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Posted by Matthew Sadler on 11th February 2024

The Google Searchless chess engine

Just a few days ago, I was pointed to a new scientific paper by Google DeepMind. It’s amazing as it’s from Google DeepMind, it’s about chess, but it’s not about AlphaZero! The Google DeepMind researchers were trying to build a “searchless” chess engine: an engine that doesn’t calculate at all but finds great moves by “understanding” the position through evaluation only.

Posted by Matthew Sadler on 8th February 2024

Deep Blue rediscovered: introduction to my YouTube series on the 1997 match

Garry won the 1996 match against Deep Blue by 4-2, though not without losing the first game. The 1997 match was thus eagerly awaited: what had / could Deep Blue learn from the first match and how much would it have improved?

Posted by Matthew Sadler on 2nd February 2024

Deep Blue Rediscovered! Introduction to a new series on my Silicon Road YouTube channel!

The idea for a series of videos on the Garry Kasparov against Deep Blue matches of 1996 and 1997 came from a subscriber to my YouTube channel. I thought it was a great idea and I’ve become a bit obsessed with it!

Posted by Matthew Sadler on 26th January 2024

All you need is rhythm (but I ain’t got that)

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.

Posted by Matthew Sadler on 18th January 2024

Unresolved contradictions and the mystery of Bh6 in the Pirc!

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!