TCEC Cup 9: future of chess?

[carldaman]

I can think of a multitude of positions/openings that are both unbalanced AND interesting/attractive.
These are not mutually exclusive concepts, and if it leads away from draw death, so much the better!

[dkappe]

I can think of a multitude of positions/openings that are both unbalanced AND interesting/attractive.
These are not mutually exclusive concepts, and if it leads away from draw death, so much the better!

Do you have some examples?

[carldaman]

Really? Seriously? Instead of me posting about a multitude of Benonis, Dragons and KIDs, etc., just think of most of the ECO, but don't forget to deselect some of the overly drawish lines. Don't tell me you can't imagine anything but forced draws.

[lkaufman]

Really? Seriously? Instead of me posting about a multitude of Benonis, Dragons and KIDs, etc., just think of most of the ECO, but don't forget to deselect some of the overly drawish lines. Don't tell me you can't imagine anything but forced draws.

What I think we need would be good rules to select openings that are varied and not drawish but not losing either at the highest level. Anyone can make up a list of openings that he thinks would fit the bill, but that would just lead to interminable arguments. Some easily understood, clear-cut rules for opening selection would be ideal. For example, "The five hundred most popular eight ply sequences (from some standard database of grandmaster/2500+ FIDE games) that have less than 30% draws". The specific numbers aren't so important, the idea is to remove personal preference from the choice while still providing variety, reasonable winning chances, and openings seen often in human GM games. But the numbers have to be such that even in Stockfish vs Dragon matches the draw percentage won't be more than perhaps 75% or so. Then everyone could use these same openings for rating lists and tournaments with no question of favoritism or being too arbitrary.

[Jouni]

[pgn]
[Event "TCEC Cup 9 Semifinal"]
[Site "https://tcec-chess.com"]
[Date "2021.10.27"]
[Round "1.50"]
[White "LCZero 0.28-dev+_609958"]
[Black "KomodoDragon 2.5.1"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Annotator "archive"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e5 3. dxe5 Ng4 4. Nf3 Bc5 5. e3 Nc6 6. Be2 Ngxe5 7. Nc3 O-O 8. O-O Re8 9. Nd2 d6 10. Nde4 Bb6 11. h3 Be6 12. Nd5 Qh4 13. Nec3 Nd7 14. b3 Ne7 15. a4 c6 16. Nf4 Bf5 17. a5 Bc5 18. g3 Qf6 19. Bb2 Ng6 20. Nh5 Qg5 21. Kh2 Nf6 22. Nxf6+ Qxf6 23. Na4 Qg5 24. a6 bxa6 25. Bf3 Rac8 26. Bc3 Nf8 27. b4 Bb6 28. Nxb6 axb6 29. Rxa6 Be6 30. Be2 b5 31. Qxd6 Bxc4 32. Bxc4 bxc4 33. h4 Qf5 34. Qd4 Ne6 35. Qxc4 Qf3 36. Ra2 h6 37. Rc1 Rcd8 38. Rac2 Re7 39. Be1 Rc7 40. Ra2 Rb8 41. Rb2 Re8 42. Rd2 Rb8 43. Rd6 c5 44. b5 Rcb7 45. Rb1 Nc7 46. Qxc5 Nxb5 47. Rc6 Qg4 48. Rb4 Qd7 49. Kg2 Qe8 50. Rc4 Re7 51. Rc8 Qxc8 52. Qxc8+ Rxc8 53. Rxc8+ Kh7 54. g4 Ra7 55. Rc4 Ra1 56. Kf1 Nd6 57. Rd4 Ne8 58. f3 Ra8 59. Ke2 Kg8 60. Rd3 Nf6 61. Bc3 Nh7 62. f4 Nf8 63. Be1 Ne6 64. Rd5 Rb8 65. Bc3 Nf8 66. Kf3 Ng6 67. Kg3 Nf8 68. Bd4 Ra8 69. Rb5 Ne6 70. Kf3 Re8 71. Be5 Nf8 72. Rb8 Rxb8 73. Bxb8 h5 74. g5 Ng6 75. Kg3 Nf8 76. Bd6 Nd7 77. Kf3 Nb6 78. Bc5 Nd7 79. Be7 Ne5+ 80. fxe5 g6 81. Ke4 Kg7 82. Kd5 Kh7 83. e6 Kg8 84. Bc5 fxe6+ 85. Kxe6 Kg7 86. e4 Kg8 87. Kf6 Kh7 88. e5 Kg8 89. Kxg6 Kh8 90. e6 Kg8 91. e7 Kh8 92. e8=R#
[/pgn

Did Dragon blunder somewhere?[/pgn]