Game of the Week: Stockfish vs Komodo

by Merijn van Delft
4/8/2020 – Obviously, there are no top tournaments running at the moment, but the talk of the town this week was an amazing bishop endgame, which looks like chess from another planet. Endgame expert Karsten Müller took and Merijn van Delft takes a close look. | Merijn is on air from 15.00 UTC (17:00 CEST, 11:00 EDT) and the show is free to watch, and available on-demand for ChessBase Premium account holders (but FREE for a limited time!).
Komodo 13 thinks like no other chess program. Inspired by AlphaZero, Komodo developers GM Larry Kaufman and Mark Lefler have reinvented their engine from scratch over the last two years. The result speaks for itself: The new Komodo 13 MCTS ("Monte Carlo Tree Search") searches for candidate moves in an incredibly innovative way and finds solutions most engines never see!

Game of the Week #407

Our top endgame expert GM Karsten Mueller provided us with analyses. Watch and see how Stockfish managed to break Komodo's fortress, with hardly any material left on the board.

The live show is free to watch, and available on-demand for ChessBase Premium accounts.

Warming-up question: What would you play here with White?

 
Position after 98...Bb7

Merijn will explain in the show!

This week's show

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MoveNResultEloPlayers
1.e41,172,27354%2421---
1.d4951,24355%2434---
1.Nf3283,16356%2440---
1.c4182,99656%2442---
1.g319,77556%2427---
1.b314,39754%2427---
1.f45,92048%2377---
1.Nc33,83450%2384---
1.b41,76548%2379---
1.a31,22854%2405---
1.e31,07449%2409---
1.d395850%2378---
1.g466746%2361---
1.h445753%2378---
1.c343651%2426---
1.h328356%2419---
1.a411560%2464---
1.f39646%2431---
1.Nh39166%2508---
1.Na34262%2482---
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 0-0 5.Nc3 d6 6.Nf3 c5 7.d5 e6 8.0-0 exd5 9.cxd5 Re8 10.Re1 a6 11.a4 Nbd7 12.Bf4 Ng4 13.a5 Nde5 14.Ne4 h6 15.Qc1 g5 16.Bxe5 Nxe5 17.Nxe5 Bxe5 18.Nd2 Qf6 19.Nc4 Bd7 20.Ra3 Bb5 21.Nxe5 Rxe5 22.e4 Rae8 23.Rae3 g4 24.h3 h5 25.Qc3 Qg7 26.h4 R8e7 27.Kh2 Qh8 28.Qd2 Qg7 29.Qc3 Qh8 30.Qd2 Qg7 31.Qd1 f5 32.Qc1 fxe4 33.Rxe4 Rxe4 34.Rxe4 Rxe4 35.Bxe4 Qe5 36.Qf4 Qxf4 37.gxf4 Be8 38.Bf5 Bf7 39.f3 gxf3 40.Be6 f2 41.Kg2 Kg7 42.Kxf2 Kf6 43.f5 Be8 44.Ke3 Ke5 45.Bc8 Bb5 46.f6 Kxf6 47.Kf4 Be2 48.Bxb7 Bc4 49.Bc6 Bf1 50.Be8 Be2 51.Ke3 Is the bad bishop good? !Bad bishops protect good pawns! according to Suba. But often it depends, how active the bad bishop is. Bg4? Now the bishop can not come back to the critical diagonal f1-a6 in time and will later be confined to passive defense of the a6-pawn. 51...Ke7! was forced, e.g. 52.Ba4 52.Bg6 Kf6 53.Bc2 Bc4 54.Bd1 Kg6 55.Bf3 Kh6 56.Kf4 Kg6= 52...Bc4 53.Bd1 53.Bc6 Kf6 54.Kf4 54.Ke4 Bf1 55.Be8 Be2= 54...Be2 55.Bd7 Bd1 56.Bf5 Be2 57.Bd7 Bc4 58.Ke4 Ke7= 53.Ke4 Kf6 54.Be8 Be2= 53...Bxd5 54.Bxh5 Bc4 55.Be2 55.Bf3 d5 56.Kd2 Ke6 57.h5 d4= 55...Bxe2 56.Kxe2 d5 57.Kd3 Kf6 58.Kc3 Kf5 58...Kg6? 59.b4+- 59.b4 cxb4+ 60.Kxb4 Ke4= 52.Ba4 Kg7 52...Ke5 53.Bb3 Bc8 53...Bd7 54.Bc4 Bb5 55.Bxb5 axb5 56.a6+- 54.Bc4 Bb7 55.Be2+- 53.Be8 Kf6 54.Ba4 Kg6 55.Bc6 Bc8 56.Be8+ Kh6 57.Kf4 Bg4 58.Bc6 Kg6 59.Ke3 Bc8 60.Be8+ Kh6 61.Kf4 Bg4 62.Ba4 Kg6 63.Ke3 Bh3 64.Be8+ Kh6 65.Ba4 Kg7 65...Bf1 66.Ke4 Kg6 67.Be8+ Kh6 68.Kf5+- 66.Kf4 Kf6 67.Bd1 Kg6 68.Be2 Bc8 69.Bd3+ Kf6 70.Be2 Kg6 71.Bd3+ Kf6 72.Bf1 Kg6 73.Be2 Bb7 74.Bd3+ Kf6 75.Be2 Kg6 76.Ke4 Bc8 77.Ke3 Bb7 78.Ke4 Bc8 79.Ke3 Bb7 80.Kd2 Bc8 81.Kc3 Kh6 82.b4 cxb4+ 83.Kxb4 Kg6 84.Kb3 Bb7 85.Kc4 Bc8 86.Kb3 Bb7 87.Kc3 Kh6 88.Bd3 Kg7 89.Kd4 Bc8 90.Be2 Kg6 91.Bd3+ Kg7 92.Be2 Kg6 93.Kd3 Kh6 94.Ke4 Kg6 95.Kf4 Bb7 96.Bd3+ Kf6 97.Bc4 Bc8 98.Bd3 Bb7 99.Bf5 zugzwang Bxd5 100.Bd3 Bb7 101.Bc4 Kg6 102.Be2 Bc8 103.Bf3 Bf5 104.Ke3 104.Bxh5+? Kxh5 105.Kxf5 Kxh4 106.Ke6 Kg5 107.Kxd6 Kf6= 104...Bc8 104...Be6 105.Be4+ Kf6 105...Bf5 106.Bb7+- 106.Bb7 Bc4 107.Bf3 Kg6 108.Ke4 zugzwang d5+ 109.Ke5 Bb3 110.Be2 Bc4 111.Bd1 Ba2 112.Ke6 d4+ 113.Ke5 d3 114.Kd4 Bb1 115.Ke3+- 105.Kd4 Bg4 106.Be4+ Kf7 107.Bd3 Ke8 108.Bxa6 Kd8 109.Ke4 Kc7 110.Bb5 Kb8 111.Kf4 Kc7 112.Be8 d5 113.Ke5 Bf3 114.Bb5 Kb7 115.Kd6 Kb8 116.Kc6 Ka7 117.Bd3 Kb8 118.Kb6 Be4 119.Bb5 d4 120.a6 d3 121.a7+ Ka8 122.Ba6 d2 123.Be2 d1N 124.Bxd1 Bb7 125.Bxh5 Bc6 126.Bd1 Bh1 127.h5 Bg2 128.h6 Bh1 129.h7 Bd5 130.h8Q+ Bg8 131.Qxg8# 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Stockfish-Komodo-1–02020CCC13: Semifinals (10|5)1

Follow along with Merijn as you watch

Rules of thumb are the key to everything when you are having to set the correct course in a complex endgame. In this final DVD of his series on the endgame, our endgame specialist introduces you to the most important of these rules of thumb.

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Merijn van Delft is an International Master from the Netherlands who lived in Hamburg for many years and is currently based in Amsterdam. After scoring a GM norm in 2017 he is eager for more. His ChessBase show on Wednesday evenings has been running for over ten years now.

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