My best wishes for the 2010 !

Lets hope to see more action in computer chess world !!

It is getting closer to the end of the year and a lot of computer chess action is seen.

You can always follow the interesting test from various CC fans, you can find below the most important tourneys:

• WBEC by Leo Dijksman
• Amateur Series by Graham Banks
• The Gaviota Saga by Graham Banks
• Return of the Weary Warrior by Graham Banks
• ChessWar by Olivier Deville

Looking back at the 29th Open Dutch Computer Chess Championship and the 4rth consecutive title won by the Rybka team I can only enjoy the great games played by the winner and the rest of the engines.

Just to remind you the standings after the 8th round where Rybka was found at first place with 7.5 out of 8 and Deep Sjeng at second place with just half a point behind !!

Here are the standings:

Congratulations to all programmers and their teams ! Especially to Gian-Carlo Pascutto for the visible improvement of Deep Sjeng !

Statistically all games were played with the win in the back of the "mind" of the engines as we had only 8 draws (22%) in the whole tournament. The amazing is that 4 of these draws were made by The Baron engine. This is the reason that I choose to display here the game The Baron vs Hansdamf. The Baron sacrifices a piece for a very dangerous passed a-pawn but at the end his king was trapped cleverly and could not make any further progress . Enjoy !!

The Baron 1/2-1/2 Hansdamf

Leiden, Round 8

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 b6 4. e3 Bb7 5. Bd3 c5 6. O-O Be7 7. Nc3 cxd4 8. exd4

d5 9. cxd5 Nxd5 10. Ne5 O-O 11. Qh5 Nf6 12. Qh4 Ne4 13. Qh3 Qxd4 14. Bf4 Nf6

15. Ne2 Qa4 16. g3 Nbd7 17. b3 Nxe5 18. bxa4 Nf3+ 19. Kh1 Ng5+ 20. Qg2 Bxg2+

21. Kxg2 Nge4 22. f3 Nc5 23. Bc2 Rfd8 24. Rad1 Nd5 25. Bd2 Bf6 26. Rb1 Rac8 27.

Rfd1 Be5 28. f4 Bf6 29. Kf3 g6 30. Be1 Kg7 31. a5 Nb7

Here is the crucial position:

32. axb6 !! Rxc2 33. bxa7

This is what The Baron found very interesting:

Rc7 34. Rdc1 Rcd7 35. Bf2 h6 36. Nd4 Ra8 37. Nc6 Rc7 38. a4 g5 39. h4 gxf4 40.

gxf4 h5 41. a5 Kh7 42. a6 Nd6 43. Rb8 Rc8 44. Rcb1 Kg7 45. Rxa8 Rxa8 46. f5 e5

47. Rb8 Nc7 48. Nb4 e4+ 49. Kf4 Bb2 50. Bc5 Ndb5 51. Rxa8 Nxa8 52. Nd5 e3 53.

Kxe3 Be5 54. Kd3 Nbc7 55. Kc4 Bg3 56. Nxc7 Nxc7 57. Bb6 Na8 58. Kb5 Kf8 59. Kc6

Ke7 60. Kb7 Kd7 61. Kxa8 Kc8 62. Bc5 Bxh4 63. Bb6 1/2-1/2

Here is the final position:

I have also enjoyed the post-analysis of Jiri Dufek for the opening preparation of Rybka, it really worths reading it.

One weird storry is that an engine as Ktulu coud not win a won position with Queen+Bishop+King against a bare King !!

Here is the position after the 70th move:

Ktulu could not won the above position because of a bug in his EGTB and thus draw the position because of the 50 moves rules !! A big misfurtune for the Ktulu team as this happened in such tournament.

More info:

• Download the games
• Rybka's Opening preperation
• Report from Deep Sjeng's team

The new Rating List of the CEGT team with more games ! Enjoy!