After the exchange of queens was it already a mating attack?
I won't try to tell you how much better this is over Rybka 232a. Suffice it to say this is a performance of a full +308 Elo over Fritz 11. Seventy-five wins to four... It kind of boggles the mind. If this commentary sounds like hyperbole, let me ask you how you would describe it.
Here is a cute game it played, where a seemingly innocuous queenless middlegame (at least to poor innocent me...
) quickly turned into a mate attack:1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 e6 5. e3 Nbd7 6. Bd3 dxc4 7. Bxc4 b5 8. Bd3 Bb7 9. O-O {end of book}
[d]r2qkb1r/pb1n1ppp/2p1pn2/1p6/3P4/2NBPN2/PP3PPP/R1BQ1RK1 b kq - 0 9
This is one of the positions from the Silver Suite. There are several acceptable continuations. Each engine plays it as both white and black.
9...a6 10. e4 c5 11. d5 c4 12. Bc2 Qc7 13. Nd4 Nc5 14. Qe2 b4 15. Na4 O-O-O 16. Nc6 Bxc6 17. dxc6 Qxc6 18. Qxc4 Qb5
[d]2kr1b1r/5ppp/p3pn2/1qn5/NpQ1P3/8/PPB2PPP/R1B2RK1 w - - 0 19
Although I can find the attacking moves that followed the queen exchange with other engines, none of them chose to exchange queens here as Rybka 3 did.
This kind of brought to mind a comment by the late Rudolph Spielman, a great tactician, who said that he was perfectly capable of finding every single combination Alekhine found, but as to setting up those positions that led to the combinations....
19. Qxb5 axb5 20. Nxc5 Bxc5
[d]2kr3r/5ppp/4pn2/1pb5/1p2P3/8/PPB2PPP/R1B2RK1 w - - 0 21
[d]3r3r/5ppp/1k2pn2/1P6/1b6/8/2B2PPP/R1B2RK1 w - - 0 27
27. Ra6+! Kxb5 28. Ra7! Kc4 29. Rc7+ Bc5
[d]3r3r/2R2ppp/4pn2/2b5/2k5/8/2B2PPP/2B2RK1 w - - 0 30
and here is a challenging (winning) move for engines that Rybka 3 finds in about 1 second
30. Bd1! Rd7 31. Be2+ Kb4 32. Rc6 Ne4 33. Be3 Ka3 34. Bxc5+ Nxc5 35. Rb6 Nb3 36. Bc4 Kb2 37. Bxb3 1-0
When I first played thru this game I was astounded that there was a absolute mating attack after the Queen exchange.And the move that interested me the most was the quiet 30.Bd1!And shortly afterwards Fritz had to give up a piece to delay mate.
But closer inspection shows that Fritz 30...Rd7 is mistake but understandable considering the time control of 3 min +2 secs for game.But 30...e5! seems to hold out a bit more resistance and my computer with Toga only shows a modest +0.83 at D=15.
But still 30.Bd1 is very good move and is considered best by Toga too but just does not lead to forced mate.
