This super-quick article is in my Engine Snacks series! Stockfish avoids an obvious recapture – that would be played by 99/100 players – to realize optimal development and activate its pieces to the maximum right out of the opening. Simple, and so useful to learn for your own games

One of the things I like when watching engine games are evaluations that surprise me. In particular I look out for positions that seem reasonable to human eyes but which produce a high engine evaluation. It’s struck me how often I am misled by plausible-looking development schemes.

ne chess nowadays is often a feast of amazement at the ideas they come up with, but from time to time something happens where you think: “I could have done better!” Such a surprising moment occurred in the massive Viewer Submitted Openings bonus event run by the TCEC in Season 21 in a game between Stockfish and Leela.

For any author it’s a wonderful moment to see a new book published, and that happened to me a week ago with the launch of “The Silicon Road to Chess Improvement” (New in Chess). The book explains many new and original ways to use engines for training, and distills opening and middlegame strategies from the greatest and most spectacular engine games played in recent years.

It’s Chess960 time at the TCEC! (https://tcec-chess.com) The more I watch these games, the more I feel that the gap between humans and engines is even higher in Chess960 than in normal chess. I loved the opening phase of this game between two of the less famous engines on show. I’m not sure I would …