Stockfish 12 Wins TCEC Season 19!

stockfish 12 has won the tcec super computer  tournament now this is a watershed moment in   computer chess it definitively shows that  this new approach that stockfish 12 uses   that includes brute force computing  looking at millions of positions per second   and neural networks that deep  positional understanding that leela has   is the strongest approach available today it  will probably require another watershed moment   in artificial intelligence to  build a stronger type of chess   engine without further ado let's look at one of  my favorite victories from stockfish in this event   an amazing sicilian game as i've already indicated  here the opening is a sicilian we get e4 and c5   now the opening moves are dictated by the tcec  so we're going to zip through here to move six   that's when we get the interesting move 6g4 in  this position this is the fifth most popular move   in this position to a human this would look much  more natural if the knight were already on f6   then this would basically be like a carries attack  one of the strongest openings available to white   in the sicilian depending on how black plays  but in this case the move looks a little bit   premature to a human at least but it turns out to  be very strong it's important in looking at these   opening moves to understand the tcec the tcec  picks the opening moves to ensure interest and   diversity in the positions and then both engines  have to play the position once with white and with   black so in this case stockfish has white but in  the game before this it had black and had drawn a   long and difficult game so here after the move g4  both engines continued in the same way we get h6   h4 pawn to a6 and now a move that i would not have  considered knight takes c6 now possibly partially   due to the influence of engines we're seeing  more of this kind of move in sicilians but at   least instinctively to me and my classical chess  education it seems very odd to trade an active   knight for a more passive one and to reinforce  the center for your opponent when you do it   and then to allow them a half open b file that  also looks pretty useful as well however it   turns out that this is really kind of good for  white because the pieces jump to active squares   and black's pieces are struggling in some  ways and particularly it becomes difficult   to develop the king side over here for reasons  that will break down in a moment in any case after   the recapture here on c6 the move queen d3 is  played by stockfish now in its game against leela   when it had the black pieces lila had continued  with queen f3 and then there was the move d5   so this game is going to develop on entirely  different lines after the move queen d3 i think   a very human move would be rook to b8 but then  good is b3 and you have the idea of bishop a3 and   castle's queen side in some lines now i don't know  about you but i've never seen a sicilian where   you play bishop a3 but the idea of that orphion  kettling the bishop turns out to be really really   strong and effective in this particular opening  it's not like it's winning but it's certainly   a worthwhile idea for white in any case in this  game the move knight to f6 is played and of course   that invites the advance of the g pawn so we  do get g5 pawn takes g5 and bishop takes g5   now this structure over here isn't one that i see  too often in a sicilian the position here with you   kind of having opened up the half open h-file for  this rook over here you having a pin here but it   turns out to be very strong and we'll see some  of the tactics that stockfish gets as a result   so after the recapture with bishop takes g5 we  see queen b6 attacking b2 and castles now you   would have to be a very greedy player i think  greedier than yasser sarawan to consider queen   takes f2 in this position you're underdeveloped  and you should not be capturing pawns like this   of course there is a punishment and it is swift it  is the move pawn to e5 you can't capture because   there is mate and although you can avoid mate with  for example knight d5 there is now knight to e4   attacking the queen winning a pawn back on d6  and obviously maintaining a huge huge lead in   development so after castles we instead see  the move pawn to a5 over here on the queen side   now queen to f3 bishop to d7 bishop to c4 rook b8  of course we're not going to drop b2 the computer   will never drop b2 bishop to b3 and now in this  position i think it's important to note that   bishop e7 kind of seems like the most natural move  here but it turns out that after h5 the idea of h6   undermining the knight on f6 is really strong  and it's hard to hold this position for black   well impossible to hold this position for  black as a result it's basically impossible   to develop the king side and that's a big part  of stockfish 12's advantage in this position   so the move c5 is played black is banking  fully on counter play on the queen side   there's possibly the idea of pawn to a4 and a more  serious threat seems to be the move pawn to c4   when you don't want to capture because you'll  drop b2 so you might win the bishop here on b3   but it turns out that there is a  way for stockfish to allow this   pawn to h5 the threats on the king side are  more serious than the loss of the bishop on b3   if you play pawn to c4 here very deep analysis  shows that h6 is winning for white it turns out   that you can give up the bishop on b3 and after  the recapture your king is totally safe and the   threats over here on the king side are going to  net you a piece back at least or a winning attack   now the idea of just capturing hero on g7 and then  capturing on f6 is of course immediate and very   dangerous so the knight kind of needs to move  from f6 but if you try knight h7 there is then   bishop to e3 pulling back the attacked bishop and  attacking the queen in turn queen to b7 h takes g7   bishop takes g7 and now queen g3 it certainly  doesn't seem like white should have so much   but in this position after this bishop is either  exchanged or removed from this diagonal in some   other way by being chased off there's going to be  too much pressure on the h file and the queen can   come into g7 it turns out that this will win  material back thanks to the tactical problems   due to this pin and that's going to be enough for  a winning advantage for example bishop f6 and the   excellent move bishop to d4 trying to exchange off  that bishop if you try to keep it with e5 there's   knight d5 and white's advantage is decisive you  can also consider knight to g8 but then again   pawn takes g7 bishop takes g7 and you're going to  invade on the h file after rook h1 and for example   bishop e5 rook h7 this pawn is too soft and again  white's advantage is decisive very very nice very   deep stuff so after pawn to h5 what we actually  see is a4 now it's possible to play knight takes   a4 because if the bishop captures you can capture  back with check so there's no time to capture here   on b2 and after knight takes a4 we get queen to  a5 trying to get some counter play over here on   the queen side so queen to a5 bishop takes f6  and pawn takes f6 the knight falls back to c3   queen back to b6 queen to d3 stopping c4 here king  up to e7 a3 bishop h6 check king to b1 and rook   hc8 threatening again pawn to c4 with devastation  now queen c4 this move obviously stops c4 but it   looks very very superficial in fact if you showed  me this position without having seen the game and   the computer analysis i would probably think that  black is not doing so badly here after all this   bishop is unopposed on the dark squares it looks  like the king is safe behind this wall of pawns   and how are you going to kind of advance the h  pawn which should kind of be your trump in this   position but deep analysis shows that white does  have dangerous threats here there are ideas like   pawn to e5 and other ways of breaking through  and black can really do nothing in the position   so rook c6 is played now look over to e1 it  certainly looks like the build up is very   dangerous here but how do you break through rook  c7 rook to d3 and the losing move is the next move   but it may already be impossible to save the  position at least it's very difficult for black   for example a natural move like rook c to c8 here  allows e5 with a very very strong maybe decisive   attack capturing with this pawn opens up the  possibility of invasion on this diagonal which is   dangerous and capturing with the d-pawn instead  opens the d-file which is also very dangerous   the king is not feeling safe on e7 and this  idea of pawn to e5 is a problem and there are   other ideas that also increase the pressure  and black is tied down without counter play   so in the game the move bishop f4 is played and i  think having seen the way the game develops that   we can say definitively that this is the losing  move but it takes one of the deepest combinations   that i've ever seen to show that it is the move  knight to d5 check this is an amazing move it   looks simple but it's very deep and white will  have to invest more material to break through   now of course knight d5 is forking all the things  everything in the black camp basically is forked   so you must capture the knight pawn takes pawn  takes and this has opened up an attack on this   bishop here on f4 and of course there is the check  now on the king on e7 so the only way to keep the   material is bishop e5 now at this point you might  be thinking that wasn't so deep i just play f4   pin it and win it i get my bishop back and come  on that's easy of course the computer saw that   i just can't believe it was allowed but in this  position there is bishop b5 with a counter skewer   and it is black who wins so what is the solution  it turns out to be the very patient move queen to   h4 avoiding the skewer here and threatening rook  takes e5 pawn takes and then d6 check for example   if c4 with a fork here then rook takes e5 is  more important white's threats get there first   pawn takes d6 check and white is winning but there  are alternatives right so after queen h4 what if   you move the king well basically white's ideas  white's ideas still include rook takes e5 or pawn   to f4 so if you try for example king f8 then f4  is just too strong if you try bishop d4 here you   could actually go for rook takes pawn takes you're  down a rook but with queen takes here intending   something like pawn to h6 and multiple other moves  then you're just winning the game the massive   pieces over here on the queen side is irrelevant  certainly the king is what matters in this case   so it makes sense that king d8 was played in the  game the king is trying to run over to this side   of the board where it hopes to be safe but now  there's another amazing move rook takes e5 anyway   after rook takes e5 white is going to be down  a full rook without a good hope of recouping   most of the material right away pawn takes e5 and  you might be expecting d6 but this is actually a   mistake that encourages the rook to go to a better  square stronger as played in the game is rook to   f3 and tending rook to f6 and of course the h  pawn is also a problem as indicated after king c8   and then h6 in this position and this is the game  now this is a good moment to pause and assess a   little bit white is down a rook and as the king  is running over here there is certainly no hope   of checkmating this king anymore white only  has two pawns for the rook how can this be good   well it turns out that white only has two pawns  for the rook now but a lot of black's pawns are   falling very very quickly so white will soon have  not just two but three and then four and then five   pawns for the rook and there's not a lot black  can do about it also black's pieces are not really   able to do anything effective in terms of counter  play and the h pawn is pretty strong now black can   kind of deal with the h pawn but doing so will tie  down pieces so all of this mounts up to a winning   position for white if you for example play c4 here  which is the only attempt for counter play here   there is h7 threatening to promote with check king  to b7 and promoting here is too early because of   the simple capture and then the capture of  this bishop uh although i don't think you   can capture the bishop right away but the  strongest move here is just bishop takes c4   threatening rook to b3 threatening promotion and  because the king is on b7 there is no mate on b2   so after pawn to h6 and then king to b7 we now see  bishop c4 bishop a4 rook takes f6 three pawns for   the rook queen a5 the excellent queen e4 which  threatens this and controls e1 no check from   the queen and bishop b5 d6 check bishop c6 queen  takes e5 four pawns for the rook rook over to e8   queen f5 rook d7 rook takes f7 and five pawns  for the rook so we're back to material equality   and clearly winning here queen d8 rook g7 king  b6 b4 as a human you probably would not want   to open up your own king in this position  you would want to play more conservatively   but the engine of course is calculating deeply  it's not concerned about illusory threats to the   kink it can see if there's actually any substance  to those threats pawn takes pawn takes rook takes   g7 queen to c5 check king b7 pawn takes g7  rookie one check king up to b2 queen f6 and   it looks like white has gone wrong the g7 pawn  presumably the best pawn on the board is falling   however again these are computer engines they  calculate so deeply it is one of the strengths   of stockfish new is that it also calculates deeply  in addition to having deep positional evaluations   so it's calculated that after pawn c3 the loss of  the g7 pawn is okay because b5 is coming there's   no good place for the bishop to move it goes to  e4 and it's very impressive here that exchanging   this bishop off is still enough to win bishop  d5 check i think that exclamation point move   bishop takes queen takes d5 check and here after  king a7 the engine surrendered first off if you   go king c8 which seems natural because you want to  stay close to the possibly promoting pawn there's   of course check and then you have a skewer or  this square and you pick up the queen here on g7   but why did black resign after king a7 well it  turns out that d7 is just over right and you're   going to make a queen and okay there's like  a check but it doesn't lead anywhere this is   just winning for white but a human a human could  definitely still mess this up a very human mistake   here would be the move b6 check after the king has  gone to a7 in the final position now why would you   include b6 check the point would be that after the  king captures or falls back when you push d7 your   next move will be promoting with check that seems  useful that seems like a good clean calculation   that makes things a little bit easier for you kind  of giving you an extra tempo the b pawn doesn't   matter if you're making a new queen why not give  it up to make sure that you promote with check   well the problem with this b6 check move  is that it's too clever for its own good   you have king b8 by black here not capturing the  pawn and it turns out that the position is a draw   because of d7 and now rook b1 check exclamation  point king takes b1 queen g1 or queen gives   any other check and then the queen is going to  sacrifice herself there's no way out of the checks   unless you ultimately capture the queen at some  point and when you do it is stalemate with the   king on b8 but of course a computer's not falling  for that in the past it might have happened   but not today and after king a7 resignation is of  course justified i hope that you've enjoyed this   game congratulations to stockfish 12 on winning  the tcec congratulations to its developers on   their great achievements in computer chess if you  want to see more incredible games from stockfish   or from lila then click on the playlist that is  popping up on your screen right as i finish here

Channel: Chess.com

Views: 288,534

Keywords: chess, checkmate, chess videos, checkmate videos, chess.com videos, chess.com, tcec season 19 final, tcec season 19 superfinal, nnue vs leela, leela nnue, leela chess, stockfish nnue, stockfish 12, computer chess championship, stockfish 12 vs leela, stockfish 12 chess engine, ai chess, stockfish 12 vs lc0, stockfish 12 vs leela chess zero, tcec 19 superfinal, chess engine, computer chess game, computer chess

Id: CgoYpYtVXtI

Length: 17min 20sec (1040 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 03 2020