for me, because I have made too many positional concessions in order to get my kingside pawn storm going. It’s not really clear how I am going to break through on the kingside, because if lines open up my king is going to become a target, too. Here Rybka, after 5 minutes and 13 ply of analysis, prefers the move 18. Nc3 for White, with an evaluation of +0.93. I agree that this is kind of a cute move. It’s a “baiting” move: if Black plays 18. … Nb3 or 18. … Nc4 White wins a pawn with 19. Nxd5+. If Black plays 18. … g4 then the knight can come right back to e2 and f4 with a permanent outpost.<\/p>\n But Shredder made my life easier with a misguided trade of h-pawns: 18. hg? hg<\/strong>. Of course White’s position is still okay, but he has to be careful. For me, the trade is a godsend because it gives me an easy plan of attack that doesn’t involve any risk: double or even triple my heavy pieces on the h-file and see what happens.<\/p>\n The game continued 19. b3 Rh8 20. Ng3?<\/strong>\u00a0This also looks like a mistake to me. The one thing that White’s king needs most of all is air, but by putting his knight on g3 Shredder makes it impossible to create luft<\/em>. The knights protect h2 and h1, of course, but they are easily dislodged. Here Rybka gives 20. Nd2 as its top choice, with an evaluation of +0.65, which makes sense to me because White can now contemplate f3 and e4.<\/p>\n Now we get a little comedy of errors: 20. … Rh6 21. b4? Nc4 22. Nd2<\/strong> (finally!) Nxd2?<\/strong><\/p>\n Argh! What was I thinking? If I play the simple 22. … b5 my outpost on c4 is secure and I do not have to worry about any White counterplay on the queenside. Did I mention that this was rapid chess (10 minutes for 40 moves)?<\/p>\n The game continued 23. Qxd2 Rah8<\/strong> and it’s time for another diagram.<\/p>\n<\/a>Position after 17. … Kf6. White to move.<\/em><\/p>\n