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 great majority of the lines have a very high bias.
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' criterion. There are also a couple of lower book exits, if I thought the line was still interesting enough to give it a try. The S24 superfinal clearly showed that lower exits also can lead to wins.
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' criterion. There are also a couple of lower book exits, if I thought the line was still interesting enough to give it a try. The S24 superfinal clearly showed that lower exits also can lead to wins.
I relied on Leela evaluations for the book exits, as Stockfish's evaluation is volatile and might go up or down by as much as 0.3 within a short period of time, making the estimation of the book exit (too) uncertain. Leela's evaluations for the superfinal openings are between +0.70 and +1.10, for the Leela version I used.
Black advantage: the are six lines that start with a black advantage, increasing the chance of a black win.
Highest/lowest book exits: the highest and lowest book exits are paired together and will be played in the first half of the superfinal.
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.
Black advantage: the are six lines that start with a black advantage, increasing the chance of a black win.
Highest/lowest book exits: the highest and lowest book exits are paired together and will be played in the first half of the superfinal.
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
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
11 moves: 7 lines
12 moves: 6 lines
> 12 moves: 2 lines
Source games
Line 1: Spassky - Polugaevsky, USSR Ch 1961
Line 2: Pachman - Fischer, Portoroz 1958
Line 3: Based on Steinitz-Paulsen, Baden Baden 1870
Line 4: Karpov - Spassky, Moscow 1973
> 12 moves: 2 lines
Source games
Line 1: Spassky - Polugaevsky, USSR Ch 1961
Line 2: Pachman - Fischer, Portoroz 1958
Line 3: Based on Steinitz-Paulsen, Baden Baden 1870
Line 4: Karpov - Spassky, Moscow 1973
Line 5: Euwe - Alekhine, World championship match 1935 (g30)
Line 6: Byrne - Fischer, New York 1966
Line 7: Own pick, taken from a theoretical article on Chesspublishing.com
Line 8: Fischer - Geller, Skopje 1967
Line 9: Own pick, taken from my Rebel openingbook
Line 10: Morphy - Consultants, 1858
Line 11: Own pick, theme: if black can get away with 2... c6, then 1. e4 d5 must be a draw
Line 12: Karpov-Dorfman, Moscow 1976
Line 13: Kopylov - Koroliov, correspondence USSR 1981-83
Line 14: Alekhine - Capablanca, AVRO tournament Holland 1938
Line 15: Euwe - Alekhine, World championship match 1935 (g10)
Line 16: Alekhine - Levenfish, Karlsbad 1911
Line 17: Tartakower - Bogoljubow, London 1927
Line 18: Tarrasch - Mieses, Baden Baden 1925
Line 19: Karpov - Korchnoi, Candidates final 1974 (g2)
Line 20: Euwe - Alekhine, World championship match 1935 (g8)
Line 21: Fischer - Seidman, New York 1959
Line 22: Alekhine - Yates, Hamburg 1910
Line 23: Fischer - Evans, New York 1963
Line 24: Sultan Khan - Menchik, Hastings 1932
Line 25: Own pick, taken from a GM Sadler video
Line 26: Botvinnik - Bronstein, World championship match 1951 (g21)
Line 27: Euwe - Yates, Hastings 1931
Line 28: Euwe - Alekhine, World championship match 1937 (g19)
Line 29: Capablanca - Dus Khotimirsky, St Petersburg 1913
Line 30: Alekhine - Grigoriev, Moscow 1919
Line 31: Burn - Tarrasch, Vienna 1898
Line 32: Tarrasch - Tartakower, Berlin 1920
Line 33: Fischer - Najdorf, Santa Monica 1966
Line 34: Englisch - Tarrasch, Hamburg 1885
Line 35: Fischer - Udovcic, Bled 1961
Line 36: Euwe - Alekhine, World championship match 1935 (g26, the pearl of Zandvoort)
Line 37: Schlechter - Tarrasch, Monte Carlo 1903
Line 38: Lasker - Napier, Cambridge Springs 1904 (with a little twist)
Line 39: Karpov - Tseshkovsky, Moscow 1976
Line 40: Kasparov - Andersson, Tilburg 1981
Line 41: Tal - Fischer, Candidates tournament, Zagreb 1959
Line 42: Euwe - Najdorf, Candidates tournament, Zürich 1953
Line 43: Own pick
Line 44: Korchnoi - Karpov, Moscow 1971
Line 45: Spassky - Fischer, World championship match 1972 (g3)
Line 46: Zinner - Alekhine, Podebrady 1936
Line 47: Fischer - Tal, Candidates tournament, Curacao 1962
Line 48: Reshevsky - Botvinnik, Moscow 1946
Line 49: Alekhine - Nimzowitsch, Vilnius 1912
Line 50: Karpov - Hort, Malta 1980
