For under the Christmas tree?

[Eelco de Groot]

E-mail from New in Chess about Larry Kaufman's new book, I just saw this in my mailbox, maybe interesting idea for the people looking for a gift to themselves or for others for the holiday season. You indirectly support work on Komodo, and Monte Carlo search I think too.


(You can click on picture for the commercial exhortation)

[Peter Berger]

The first edition from 2004 was a relevation for me. One of the best chessbooks ( and certainly opening books) I have ever read. And no secrets: the author explained very clearly what he did in the first place and how lines were chosen. You did not only get the opinions of a grandmaster, but also his thoughts about how to form an opening repertoire in the first place. And he showed a +very+ good understanding of the level of his readers, also when it is about time they can spend - anyone up from a rating of maybe 1800 can get the major ideas of the repertoire easily. I have spent at least a thousand hours with this book by now - the basic explanations on the Berlin and the Semi-Slav were parts I especially liked.

Not every line has stood the test of time and some lines have never made too much sense anyway IMHO ( like the black line against the Scotch), but this is a complaint on an extremely high level: you could still build a very sensible and competive repertoire based on this book now.

Then the 2nd edition was a MAJOR disappoint for me. Not only were the explanations lacking +a lot+ IMHO, the lines chosen were also not suitable for many or most of the readers, like the choice of the Breyer or the Grunfeld. I didn't even finish reading it.

What is the new one about?

Peter

[carldaman]

[re: the 2nd edition]

Or the choice of allowing Black to get into the Mar del Plata in the KID, all based on overly-optimistic evaluations favoring White, according to the top engines of that time.

[Alayan]

[re: the 2nd edition]

Or the choice of allowing Black to get into the Mar del Plata in the KID, all based on overly-optimistic evaluations favoring White, according to the top engines of that time.

Today's top engines also deem the Mar del Plata to be really bad for black. This includes Leela, which uses a completely different approach.

It's a complex opening, and complex means that the better player is more likely to come out on top in the end, but evidence is that black is at a clear disadvantage out of the opening.

[carldaman]

I don't know about your version of Leela, but my version (I also use Fat Fritz, and SF if necessary) uses the same tried-and-true approach in the Mar del Plata (and with better eval): attack the Kingside while the opponent thinks he's winning on the Q-side.

Of course, everything is open to debate, and that's why we still play the game.

[BrendanJNorman]

It's a complex opening, and complex means that the better player is more likely to come out on top in the end, but evidence is that black is at a clear disadvantage out of the opening.

Sort of.

The KID has always been one of those "horizon" openings which isn't very useful to analyze with computers...at least if your own chess understanding isn't very high (let's say at least above 2000-2100 Elo) and you can "guide" the analysis.

The reason is that engines as white nearly ALWAYS place a very high score on white's space advantage, and don't consider the dangers of black's counterattack until the breakthrough is imminent.

At the same time, when playing the black side, most engines have no idea what black is supposed to do and have trouble with "planning" the slow attacking buildup in the first place.

Instead they "notice" the lack of space and start taking measures to free themselves, and sometimes this only helps white because black opens the position too early.

I have all but given up using KID tabiyas in engine tournaments because the games tend to be ridiculous.

So even though I too believe the KID is objectively better for white, I think engine games are hardly an impression of how a game between two humans, even GMs, is going to go.

Haven't tested for a while though, maybe it's worth another look.

[Alayan]

About engine games, the Mar del Plata KID is the line 13 of CCCC's current tournament. Across the 30 games played in this line, white is +10=15-5 (and Leela threw a won endgame for white where Houdini showed a forced TB win). Leela T60's opening eval was about +0.8, compared to about +0.3 for the QGD or +0.4 for the french.

So even though I too believe the KID is objectively better for white, I think engine games are hardly an impression of how a game between two humans, even GMs, is going to go.

Sure, that's a fair point.

But playing the Mar del Plata in correspondence is asking for trouble.