{"id":5708,"date":"2019-02-14T09:34:22","date_gmt":"2019-02-14T17:34:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.danamackenzie.com\/blog\/?p=5708"},"modified":"2019-02-14T09:52:16","modified_gmt":"2019-02-14T17:52:16","slug":"more-fun-with-shredder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/?p=5708","title":{"rendered":"More Fun With Shredder"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I haven\u2019t written about any of my games with Shredder in at least three or four months, partly because I realized I was overdoing it. Also my tournament results showed me that playing against the computer was not really doing anything good for my game, and maybe even hurting it in some ways. So I\u2019ve only played a handful of games this year against Shredder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But! A couple of days ago I played one of my most fun\ngames ever against it. The game features two pawn sacrifices, a bishop\nsacrifice and a rook sacrifice. All of them except the bishop sacrifice were\naccepted. Of course, the sheer amount of material sacrificed is not a very\naccurate criterion for how good a game is. What I liked just as much was the\nway that the game followed basically one theme for the last 20 moves: White\u2019s\ndominance over the dark squares.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aside from that, I can\u2019t promise any deep lessons from\nthis game. Shredder\u2019s rating was set at 2234, but it did things that a human\nplayer of that rating just wouldn\u2019t even consider. Part of that is because it\u2019s\na computer, and part is because it\u2019s Shredder. For some reason, this program is\nparticularly reluctant to play defensive moves \u2013 which makes it fun to play\nagainst, because it\u2019s always coming at you with both fists flying. And it\nsometimes underestimates the importance of long-term positional weaknesses,\nsomething that hurt it big-time in this game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So sit back and enjoy as Shredder gets\u2026 shredded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dana\n\u2013 Shredder<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1.\ne4 c5 2. f4 d6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. d3 Nc6 5. c3 Bg4?!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I already don\u2019t like this move. It seems to me that it gives away too much space on the kingside and allows White\u2019s kingside attack to develop very easily. On the other hand, Black doesn\u2019t have to castle kingside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6.\nh3 Bxf3 7. Qxf3 e6 8. g4 \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My play may be a little bit primitive, but I didn\u2019t see any downside to this move, so why not?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8. \u2026 d5 9. Bg2 d4 10. O-O g6?!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Position after 10. \u2026 g6. White to move.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

FEN: r2qkb1r\/pp3p1p\/2n1pnp1\/2p5\/3pPPP1\/2PP1Q1P\/PP4B1\/RNB2RK1 w kq – 0 11<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s another move that I think human masters would be very unlikely to play. The \u201cSwiss cheese\u201d pawn formation e6-f7-g6-h7 is something that most strong players avoid. The bishop can already develop on e7, so why waste a tempo to put it on g7? And more importantly, why create permanent weaknesses on the dark squares? Maybe Shredder wanted to create more pressure along the long diagonal, but my next move shuts that down immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

11.\nc4 Bg7 12. g5 Nd7 13. f5?! \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not sure if this is best, but at least it\u2019s consistent. My whole strategy since move 6 has been to get a pawn avalanche going on the kingside. This does create a nice square on e5 for his knights\u2026 but how big a win is that for Black? Note, by the way, that 13. \u2026 Be5 is out of the question because of 14. fe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

13.\n\u2026 Nde5 14. Qg3 Qd6?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Position after 14. \u2026 Qd6. White to move.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

FEN: r3k2r\/pp3pbp\/2nqp1p1\/2p1nPP1\/2PpP3\/3P2QP\/PP4B1\/RNB2RK1 w kq – 0 15<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After this I think that Black may be losing, or at least in big trouble. He moves right into a nasty pin, which is something that a human again probably wouldn\u2019t do. On the other hand, I’m not sure where the queen belongs. Maybe b6? I just don’t like the looks of Black’s position at all. None of his pieces are working together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

15.\nf6 Bf8 16. Bf4 h6 17. h4 hg 18. hg \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Black has opened the h-file, but the confusion among his pieces ensures that it will be a long time before he can do anything with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

18.\n\u2026 Qc7<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Position after 18. \u2026 Qc7. White to move.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

FEN: r3kb1r\/ppq2p2\/2n1pPp1\/2p1n1P1\/2PpPB2\/3P2Q1\/PP4B1\/RN3RK1 w kq – 0 19<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Black had to do something about the threat of Nb1-d2-f3. At first it looks as if this is an adequate solution; Black intends to play 19. \u2026 Bd6 followed by 20. \u2026 O-O-O. But here I found my favorite move of the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

19. b4! …<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this week, in the PRO ChessLeague broadcast <\/strong>at chess.com, GM Robert Hess said something very interesting: “In most positions, the player who controls the pawn breaks is the player who has the advantage.” I have never heard this said before, at least so categorically. Certainly it’s true in this position. Now is exactly the right time for White to throw a stick of dynamite into the position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

19. … cb<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the alternative 19. \u2026 Bd6, where Black tries to\njust ignore White\u2019s pawn demonstration, I would have played 20. bc! Bxc5 21.\nNd2 Bd6 22. c5! Bxc5 23. Nc4 Bd6 24. Nxd6 etc. This is just like the game\nexcept that White has sacrificed only one pawn instead of two. I really love\nthis variation, the way that Black keeps trying to play \u2026 Bd6 and White keeps\ndeflecting it away with his pawns, which are just like mosquitos buzzing around\nBlack\u2019s position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

20.\nNd2 Bd6 21. c5! Bxc5 22. Nc4 Bd6 23. Nxd6+ Qxd6 24. Rac1 \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neither knight can move, and so they are just like\nsitting ducks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

24. \u2026 a5 25. Rxc6 Qxc6?!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps Black could put up a better fight with 25. \u2026 bc, but after 26. Rc1! I still have to believe in the power of my two bishops. If 26. \u2026 Nxd3!? 27. Bxd6 Nxc1 28. Qe5! is looking too checkmate-ish. Black doesn’t have time to extricate his knight or promote his d-pawn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

26.\nRc1! \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gaining a very useful tempo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

26.\n\u2026 Qa4 27. Bxe5 Qxa2<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Typical Shredder, not even considering the possibility\nof defense. Nom nom nom, the computer says, just feed me more material. I was\nquite happy to oblige!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Position after 27. \u2026 Qxa2. White to move.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

FEN: r3k2r\/1p3p2\/4pPp1\/p3B1P1\/1p1pP3\/3P2Q1\/q5B1\/2R3K1 w kq – 0 28<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now comes my second-favorite move of the game. It\u2019s kind of an unusual move, but as soon I saw it, I knew that the game was absolutely over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

28.\nBb8! \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Retribution is coming on the dark squares. White\u2019s threat is 28. Rc8+ followed by mate. Of course, 27. \u2026 Rxb8 28. Qxb8+ Kd7 29. Qc7+ also leads to mate, so Black has only one way even to survive for a couple more moves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

28.\n\u2026 O-O<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Talk about castling into an attack! Now Black has absolutely no way to stop checkmate on g7. I can sacrifice everything if I want, and I proceed to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

29.\nQh4 \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please take my bishop!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

29.\n\u2026 Qa3 30. Qh6 \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please take my rook!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

30.\n\u2026 Qxc1+ 31. Kh2 resigns<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was hoping for 31. \u2026 Rfxb8 so that I could checkmate with a 10-point material deficit (two rooks and three pawns versus a bishop). But Shredder decided that enough was enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said that there weren’t going to be any lessons from this game, but in fact there are three.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Beware the Swiss cheese pawn formation<\/em> e6-f7-g6-h7.<\/li>
  2. The player who controls the pawn breaks <\/em>most likely has the advantage.<\/li>
  3. Many pins are mere nuisances, but a pin that can’t be broken<\/em> is a very serious problem that can ruin a position.<\/li><\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I haven\u2019t written about any of my games with Shredder in at least three or four months, partly because I realized I was overdoing it. Also my tournament results showed me that playing against the computer was not really doing anything good for my game, and maybe even hurting it in some ways. So I\u2019ve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11,16,3669],"tags":[428,4277,4278,2899,994,1245,4275,4276,1598],"class_list":["post-5708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-games","category-positions","category-pro-chess-league","tag-computer","tag-mate-on-g7","tag-mosquitos","tag-pawn-breaks","tag-robert-hess","tag-shredder","tag-swiss-cheese-pawn-formation","tag-unbreakable-pins","tag-weak-squares"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5708"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5716,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5708\/revisions\/5716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danamackenzie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}