CHESS#1341

Valentina Gunina took the inaugural Cairns Cup and $40,000 back to Murmansk with a score of 7 points from 9 rounds. Her last round draw with Alexandra Kosteniuk (6.5) left the latter in second. Irina Krush (5.5) took third and Nana Dzagnidze (5) was fourth. Harika Dronavalli (4.5) was in the middle after a last-round loss to Krush where a win would have put her in third. There was an amazing decision ratio with 25 decisive games out of 45.

The Champions Showdown has started at the same St Louis venue. There are five exhibition matches, with 12 rapid games, followed by 24 blitz. It’s Fabiano Caruana vs Pentala Harikrishna, Hikaru Nakamura vs Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Wesley So vs David Navara, Leinier Dominguez vs Veselin Topalov, Sam Shankland vs Richard Rapport. Caruana and Rapport (3.5 each) have big leads after four rapids.

The Aeroflot Open restarted a day late due to a bomb scare that led to a Moscow shutdown. Day two features two rounds. There’s a large Indian contingent with 25 players including the three musketeers, Nihal Sarin, Praggnanandha and Gukesh.

The real world championship is also taking place. In the Superfinals of the TCEC (The Top Chess Engine Championship). Stockfish 10 faces a surprise opponent in Leela Chess Zero. Both engines use the same hardware in the 100-game match. Leela is the crowd-sourced neural network engine whose creation was inspired by Alpha Zero.

After 87 games, Stockfish leads 44-43 (Stockfish has 10 wins, Leela has 9) so it’s a close fight. Leela did not teach “herself” on the superfast systems utilised by Alpha Zero even though the same principles of reinforced deep-learning were used.

The AI taught “herself” on commonly available systems, and like Alpha Zero, has a very human, or “superhuman” playing style, in contrast to the relentless tactical calculations of Stockfish. She is performing at 3400 Elo now on TCEC hardware. Any average off-the-shelf laptop can download the program and use Leela. Highly recommended because she does come up with lovely, quirky ideas.

The Diagram, White to Play (White: Leela Chess vs Black: Stockfish 10  TCEC Superfinal Game 63, 2019) is a good illustration of Leela’s strengths. White must return the piece. How? Leela played 20. Bg6! fxg6 21. hxg6 Kg8 22. c3 Qf8 23. Qg4 Qf5 24. Qxf5! exf5. In effect, White’s a rook up.

The game finished elegantly 25. Rb1 Rb8 26. g4! fxg4 27. e6! Bxa4 (If 27.—Bxe6 28. Rh5 will win) 28. Kd2 Be8 29. f5 b5 30. Ra1 a4 31. Rhb1 Rc8 32. Bh4 g3 33. Ke3 Bc6 34. Bxg3 Kf8 35. Bd6+ Ke8 36. Rf1 Rd8 37. Bb4 d4+ 38. cxd4 Bd5 39. f6 Bxe6 40. f7+ Kd7 41. f8=R Kc6 (1-0). Great domination of the Rh8.

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player