Freestyle Chess is Coming Home

[Eduard]

Win if you can. So far, no player has been able to win! Only two players were responsible for all defeats. One did not come to the game twice and the other used the tournament just to experiment. Those who fight really hard are unfortunately the fools of the tournament.

[carldaman]

Win if you can. So far, no player has been able to win! Only two players were responsible for all defeats. One did not come to the game twice and the other used the tournament just to experiment. Those who fight really hard are unfortunately the fools of the tournament.

What else would you expect, when the 'centaurs' have been reduced to being neural net operators?

I'll go back to my earlier suggestion, let's see which Centaurs can win more against a weaker unaided engine.
Then it will be all about winning. A landmark engine could be used as cannon fodder, like Houdini 1.5a, or something along those lines.

[Ozymandias]

Speaking for myself, I wasn't. It's either what you say or play some preordained openings. I thought including the 3-repetition in the special rules would lead some to avoid certain lines and maybe lose a game here and there, but now I'm not so sure. Yesterday my first opponent arrived late and had to play at a 15+15 rate, he forced a quick draw with outdated HW. It's a sea of draws and the only mistakes made lead to a stalemate or material win, nothing else.

[Eduard]

The new rules with material win and stalemate are new to me. I've never played like this before. That's why I lack practical experience. I am experiencing this now. That's why I fought every game to the max. I found out that I could easily make a draw if my opponent moved 1.d4. So far, all my opponents have played with white 1.d4 and wanted to see the Queen's Gambit (or rather Kings Indian, no thanks, I don't play that). That didn't pose any problems for me, but it also gave me fewer counter-opportunities. In a game of white I unfortunately accidentally reversed the move order, but luckily I was still on a draw.

[Eduard]

Rounds 4 to 7:

On my homepage I have short commented my games from rounds 4 to 7 (german only, sorry):
https://solista-chess.jimdosite.com/freestyle-chess/

There is also the download of all tour games in PGN.

Standings and pairings Round 8:
http://www.infinitychess.com/Page/Publi ... spx?id=351

[Ozymandias]

I didn't quite get your reasoning for going into the Queen's Gambit. All the other options are also a draw, but if you were looking for something a little less boring your could've opted for the Dutch or the KID?

In general, I must admit people have been playing more varied openings than in previous editions (and I'm not talking about you-know-who), but with SF being as strong as it is, they now can and get away with it easily.

[Eduard]

I wrote that King's Indian, Benoni and Dutch are advantageous for White, and that's why I preferred to move 1... d5. What do people who move 1.d4 expect you to answer? Does anyone really believe that I play King's Indian?
I'm frustrated too, they don't even try catalan. Why not 1.c4 and then English? Or 1.e4. It's not my fault if people only want to play 1.d4, 2.c4 and then 3.Nc3. Then it will be a draw.

[Eduard]

Btw, what do you think about this game:

[pgn][Event "Long 60' + 30'', Rated, Freestyle Chess"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2021.12.11"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Ozymandias [ct]"]
[Black "MiG29 [ct]"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "C77"]
[WhiteElo "2647"]
[BlackElo "2637"]
[Annotator "JoJo"]
[PlyCount "179"]
[EventDate "2021.??.??"]
[EventType ""]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 O-O 8. c3
d5 9. exd5 Nxd5 10. Nxe5 Nxe5 11. Rxe5 c6 12. d3 Bd6 13. Re1 Bf5 14. Qf3 Qh4
15. g3 Qh3 16. Be3 Bxd3 17. Nd2 Qf5 18. Bd4 Rfd8 19. a4 h6 20. Kg2 Rac8 21.
Qxf5 Bxf5 22. Bxd5 cxd5 23. axb5 axb5 24. Ra5 b4 25. c4 Bc7 26. Rxd5 Rxd5 27.
cxd5 Rd8 28. Bc5 Rxd5 29. Bxb4 f6 30. Nc4 Rd4 31. b3 Be4+ 32. Kg1 Bc6 33. Rc1
Bb5 34. Kf1 Kf7 35. Ke1 g5 36. Bd2 Bb8 37. Rc3 h5 38. Be3 Rd7 39. Nb6 Rd8 40.
Rc5 Be8 41. Ra5 Bd6 42. Ra7+ Kg6 43. Nc4 Bb4+ 44. Bd2 Bc5 45. Ra5 Bd4 46. Ke2
Rb8 47. Rd5 Ba1 48. Nd6 Bc6 49. Rc5 Bd7 50. b4 Be5 51. Nc4 Ba1 52. Ra5 Re8+ 53.
Ne3 Be5 54. Kd3 Bc7 55. Rc5 Bb6 56. Rd5 Bc6 57. Rd6 Bb5+ 58. Kc3 Bc7 59. Rd5
Re5 60. Rxe5 Bxe5+ 61. Kb3 Bd4 62. Nd1 Be2 63. Nc3 Bf1 64. Be3 Be5 65. f4 gxf4
66. Bxf4 Bd4 67. Nd5 Kf5 68. Be3 Be5 69. Bf4 Bd4 70. Bc7 Bb5 71. Nf4 Bg1 72. h3
Kg5 73. Kc3 Ba6 74. h4+ Kg4 75. Nd5 Kf5 76. Bb6 Bxb6 77. Nxb6 Kg4 78. Nd5 f5
79. Ne3+ Kxg3 80. Nxf5+ Kg4 81. Nd6 Kxh4 82. b5 Bxb5 83. Nxb5 Kg3 84. Kd3 h4
85. Ke2 Kg2 86. Nc3 h3 87. Ne4 h2 88. Nf2 Kg1 89. Nh1 Kxh1 90. Kf2 1/2-1/2[/pgn]

I see white has won with stalemate.

[fen]8/8/8/8/8/8/5K1p/7k b - - 1 90[/fen]

Really? Won with bare King.

So says the tournament table. If that's a win under the new rules, then I'll stop playing after qualifying.

[Ozymandias]

Well, it's a stalemate, so yes, a bonus. Black could've easily forced the exchange by promoting on move 88, but got confused and though it was better to stay ahead in material.

You need to properly understand the new rules if you want to take advantage of them. It's no casual I'm well acquainted with them, since I worked with Arno and Larry for months on the formulation. And we looked at further changes, this is just the bare minimum and would've affected just one game out of 60 draws, if players knew what the bonus points really were about.

[Eduard]

This is not a stalemate for me, this is a joke!

Here are all theoretically possible examples from White point of view:

http://www.infinitychess.com/Page/Publi ... spx?id=348

In all examples, white still has own material next to his king. A naked king who stalemates the opponent is not listed. Then players cannot be expected to see anything other than what they see here. If there was still a white pawn somewhere on the board, or a knight, or a bishop, as in the examples, then it would be a stalemate. But bare king? No thank you. This is a puppet theater where it is only a matter of tricking your opponent. I will definitely not participate anymore if that is and remains that way.

If, as you say, you've worked everything out so thoroughly, why wasn't the curious stalemate with the naked king not shown as an example? Every stupid man manages to set stalemate with his own pawn. No matter which line it is on. There is no need for any examples! Examples are needed for special positions. But in terms of it, a stalemate with a naked king, I won't go along with it.