f4

[Henk]

[d] r1bqk2r/pp2ppbp/2np1np1/2p5/4P3/3P2P1/PPP1NPBP/RNBQ1RK1 w kq - 0 7

In this position I played f4. Stockfish thinks it is not a good move for after this move it says position is better for black. I am not sure if that is right. In other positions during opening phase it also rates f4 or (f5 move for black) low.

[jdart]

Most engines give a penalty for harming the King's pawn shelter. This is not always bad, though.

Also f4 restricts the b1 Bishop's mobility and Stockfish uses mobility as one of its scoring terms.

In general though, engines do not play the opening well, so I wouldn't rely much on Stockfish's eval in this case. Engines will find tactics if there are any, but without book knowledge they will often play into known inferior lines. There are plenty of examples of this in engine matches that use limited depth or no books.

--Jon

[Henk]

Does that mean that you can only use chess engines like Stockfish to find tactical mistakes in chess games ?

Actually I'm more interested in chess engines that give advice how to play chess opening well. For sometimes you ask why can't I play that move. Or why is that position better for white/black.

Or your opponent refutes your favorite position and you wonder what went wrong.

[Look]

[...]

In general though, engines do not play the opening well, so I wouldn't rely much on Stockfish's eval in this case. Engines will find tactics if there are any, but without book knowledge they will often play into known inferior lines. There are plenty of examples of this in engine matches that use limited depth or no books.

--Jon

Strong engines have so much room for improvement in the opening, specially in FRC. Still they are way more powerful than ordinary human mortals.

[jdart]

You can learn much more by consulting a good database with annotated games (such as Chessbase Megabase). The annotations and the database statistics will tell you what moves are popular now, and why some older moves are refuted.

I also recommend http://www.chesspublishing.com.

--Jon

[Henk]

I played 1.d3

Not many games you find starting with that move. Perhaps 1. a3 or 1.h3 is better. One will never know I guess.

[a3 and h3 are limiting bishop mobility of opponent]

[cdani]

Does that mean that you can only use chess engines like Stockfish to find tactical mistakes in chess games ?

Actually I'm more interested in chess engines that give advice how to play chess opening well. For sometimes you ask why can't I play that move. Or why is that position better for white/black.

Or your opponent refutes your favorite position and you wonder what went wrong.

As the tuning of an engine is done mostly without special parameters for the opening, one can expect than they don't play especially well this phase. And in fact this is a little more evident on "simple" (in number of parameters) engines like Stockfish.

[Dayffd]

Didn't Fischer use this kind of set up earlyish in his career?

[Terry McCracken]

Didn't Fischer use this kind of set up earlyish in his career?

Fischer played similar openings back in the late fifties to late sixties with White and Black.

His favorite was the KID.

[BeyondCritics]

Here is the output of my stockfish after a few seconds of computing time
-0.23 [+] [*] 7... h5 8. h3 Be6 9. Nbc3 Qd7 10. Kh2 O-O-O 11. a3 Kb8 12. Bd2 Rc8 13. Nd5 Nd4 14. c3 Nxe2 15. Qxe2 Nxd5 16. exd5 Bf5 17. Rfe1 Bf6 18. a4 a6 19. Be3 Bg7 (Tiefe 25, 0:00:55)
[+] 7... h5 (bevorzugter Zug)

Stockfish does not like 7.f4 because of 7...h5!?. To protect against 7..h4 White plays 8.h3. Later Stockfish castles long (10...0-0-0) preparing a direct attack.

To investigate further you could try 6.Nc3 0-0 and now 7.f4.
The former attacking plan is now impossible, but still stockfish does not really like f4. I woul take stockfish advice in half open positions very seriously.