Noomen TCEC 29 books available

Below you can download all the openingbooks for TCEC season 29 made by Jeroen Noomen.

4K VI final book

TCEC 29 Entrance League book

TCEC 29 Premier Division book

TCEC 29 Superfinal book

Noomen Gambit Bonus

TCEC 28 superfinal book

The TCEC 28 superfinal book was made by Jeroen Noomen in cooperation with Windfishballad and Kittenkaboodle. The selected 50 opening lines are from famous Grandmasters of the past and from Stefan Pohl's UHO - or Unbalanced Human Openings (for more information: https://www.sp-cc.de/uho_2024.htm). 

To select the lines I had help from Windfishballad, who used a special script that analysed hundreds of lines for me. We used Kittenkaboodle's superfast PC on 512 threads to have each possible superfinal candidate opening analysed for around 7-10 minutes by both Stockfish and Leela. With the information gathered I selected the lines with the best exits, preferably with as low as possible PV agreement. I also included a few lines where there was quite a big difference in exit evaluation.

The book contains lines from games of the great chessplayers of the past and today. Like Steinitz, Blackburne, Zukertort, Nimzowitsch, Bronstein, Petrosian, Timman, Miles, Ljubojevic, Anand, Judit Polgar, Carlsen and many others. Also games of lesser known grandmasters are in the mix.

Average length of the lines is 7.96 moves, which is somewhat lower than previous superfinal books. As usual the lines have a very high bias to avoid a huge number of uninteresting draws. Typically the book exits are around 1.00, which means they are on the edge of a win and a draw. The great majority of the lines have an exit evaluation  between 0.90 and 1.10. Please note that the real book exits under TCEC playing conditions may vary with my own exits due to newer Stockfish and Leela versions, shorter or longer thinking time and several other factors as well.

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

Higher/lower book exits: the lines were randomly put into the book, if there is a somewhat lower exit it will always be followed by higher exits.


ECO code distribution

ECO A: 10 lines

ECO B: 18 lines

ECO C: 7 lines

ECO D: 2 lines

ECO E: 13 lines

Move length distribution

5 moves: 2 lines

6 moves: 7 lines

7 moves: 4 lines

8 moves: 25 lines

9 moves: 7 lines

10 moves: 4 lines
> 10 moves: 1 line

Noomen TCEC 28 books available

Below you can download all the openingbooks for TCEC season 28 made by Jeroen Noomen. 

4K V final book

All 4K final books

Entrance League book

Premier Division book

Superfinal book

Update: new version of openingbook Rebel.bin

Hi all,

Here is an update of Rebel.bin, the polyglot openingbook I made for the Rebel engine. With lots of improvements, additions and new variations. To browse through the book you need a GUI that supports browsing polyglot books, f.e. SCID.

Download link:

Download Rebel.bin openingbook

Enjoy the new book!

Noomen TCEC 27 books available

Hi chess engine fans,

Below you can download the TCEC 27 Premier Division book and the TCEC 27 superfinal book made by Jeroen Noomen.

TCEC 27 Premier Division

Noomen S27 DivP book

TCEC 27 Superfinal

Noomen S27 sufibook

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

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

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

Noomen TCEC S25 books available

Hi chess engine fans,

Below you can download the TCEC 25 Premier Division book and the TCEC 25 superfinal book made by Jeroen Noomen.

TCEC 25 Premier Division

Noomen S25 DivP book


TCEC 25 Superfinal

Noomen S25 sufibook

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 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.

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. 

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

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

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

Opening PGN TCEC S23 Premier Division

Here you can download Jeroen Noomen's opening PGN that is used in TCEC season 23 Premier Divsion:

TCEC S23 Premier Division book

The PGN contains 112 lines with a high/very high bias. Each round has a specific theme. F.e. round 1 of four games is 'Sicilian Dragon', round 2 is 'King's Indian Mar del Plata' and so forth.

Enjoy testing!

A new Noomen openingbook for Rebel

Hello chess fans,

Recently I made a new openingbook for the Rebel engine: Rebel.bin. It's a Polyglot book that contains a lot of modern theory. Like the Ruy Lopez Berlin, the Sicilian Sveshnikov, the Sicilian Taimanov, the Semi-Slav (Botwinnik, Moscow, anti-Moscow and Meran defences). You can download this book here:

Rebel.bin openingbook

If you prefer to have the Rebel.bin book incorporated in Rebel and Arena, you can download it here:

Rebel.bin + Rebel package

If you only want to browse the book, you can f.e. use SCID: SCID download

* Put the Rebel.bin book in the SCID bin/books folder
* Start SCID
* Choose the menu option Tools => Book tuning
* In the Book tab select Rebel.bin
* SCID shows the moves that are in the book with their preferences
* Make moves on the board to browse through the book

Enjoy the book!

October 2022, Jeroen Noomen

Outside theory: 2 ply fun testset

Today's engines play all theoretical lines very well. Even without books they follow theory for a very long time, often leading to the same stuff over and over again. And lots of draws, of course. Are you tired of seeing the same openings all the time? Do you want to see something different than the well trodden paths that have been seen in thousands of games? Then the following testset for engine-engine testing might be interesting for you:

Noomen 2 ply fun testset

This is a testset with 2 ply openings only, thus one move for white and one move for black. But none of these 2 ply openings will lead to standard opening play. You'll find stuff in this testset like:

• 1. h4 a5
• 1. g4 b5
• 1. Na3 Nh6

And so forth. Let your engines find out how to handle such non standard and sometimes even erratic positions! No theory, no standard play, no recognizable themes/patterns. Enjoy testing!

Note: don't take this testset too seriously. It's for fun purposes only :-).

TCEC 22 superfinal opening PGN available

The TCEC 22 superfinal finished on Saturday, April 23rd. Stockfish prolonged its title by beating Komodo Dragon by 59.5-40.5. Stockfish won 28 games, Dragon won 9 games and 63 games ended in a draw.

19 lines ended decisive, i.e. in a 1.5-0.5 score. Stockfish won all of these opening lines . In total 9 lines ended with two wins.

Via the link below you can download the TCEC 22 superfinal opening PGN. The odd numbered lines were selected by GM Matthew Sadler. The even numbered lines were selected by Jeroen Noomen. 

TCEC 22 superfinal PGN