Hmmm is there any way to embed a pgn file on this forum? I will just paste the contents of the file. It's from the game that I'm the most proud of that I won against Sloth. He went on to beat me later when we played the same opening but this posted game felt like a milestone reached. The posted game is analyzed in its entirety by Fritz 13, English comments and all:
I have put this game through Chessmaster. I cannot possibly give the full evaluation by Chessmaster, as after each player's move it gives an evaluation of the position (+1.00 means that White is the equivalent of a Pawn up, for example) and the next few moves with best play. For that reason I have tried to distill Chessmaster's message into something that I can post. Here goes.
Solitude vs Sloth
1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.g3 g6 4.Bg2 Bg7 5.d3 Nf6
This is the end of Chessmaster’s book. Chalk up one to Fritz with a somewhat larger book.
6.Be3 O-O 7.h3 d6 8.Qd2
Fritz’s last book move
8...a6 9.Nge2 Rb8 10.O-O e6 11.f4 Bd7
So far Chessmaster reckons that White has gained a slight advantage: it evaluates at the position at +0.44. After White’s next two moves it reckons that the position is again equal. It presents 12. d4 cxd4 Nxd4 as the best continuation for White. Chessmaster’s evaluation of the next few moves shows that it does not approve of White’s throw-in-the-kitchen-sink king-side attack strategy. On the other hand, it constantly suggests the Black does more with his Queen-side Pawns, advancing the Pawn to b4, for example. As a result it constantly evaluates the position as more or less even.
12.g4 b5 13.Ng3 Qc7 14.Nce2 Ne8 15.f5
Chessmaster drops the evaluation from +0.12 to -0.37. It believes that Black has a slight edge for the next moves.
15...Bxb2 16.fxg6 Bxa1 17.gxh7+ Kxh7 18.Rxa1 Ng7
Chessmaster still reckons that 18… b4 intending 19… Ne5 and 20… Bb5 upholds Black’s advantage.
19.Rf1 f5
Chessmaster agrees that this move is a mistake, taking away Black’s slight advantage. Chessmaster evaluates the position at +0.99. Chessmaster's improvement is 19... f6 (evaluation -0.54)
20.exf5 +- exf5 21.gxf5
Chessmaster agrees that this costs White the advantage with identical reasoning to Fritz. Chessmaster reckons the situation is about level once more.
21...Nxf5 22.Be4 Ne7 23.Bh6 Rg8??
Chessmaster agrees that this gives White the advantage : evaluation +1.5. It agrees completely with Fritz’s assessment that 23… d5 is the correct move. Admittedly this line will not occur to weaker players simply because it sacrifices the exchange. We aren’t always good at understanding when improvements in mobility are worth more than slight losses in material.
24.Qf4 +- Kh8
Chessmaster agrees that this panicky move (evaluation 3.9) costs Black the game. It also says that 24...Rg6 25.Bg5 Re8 is Black’s best try, with evaluation 1.23
25.Kh2?
Chessmaster agrees that 25.Bg5 Rxg5 26.Qxg5 Rf8 wins faster.
25...Ng6
Instead of Fritzy’s 25...Be6 Chessmaster prefers 25… Rbe8 26 Bg5 Rgf8 27. Qg4 Rf7 28 Qh5+ Kg8 When Black weathers the storm for the time being at least.
26.Qg5 Nxg3
Chessmaster says that now it is mate in 8.
27.Rf7 Nxe4 28.Bg7+
Black resigns.
My conclusion: Fritz slightly shades Chessmaster on this game. What surprises me is how small the gap is, considering that Chessmaster is ancient. The one point of difference between the two programs is instructive: Fritz reckons that an active defence with some chances of regaining the initiative is better than a passive, drawn-out game that is bound to lose in the long run. Maybe this is a key lesson learnt by chess programs in the last few years: in effect chess programs have learnt from humans even more than we have learnt from them.
Thanks Solitude, this was an interesting game.
