TCEC 25 superfinal book: chess classics from the past!

The TCEC 25 superfinal book was made by Jeroen Noomen and will be something completely different from what you were used to. Inspired by GM Matthew Sadler's excellent book 'Re-engineering the chess classics' - a book that I can recommend to every chess enthousiast! - I decided that it was time for a change.

The TCEC 25 superfinal book consists of:

• 5 own picks that were never selected before in one of my previous TCEC books
• 45 chess classics, i.e. 45 opening lines taken from games of the Great Masters of the past; also including a couple of lines from human world championship matches

What famous players are part of this superfinal book:

• Boris Spassky
• Bobby Fischer
• William Steinitz
• Anatoly Karpov
• Max Euwe
• Alexander Alekhine
• Paul Morphy
• Savielly Tartakower
• Siegbert Tarrasch
• Mikhail Botvinnik
• David Bronstein
• Carl Schlechter
• Emmanuel Lasker
• Mikhail Tal
• and several other well know chess masters from the past

Average length of the lines is 8.9 moves, which is considerably higher than previous superfinal books. Including chess classics comes with a small price, i.e. lines are longer. As usual the lines have a very high bias, most likely the highest bias in the history of TCEC superfinals.

The main selection criterions were: evaluation roughly between 40% and 60% winning chance & the position should be complex enough. I skipped the 'no mass exchanges in the starting position' criterion.

My expectations: Everything is possible: strings of draws, many wins, many lines leading to double wins. The finalists will be very strong and rather close in playing strength, so it's getting even harder to find lines that lead to a decisive result. So I just want exciting games, lots of fun and interesting takes by the engines on very well known games by the masters of the past. 

ECO code distribution

ECO A: 9 lines

ECO B: 11 lines

ECO C: 13 lines

ECO D: 9 lines

ECO E: 8 lines

Move length distribution

3 moves: 2 lines

4 moves: 1 line

5 moves: 2 lines

6 moves: 7 lines

7 moves: 5 lines

8 moves: 3 lines

9 moves: 8 lines

10 moves: 7 lines
11 moves: 7 lines

12 moves: 6 lines
> 12 moves: 2 lines

Update: new version of openingbook Rebel.bin

Hi all,

Here is an update of Rebel.bin, the polyglot openingbook I made for Rebel in 2022. With lots of improvements, additions and new stuff. For more information visit my previous posting about the Rebel book:

https://blogchess2016.blogspot.com/2022/10/a-new-noomen-openingbook-for-rebel.html

Download link:

Openingbook Rebel.bin

To browse through the book you need a GUI that supports polyglot books. An example is SCID:

SCID

Enjoy the new book!

TCEC 24 superfinal opening PGN available

Here you can download the TCEC 24 superfinal book, made by International Grandmaster Matthew Sadler and Jeroen Noomen. Both selected 25 lines for this book. The odd numbered lines are by GM Sadler, the even numbered ones by Jeroen.

Stockfish held it's title by beating Leela Chess Zero in the superfinal. The margin was small, though. It has been a while since there was such a close superfinal, we have to go back to season 14, when Stockfish also beat Leela, but with only a one point difference.

TCEC 24 superfinal book

Opening PGN TCEC S24 Premier Division

Here you can download Jeroen Noomen's TCEC season 24 Premier Division book:

Noomen S24 DivP book

This PGN contains 112 lines with a high-very high bias. Each round of four lines has a specific theme. F.e. round 1 = King's Indian, round 2 = Sicilian and so forth.

Also available: the TCEC season 24 Premier Division Playoff book and all the games of the Premier Division without comments:

Noomen S24 DivP playoff book

Games Premier Division S24 in PGN

Enjoy testing!

TCEC 24 superfinal book, by GM Matthew Sadler and Jeroen Noomen

The TCEC 24 superfinal book was again developed in cooperation between international chess Grandmaster Matthew Sadler and myself (Jeroen Noomen). 

Here is the most important information about our book:

• The TCEC 24 superfinal book was completed on December 5th, 2022. Both Matthew and I have chosen 25 lines, which will be played alternately. Matthew's lines are #1, #3, #5 and so forth, my lines are #2, #4, #6 and so forth. 
• The lines are ordered in such a way that the lower book exits will be followed by much higher book exits. Furthermore the highest exits are played randomly through the superfinal, to avoid long strings of draws.
• All important openings will be played; just like in the previous TCEC superfinals the opening lines are risky and have a high - very high bias. This is necessary to avoid an excessive number of uninteresting draws. Lines with a low bias won't work in a TCEC superfinal, such lines will inevitably lead to two draws.
• In my opinion the S24 superfinal book is - on average - the riskiest Matthew and I have made. Thus it wouldn't surprise me if we might see a record number of wins. And maybe also a record number of 'busted' lines (i.e. a 1-0 1-0 or 0-1 0-1 result), but that is the price of high risk.
• Although this superfinal book has the highest average bias, we still used a wide variety of exits. I.e. not all exits are very high bias. We like to see engines fighting for wins, also from lower biased openings.
• The chosen lines typically have a length between 2 moves and 14 moves; there is one line which is 2 moves (4 ply) long and there is one line which is 14 moves long. 
• Four opening lines have a black advantage, to increase the chance of a black win.
• Average move length is 6.76, which is a bit higher compared to the previous superfinal.
• We have avoided positions that could lead to many exchanges, as well as positions with a symmetrical pawn structure and positions that could lead to easy wins for the side with an advantage. It's becoming more and more difficult to pick suitable lines for TCEC superfinals, with strong hardware, a long time control, 7-men tablebases and engines being so strong. As our book is the riskiest we have made, it's very well possible a couple of our picks might lead to easy wins.
• Our main goal is to have openings that will lead to interesting play with a reasonable chance of a decisive result. An opening result of 1.5-0.5 is the preferred outcome. Enjoy the TCEC 24 superfinal!

 

ECO code distribution

ECO A: 9 lines

ECO B: 13 lines

ECO C: 12 lines

ECO D: 7 lines

ECO E: 9 lines

Move length distribution

2 moves: 1 line

3 moves: 2 lines

4 moves: 5 lines

5 moves: 11 lines

6 moves: 5 lines

7 moves: 9 lines

8 moves: 5 lines

9 moves: 3 lines

10 moves: 4 lines

>10 moves: 5 lines

TCEC 23 superfinal opening PGN available

The TCEC 23 superfinal finished on Thursday, November 17th. Stockfish prolonged its title by beating Leela Chess Zero by 58.5-41.5. Stockfish won 27 games, Leela won 10 games and 63 games ended in a draw.

21 lines ended decisive, i.e. in a 1.5-0.5 score. Stockfish won 19 lines, while Leela won 2 lines. In total 8 lines ended with two wins.

Via the link below you can download the TCEC 23 superfinal opening PGN. The odd numbered lines were selected by GM Matthew Sadler. The even numbered lines were selected by Jeroen Noomen.

TCEC 23 superfinal book

TCEC 23 superfinal book, by GM Matthew Sadler and Jeroen Noomen

The TCEC 23 superfinal book was again developed in cooperation between international chess Grandmaster Matthew Sadler and myself (Jeroen Noomen). 

Here is the most important information about our book:

• The TCEC 23 superfinal book was completed in the months before July 2022. Both Matthew and I have chosen 25 lines, which will be played alternately. Matthew's lines are #1, #3, #5 and so forth, my lines are #2, #4, #6 and so forth. The lines are mixed in a special way, the 2nd half of the superfinal will have a higher bias. 
• I ordered both Matthew's and my own lines from 1 (lowest exit) to 25 (highest exit). My own lines are played from 1 (lowest) to 25 (highest). Matthew's five highest exits will be played first, i.e. in the first 10 lines there are 5 with a very high bias. After that Matthew's lines continue with 1,2,3.... 20.
• All lines typically have a Leela Chess Zero book exit between +0.35 and +0.55, with a few exceptions (note: this is an old Leela net, with lower evaluations than the current Leela net!). Of course the book exits at TCEC can be very different, because of much faster hardware or because engines like Stockfish and Komodo Dragon have much higher evaluations than Leela.  
• All important openings will be played; just like in the previous TCEC superfinals the opening lines are risky and have a (very) high bias. This is necessary to avoid an excessive number of uninteresting draws. 
• The chosen lines typically have a length between 2 moves and 13 moves; there are two lines which are 2 moves (4 ply) long and there is one line which is 13 moves long. 
• Five opening lines have a black advantage, to increase the chance of a black win.
• Average move length is 6.36, which is lower compared to the previous superfinal.
• We have avoided positions that could lead to many exchanges, as well as positions with a symmetrical pawn structure and positions that could lead to easy wins for the side with an advantage. The last aspect is becoming more and more difficult, with strong hardware, a long time control and engines being so strong. Of course risky lines means that the chance of 1-0 1-0 is increasing.
• The purpose of the lines is to have interesting play with a reasonable chance of a decisive result. An opening result of 1.5-0.5 is the preferred outcome. Enjoy the TCEC 23 superfinal!

 

ECO code distribution

ECO A: 13 lines

ECO B: 18 lines

ECO C: 8 lines

ECO D: 1 line

ECO E: 10 lines

Move length distribution

2 moves: 2 lines

3 moves: 3 lines

4 moves: 7 lines

5 moves: 9 lines

6 moves: 10 lines

7 moves: 3 lines

8 moves: 7 lines

9 moves: 5 lines

10 moves: 1 line

>10 moves: 3 lines