lkaufman wrote:Lyudmil Tsvetkov wrote:In the 10-games sample, which is freely accessible, I see the following:
Game 1 and 2 feature this position:
[d]r1bqk2r/ppp2ppp/2p2n2/2b1p3/4P3/3P1N2/PPP2PPP/RNBQK2R w KQkq - 0 6
SF has traded bishop for knight and on move 6, already has worse position.
Game 3:
[d]rn1qkb1r/p2p1ppp/bp2pn2/2pP4/2P5/5NP1/PPQ1PP1P/RNB1KB1R b KQkq - 0 6
On move 6, SF already is much worse, if not lost at all.
Game 4:
[d]rnbqkb1r/pppn1ppp/4p3/3pP3/3P1P2/2N5/PPP3PP/R1BQKBNR b KQkq f3 0 5
On move 5, SF is already considerably worse.
Games 5 and 6:
[d]rn1q1rk1/pbppbppp/1p2pn2/3P4/2P5/5NP1/PP2PPBP/RNBQ1RK1 b - - 0 7
On move 7, SF is much much worse.
Game 9:
[d]rnbqkb1r/pppn1ppp/4p3/3pP3/3P1P2/2N5/PPP3PP/R1BQKBNR b KQkq f3 0 5
On move 5, SF is considerably worse.
Game 10: repetition of games 5 and 6
So, actually, only games 7 and 8 featured more balanced opening, all the rest was decided very early into the opening, with Alpha having trained the opening on human games. SF, on the other hand, does not rely on human opening knowledge, which is much superior.
So that my assessment 80% of the games were decided by the in-built opening knowledge is fully correct.
With that, my assessment is that the lack of openin gbook was the biggest disadvantage to SF.
It was basically an openings book match.
All of those positions are ones normally played by Grandmasters and considered to offer White no more than his normal opening edge. Maybe the French defense is a little better for White than say the Berlin. I'm pretty sure that Alpha zero would have held the draw playing the other side of them. The gambits played in the Queen's Indian are tricky, but not objectively much better for White.
That is just the human perception.
I have followed all those positions very very deep with Stockfish and your Komodo.
I am not certain Alpha would have held, probably not.
I don't know how you can call a position, where one side fianchettoes its king side bishop, and the other not, equal; certainly the side with the fianchetto has the advantage, especially if it is white.
Similarly for the French, the advantage of white is huge, in almost all setups involving an advanced e5 pawn, and you should know that perfectly, even only because Komodo has a very favourable score with SF in this opening, even in TCEC.
Ceding the pair of bishops in the Ruy Lopez, when the light-square bishop on b5 has not even been threatened by an a6 pawn, to gain tempo, is suspect, to say the least. Fischer sometimes employed the Exchange, but always after an a7-a6 kick.