![]() ![]() If full equality from the starting position is instead the goal, then Sesse claims a flat 0.00 for 27 starting positions (there are no positions where Black is favored). The Magnus Carlsen of snow? Czech skier/snowboarder Esther Ledecká won double gold in Pyeongchang in both disciplines. This lack of knowledge likely contributed to crazy things happening like several disqualifications from missing gates, and also a snowboarder winning gold! Skiers waiting their turn to race the twisty course were glued to the TV monitor at the top of the hill, watching every S-turn of the racers going in front of them. What happens when professionals are well versed at a discipline, but don't know the vicissitudes of their upcoming competition? We can get a pretty good idea from the Super-G event at the PyeongChang Olympics, where no prior knowledge of the course was given. If that's reduced to the 50-100 that exist in the same range of starting chess (0.21-0.23), then that allows sportsmen to also add some science.Īnother way to think about it: Back when opening novelties were being found on move seven, did that diminish or add to the love of the game? Did that element enhance chess by rewarding players for being studious at home, and playing overall higher-quality chess? Even golfers get to play a few practice rounds before a tournament, although they do move the location of the hole every day! As the late comedian Mitch Hedberg quipped, "I can't eat spaghetti, there's too many of them." ![]() GM Robert Hess setting up for the "traditional" starting position. | Photo: Mike Klein/.Ī broad question remains: Do we want there to be zero at-home preparation as there would be with 960 positions (OK, 959 the normal setup is usually tossed out for competitions)? It's tough to prepare anything when there's that many possibilities. Hess correctly guessed this was the lineup with the +0.22 advantage. Given all this, did he get the evaluation right? He sure did. And playing f3 is a positional concession." Playing d4 will keep the bishop with limited options, while a more casual d3 can be met by. "Bishop on e1 in particular requires an additional move to become active. "White's first move is useful for a slight edge, but the fact that there are no immediate pins or deadly threats should allow Black to be alright," Hess said. What did our grandmaster think of this setup? I won't discuss why White is better here, since that suggests you've never watched a video or really studied openings or famous games or really any chess whatsoever! I will say that 1. The "normal" starting position of RNBQKBNR is given as +0.22, the same evaluation as 43 other positions. ![]() Here the kings were not required to start in between rooks. The game was a progenitor of Chess960 with slightly different rules. Just after winning his rematch with Boris Spassky in 1992, Bobby Fischer and Susan Polgar play "Fischer Random" in Budapest. We will present his explanation of each position and see if he matched them all with their correct evaluation! Just for fun, we also gave three positions to GM Robert Hess, and let him know the three evaluations that Sesse gave, but didn't tell him which evaluation belonged to which position. At a depth of 39-40 ply for each position, which took about two to three hours each, its findings were published.īelow is a sampling of various positions and a brief "human" analysis of them. What about other iterations of the starting positions? Recently, the Norwegian "supercomputer" Sesse analyzed all 960 variations using Stockfish 9. GMs Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura played the most high-profile Chess960 match ever in February. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/. Sure, nearly everyone prefers the white pieces, and much has been learned, but Black is hardly without chances. Of course it must be said that watching these two players solve chess puzzles or painting by number would also be enough to draw viewers.īut if Chess960 is going to catch on, can the full allotment of positions be used? The age-old starting position for chess - RNBQKBNR - has proven itself worthy for more than one millennium. The early viewership numbers seem to prove that there's pent-up interest from chess fans to see a unique game that truly begins at move one. The recent Chess960 unofficial world championship match between GMs Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura created quite a buzz. ![]()
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