February 18, 2024
Matthew Sadler
23 comments
I was recently triggered to investigate (finally!) a new Leela feature called WDL Contempt. This feature was beautifully described in this blog article (The Lc0 v0.30.0 WDL rescale/contempt implementation – Leela Chess Zero (lczero.org)) by the Leela team, but the implementation is slightly fiddly so you need an hour of quiet time to set things up right.
January 26, 2024
Matthew Sadler
16 comments
I am pretty confident I have analysed more engine games than anyone else in the world, and I truly feel that my understanding of chess has benefited greatly from it. However, some aspects of engine play and evaluation are still difficult to grasp and internalise. I came across an instructive example of this while analysing a line of the Classical Pirc with 6…Nc6.
January 18, 2024
Matthew Sadler
8 comments
There are many difficult things about learning a new chess opening, but unresolved contradictions are perhaps the most painful. Unresolved contradictions typically arise in a student’s mind when opening courses praise a strategy in one chapter and then show it leading nowhere in another!
January 13, 2024
Matthew Sadler
No comments exist
In the last post, we looked at the most natural human responses to Dragon’s stunning 1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.f4 Bg7 5.Qd2!? In this post we look at the way the engines counter this idea… and it’s equally stunning!
January 12, 2024
Matthew Sadler
14 comments
I’ve been continuing my investigation of the Pirc together with Dragon 3.3. It’s slow progress because Dragon keeps on digging up exciting new ideas which I can’t resist analysing! In the next couple of posts, we stop in amazement to look at a virtually unknown idea in the Austrian Attack with some subtle and venomous points!