Deep Thought vs Mephisto
21st North American Computer Chess Championship
New York, Nov 11-14, 1990

1 Nf3 d5 2 e3 Nf6 3 c4 e6 4 Be2 Nc6 5 d4 Bb4+ 6 Bd2 O-O 7
Bxb4 Nxb4 8 a3 Nc6 9 O-O Na5 10 c5 b6 11 b4 Nc6 12 Nc3 bxc5
13 bxc5 Qe7 14 Rb1 Bd7 15 Bb5 Rfb8 16 Qa4 Nd8 17 Bxd7 Nxd7
18 Qa5 Rc8 19 Nb5 a6 20 Nc3 Qf6 21 Rb3 Qg6 22 Rfb1 f6 23
R1b2 h6 24 Kh1 Qd3 25 Ne2 Qd1+ 26 Nfg1 Nc6 27 Qa4 Ndb8 28
Nf4 Kf7 29 Nd3 Rh8 30 Rb1 Qd2 31 Nf3 Qa5 32 Nde5+ fxe5 33
Nxe5+ Kf6 34 Qxa5 Nxa5 35 Rxb8 Rhxb8 36 Rxb8 Rxb8 37 Nd7+
Ke7 38 Nxb8 Nc4 39 Nxa6 Kd8 40 a4 Nb2 41 Kg1 Nxa4 42 Kf1 Kd7
43 f3 Nc3 44 Nb8+ Kc8 45 Nc6 Kd7 46 Ne5+ Ke7 47 Ke1 g5 48
Kd2 Nb5 49 Kc2 Kf6 50 Kb3 Na7 51 Kb4 h5 52 Ka5 Nc8 53 g4
hxg4 54 fxg4 Ne7 55 Ka6 Ng8 56 Kb7 Ke7 57 Kxc7 Nf6 58 c6
Ne8+ 59 Kc8 Kd6 60 Kb7 1-0

It's easy to see the Knight sacrifice/Knight forking the overworked Black Knight and Black King idea, but then what? It's usually one of the weaker variations that I will have difficulty calculating, and sometimes not seeing that a square is going to be clear like the f6 square here.

I bumped into this "then what" difficulty in reviewing my book circles. My habit seems to have been to first get a very accurate hunch about a combination being in a position, correctly find the first move, then screw it up somewhere later. This calculation difficulty is still a problem, and it's as if the circles have only chipped away at the edges of it. Part of this problem is software. TCT isn't all that strong in its determining whether you know every continuation or not, although it occasionally does play some weaker continuation moves that forces you down some of those paths.

I haven't thought about "then what" for quite awhile. It was a one of things that made me seriously study tactics. Back a couple of years ago, I could usually work my opponent ( i.e. beginner) into some sort of tactical position that I rarely played right. Nowadays I find my opponents are usually more accurate and give away less tactical opportunities. The over 1800 crowd seems to be much better at creating those situations, that's for sure. I need to get my positional knowledge beefed up after these cirles are done so I can deal with it better on both offense and defense.

P.S. I just had this happen again as White. Sloppy game...arg.

White to Move.

h

m

m

The pawn "sacrifice" e6+ seemed almost obvious, though later I found it was not the strongest. Unfortunately, I couldn't see the best moves after he (inaccurately) took it even with plenty of time.

11.e6+ Kxe6 12.Qg4+ f5 13.Qe2+ Kd7 14.Bxg5 Nf6 15.Bxf6?! exf6 16.Nd2

Fritz has this:

1. +- (5.00): 12.Qe2+ Kd7 13.Bg4+ Ke8 14.Be6 h5 15.Qb5+ c6 16.Qd3 Rh6 17.Bxb8 Qxb8 18.Bxg8

2. +- (3.41): 12.Qg4+ f5 13.Qe2+ Kd7 14.Be5 Nf6 15.Bf7 e6 16.Bxe6+ Kc6 17.Nc3 Ba8 18.Nxd5 Nxd5

1.Nf3 Nc6 2.g3 b6 3.Bg2 Bb7 4.d3 Nd4 5.e4 Nxf3+ 6.Bxf3 d5 7.e5 Rb8 8.d4 f6 9.Bf4 g510.Bh5+ Kd7 11.e6+ Kxe6 12.Qg4+ f5 13.Qe2+ Kd7 14.Bxg5 Nf6 15.Bxf6 exf6 16.Nd2 Bb417.O-O-O Bxd2+ 18.Rxd2 c6 19.Re1 Kc8 20.Qe6+ Qd7 21.Qxf6 Rd8 22.Re7 Qd6 23.Qxf5+Rd7 24.Rde2 Kc7 25.Qxh7 Bc8 26.Rxd7+ Bxd7 27.Bg4 Rd8 28.Re7 a5 29.Rxd7+ Rxd7 30.Qxd7+Qxd7 31.Bxd7 Kxd7 32.a4 Ke6 33.Kd2 Kf5 34.Ke3 Kg4 35.f3+ Kg5 36.h4+ Kh5 37.f4 Kg438.c3 c5 39.dxc5 bxc5 40.b3 Kf5 41.h5 Kf6 42.g4 Kg7 43.g5 Kf7 44.f5 Kg7 45.h6+ Kh746.Kf4 d4 47.cxd4 cxd4 48.Ke4 {Black resigns} 1-0

Posted at 2:56 PM. Click to see this post's 4 comment(s).