vrijdag 13 december 2024

TCEC 27 superfinal book: 50 chess classics

The TCEC 27 superfinal book was made by Jeroen Noomen in cooperation with Windfishballad. It will be a continuation of the trend I started in season 25: the selected 50 opening lines are from famous Grandmasters of the past. In the list below you can see which famous grandmaster features in which line. The TCEC 27 superfinal will be a tribute to the great player Viktor Korchnoi: 23 of the lines were taken from Korchnoi's games. Also one of the few still living worldchampions, Boris Spassky, is present with 10 lines taken from his games.

Average length of the lines is 8.6 moves, which is in line with 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.

Black advantage: there are two lines that start with a black advantage, increasing the chance of a black win.

Personal favourites: my all time favourite lines of this superfinal are #9, #32 and #50.

Higher/lower book exits: the lines were randomly put into the book, but in general a lower exit will be followed by a higher exit.

ECO code distribution
ECO A: 11 lines
ECO B: 13 lines
ECO C: 10 lines
ECO D: 3 lines
ECO E: 13 lines

Move length distribution
4 moves: 3 lines
5 moves: 1 line
6 moves: 6 lines
7 moves: 8 lines
8 moves: 4 lines
9 moves: 8 lines
10 moves: 7 lines
11 moves: 10 lines
> 11 moves: 3 lines

Classic games in the S27 superfinal book:
1: Spassky-Fischer, Worldchampionship game 19, Reykjavik 1972
2: Giorgadze-Kasparov, Debrecen 1992
3: De Riviere-Morphy, Paris 1863
4: Korchnoi-Karpov, Hastings 1971/72
5: Taimanov-Spassky, Ch USSR 1957
6: Spassky-Franz, Riga 1959
7: Korchnoi-Judit Polgar, Prague 1995
8: Grünfeld-Alekhine, Margate 1923
9: Khodzhibekov-Korchnoi, Frunze 1956
10: Korchnoi-Ljubojevic, Palma de Mallorca 1972
11: Ree-Korchnoi, Leeuwarden 1977
12: Korchnoi-Udovcic, Leningrad 1957
13: Teichmann-Alekhine, Berlin 1921
14: Suetin-Korchnoi, Moscow 1960
15: Tartakower-Barcza, Venice 1948
16: Korchnoi-Ciocaltea, Skopje Olympiad 1972
17: Savon-Korchnoi, Moscow 1973
18: Spassky-Planinec, Moscow 1975
19: Korchnoi-Kotkov, Molotov 1956
20: Petrosian-Spassky, Worldchampionship game 12, Moscow 1966
21: Botvinnik-Flohr, Nottingham 1936
22: Kasparov-Andersson, Niksic 1983
23: Byrne-Spassky, Candidates Qf, San Juan 1974
24: Nedeljkovic-Korchnoi, Leningrad 1957
25: Korchnoi-Ciocaltea, Nice Olympiad 1974
26: Lasker-Pillsbury, London 1899
27: Blackburne-Anderssen, Baden Baden 1870
28: Botvinnik-Tal, WCh 1961 Moscow
29: Sokolov-Karpov, Bugojno 1986
30: Karpov-Ermenkov, La Valetta Olympiad 1980
31: Korchnoi-Mestrovic, Sarajevo 1969
32: Garcia Martinez-Korchnoi, Havana 1969
33: Geller-Spassky, Ch USSR 1955
34: Mecking-Korchnoi, Candidates Qf, Augusta 1974
35: Ljavdansky-Korchnoi, Tallinn 1965
36: Korchnoi-Bukic, Budva 1967
37: Spassky-Olafsson, Moscow 1959
38: Bogoljubow-Tartakower, Vienna 1922
39: Korchnoi-Kuzminykh, Leningrad 1953
40: Korchnoi-Pasman, Beersheva 1978
41: Korchnoi-Geller, Kiev 1954
42: Spassky-Hort, Candidates Qf, Reykjavik 1977
43: Karpov-Miles, Las Palmas 1977
44: Kasparov-Ivanchuk, Horgen 1995
45: Karpov-Korchnoi, WCh 1978 Baguio City
46: Korchnoi-Paoli, Gyula 1965
47: Kasparov-Short, Moscow Olympiad 1994
48: Matulovic-Spassky, Sochi 1966
49: Nimzowitsch-Alekhine, Dresden 1926
50: Korchnoi-Udovcic, Rovinj/Zagreb 1970

zaterdag 1 juni 2024

Noomen TCEC 26 books available

Hi chess engine fans,


Below you can download the TCEC 26 Premier Division book and the TCEC 26 superfinal book made by Jeroen Noomen.

TCEC 26 Premier Division

Noomen S26 DivP book


TCEC 26 Superfinal

Noomen S26 superfinal book

vrijdag 26 april 2024

TCEC 26 superfinal book: 50 chess classics

The TCEC 26 superfinal book was made by Jeroen Noomen in cooperation with Windfishballad. It will be a continuation of the trend I started in season 25: the selected 50 opening lines are from famous Grandmasters of the past. In the list below you can see which famous grandmaster features in which line. The TCEC 26 superfinal will be a kind of tribute to ex-worldchampion Mikhail Tal: 18 of the lines were taken from Tal's games.

In the TCEC 25 superfinal it became clear to me that my usual method wasn't working anymore. Around half of the lines gave a much higher or much lower exit than I anticipated, which made me conclude that it is impossible on my own hardware to estimate the book exit correctly. Hence I asked for help and Windfishballad kindly helped me to analyse several hundredths of chess classics on his very fast hardware, using Stockfish and Leela Chess Zero. From these lines I selected the ones that had the best exits, or the most interesting main lines, or where there was a big difference in exit evaluation, or where engines diverged quite quickly, or a combination of these factors.

Average length
 of the lines is 8.5 moves, which is slightly lower than the S25 superfinal book, but still quite high. 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.

Exits: 43 lines have a Stockfish exit evaluation between +0.82 and +1.01. 1 line is below +0.82 and 7 lines are above +1.01. Thus we have a nice mix of different exits. Note: this are the exits on Windfishballad's machine, the real exits in TCEC might be different due to a different Stockfish version, longer or shorter thinking time, contempt etc. 

Black advantage: there are four lines that start with a black advantage, increasing the chance of a black win.

Personal favourites: my all time favourite lines of this superfinal are #3, #20 and #38.

Higher/lower book exits: the lines were randomly put into the book, but in general a lower exit will be followed by a higher exit.

ECO code distribution
ECO A: 12 lines
ECO B: 14 lines
ECO C: 9 lines
ECO D: 7 lines
ECO E: 8 lines

Move length distribution
3 moves: 1 line
4 moves: 1 line
5 moves: 4 lines
6 moves: 4 lines
7 moves: 9 lines
8 moves: 8 lines
9 moves: 3 lines
10 moves: 9 lines
11 moves: 4 lines
12 moves: 5 lines
> 12 moves: 2 lines

Featured games:
1: Tal - Moran, WCh U26, Upsala 1956
2: Fischer - Tal, Candidates tournament 1959
3: Bobotsov - Tal, WCh U26, Varna 1958
4: Dobropistsev - Botvinnik, Leningrad 1926
5: Borisenko - Tal, USSR Ch 1964
6: Fischer - Rossolimo, New York 1965
7: Stern - Anderssen, Frankfurt 1878
8: Fischer - Perez Perez, Capablanca Memorial 1965
9: Tal - Larichev, Latvian Ch 1954
10: Anand - Karpov, Candidates 1991
11: Tal - Krogius, USSR Ch 1956
12: Tal - Adamski, Lublin 1974
13: Lasker - Chigorin, Hastings 1895
14: Mason - Anderssen, Paris 1878
15: Botvinnik - Lombardy, Olympiad 
Leipzig 1960
16: Prins - Tartakower, Hastings 1945/46
17: Korchnoi - Tal, Candidates Moscow 1968
18: Belavenets - Botvinnik, USSR Ch 1939
19: Euwe - Alekhine, Worldchampionship 1935, game 14
20: Deep Blue - Kasparov, 6th matchgame New York 1997
21: Alekhine - Euwe, Amsterdam m 1926
22: Savon - Tal, Moscow 1971
23: Kasparov - Short, London 1987
24: Aronson - Tal, USSR Ch 1957
25: Kmoch - Alekhine, Amsterdam 1936
26: Anderssen - Zukertort, Aachen 1868
27: Benko - Fischer, Portoroz 1958
28: Tal - Hort, Moscow 1975
29: Botvinnik - Ragozin, Moscow 1947
30: Tal - Padevsky, Moscow 1963
31: Nimzowitsch - Alekhine, New York 1927
32: Keres - Botvinnik, Moscow 1956
33: Timman - Spassky, Hamburg TV 1982
34: Morphy - Loewenthal, London 1858
35: Yudovich - Botvinnik, Leningrad 1934
36: Botvinnik - Panov, Leningrad 1939
37: Darga - Tal, Bled 1961
38: Timman - Karpov, Belfort 1988
39: Euwe - Alekhine, Worldchampionship 1935, game 20
40: Tal - Pohla, Parnu 1971 
41: Karpov - Timman, Amsterdam 1988
42: Anand - Koshy, India Ch 1988
43: Appel - Tartakower, Lodz 1938
44: Bondarevsky - Botvinnik, USSR Ch 1940
45: Tal - Taimanov, USSR Ch 1954
46: Taimanov - Tal, USSR Ch 1969
47: Tal - Bronstein, USSR Ch 1959
48: Nimzowitsch - Tartakower, Karlsbad 1929
49: Tal - Andersson, Wijk aan Zee 1976
50: Karpov - Seirawan, Roquebrune 1992