Hi all. I have a rather fascinating game
to show you
Leela - a version of Leela  was
playing against BlueFish Dev
So let me introduce BlueFish dev. This
has been used throughout TCEC as the kind of
point of reference for the games in
progress. It's a kind of supercharged
version of Stockfish they say one
account says roughly three times the
nodes per second as ordinary Stockfish
so it wouldn't be allowed for the TCEC
Hardware regulations basically. And also
not only that the real BlueFish
has a
seven-man endgame tablebase rather than a
six-man table base. If you know about
tablebases they take a huge amount of
data. And one extra man is gigantic
increase in the amount of storage needed
but so this this version actually of
bluefish was six man table base now the
version of Leela is T 40
T six five three two and on the
information about it
it says whimsically it's from the
parallel universe where Leela T 40
mutated and evolved a win draw loss head
and we halved the learning rate (LR) and provided it a partial 7
man table base rescoring. Network
equivalent is 42128 by
training stats forked from 42,000 and
still pure Leela and only trained using
Leela self play games. So yes we have very
interesting versions of these
arch-rivals in this game. Do they carry
the same genetic strengths and
weaknesses? Let's have a look d4 from
Leela we have the Nf6 c4 e6 g3 so
Catalan territory
we have d5 Bishop g2 Bishop e7 Nf3
both sides castle and now D takes c4 so
this does seem
a great stockfish choice which it has
suffered a number of losses in a
particular variation of the Catalan
opening where it does play a kind of
what humans might regard a slightly
double-edged move b5. It exposes that
diagonal potentially. It does cling on to
the pawn for a bit. Ut's kind of underminable
with a4 at convenience and
let's see so what happens? a4 - it is
actually undermined immediately b4 so
the point is to try and perhaps get some
counter play if white took immediately
maybe with Bishop a6 at some point but
we have actually Nfd2 so it's
interesting it's like this version of
stockfish generally is expecting a kind
of materialistic dialogue but a
materialistic conversation and instead
Leela does the opposite of
materialism just trying to celebrate the
other aspects of the pain that black is
causing itself in this position. So just
hitting that rook and trying to really
celebrate maybe the c4 square and this
pain could be the root of further
issues which could be concrete later. So
that is very interesting here. For example the c4
square. If a bishop landed on c4 later
then that celebration of that pain that
black is self-inflicting here by this
variation for example could be
undermining the pawn chain later with f4 f5 you could imagine a nice Bishop perched on
c4 as an example so the dialogue of both
is very very different so this is kind
of unexpected perhaps Nfd2. And very
unexpected now after c6 blunting the
bishop stopping the bishop taking the
rook is to just give up the d4 pawn
but this is a very very interesting
subtle way perhaps of exploiting the
pain and the suffering that black is
causing itself in this opening by taking
this d4 pawn
which stockfish  - the ordinary starfish
has lost in a number of games now
including the against the Houdini chess
engine which it got knocked out in a key
game in the catalan in the last TCEC
cup. Houdini wasn't been that much updated and it
managed to beat some the ordinary stock
fish from this position so does bluefish
dev which can calculate three times as
more powerfully -  three times as as quick
have something up its sleeve here not
known about. We have rook d1 the Queen
goes to c5 so this looks very familiar
with the Queen bouncing via c5 to h5 to hit
h2 to make Knight g4 a concrete
threat. It temporarily pins of course
that knight.  The bishop kicks the Queen
goes to h5 and now we have Nbd2.
So the ordinary Stockfish would have
played Knight g4 here and the first
surprise of the game Knight d5 so not
Knight g4. So we've seen games where Stockfish
was interested in taking out the
dark square Bishop. Is that the case here?
Nb3 and in fact not very long to
still do the same kind of thing Knight
takes e3 is played here so why is this
because it did seem to blunt the
diagonal - it seemed kind of nicely
perched on d5 wasn't this going to be
like the kind of refutation of whites
play in a way with the deeper version of
stock fish if we look at Knight d7 Nd4
maybe a good try for example like this
Bf3 kicking in the Queen and
Knight f5 and that knight shows itself as
a kind of tactical liability - an excuse
to play moves like this where yeah d5 and
a8 is loose and for example this
position where White could get a significant
advantage. Structural damage concretely
now for black. White is doing very well
there so we have Knight takes e3 Nxe3.
And now a6 you might wonder why -
move a6 - as an example a disastrous
example
maybe which I haven't shared with you about this position why a move like a6
would be needed if we look at rook d
eight this is a funny one white could
take and then take here and if Knight
takes this is actually a double attack
on a8 and e8 and the back row is actually weak. In this example this is
checkmate so a move like a6 does
seem a bit weird. Despite all
this calculation power black is reduced
to this position with just the Queen
really out on h5. Most of the pieces
visually on the back row so it's
interesting this dialogue on the chess
board with this calculating monster and
Leela - a great version of Leela still
results in in this position where you
know Leela is really after the longer
term celebration of blacks materialism
yeah the materialism has created some
symptoms I mean in particularly you know
White's pieces qualitatively are
controlling nice key squares c4 in
particular really jumps out as a major
square to use as I mentioned before for
example if a bishop was there later that
could be used for undermining the pawn
chain. A lot of the pawns on light
squares here but furthermore the
symptoms of black don't end with the c4
square. The pieces over here are
kind of having a certain threshold of
trapability I would say with these
pieces not just being hemmed in or
contained but trapability if black's not
careful as some of the variations we'll
see kind of witness. The other aspect is
this d-file locking down and containing black's pieces by
doubling on the D file. The rook qualitatively will often be better than
the black rooks. Now this is not a
hundred percent guaranteed win. There was
a game at a faster time limit where stockfish
did actually draw with this position
with black. Some thing
like this recently but it has lost a few
as well. It's not a guaranteed win though.
Let's see what happened Knight c4 we
have Ra7 so black is trying to crawl
out. Rac1 c5 so this does kind of
contain - self contain the bishop on e7
Nba5 Queen g5 was played so very
interesting move very very interesting
tactical move. It looks like it's been
tactically generated anyway. If Bishop d7
b3 is nice to play just keeping up
this grip on the light squares saying to
black "you know what are you doing" and White
could build up. This is an example say
Black was desperate enough to play this
to challenge the bishop so giving white
the light square bishop this should be a
great way to make sure the Knight is not
going anywhere. And as an example just
build up like this is a great 
example of light square domination
basically. I would call light square
domination with an infiltration point on
d6 here if the bishop ever neglects d6
this kind of position is just going to
be very nice for white. so okay Queen g5
we have h4 Queen f6 and now a really
interesting move Qe4. In some
weird and wonderful variations this
Queen e4 does actually support the
move Queen a8 when the rooks not
protecting it. So to sort of harass these
pieces this is the
self-inflicted pain that black did in in
the opening. Because of the kind of
materialistic
agenda that seems to you know be in the
long engineered code one of the you know
the fundamental assumptions about
evaluating positions "materialism". But it
can be a source of pain and it's as if
Leela is ready
to celebrate it the kind of trappability
of these pieces. If we look at rook c7 and
already even here this is a legal move
Queen a8. It doesn't actually do anything
much
but under certain circumstances Qa8
could be painful for black. If King
h8 just as an example I wanted
to see - I wanted to ask the question what
would white do if black did nothing here.
And here's an example. I'm just putting the King
back and forwards. What would white do?
White could do something like this - use
that c4 square
concretely as a pivot to attack the
black Queen. The black queen is prone to
attack in this position and is ahead of the
pawns. It's not within the pawn structure
and you can see a big tempo gainer
Rf4 here would have to be
factored in.  And so this is a kind of
disaster scenario if black did nothing.
That's a total disaster.
Just just for the record -  how is Black suffering
concretely if you wanted to ask that. You
could ask it just by some King moves
token King moves but anyway rook c7
Rd3 free so this is dual purpose it
seems offering you know it's the
possibility of Rf3 which has to
be factored in now. At all times. But the 
real point is doubling the rooks so
qualitatively the rooks are really much
stronger than the black rooks. We see g5
here. It's interesting here
that this does neglect a8.  Now
this is just for amusement -  Queen a8
just to prove it it is it is a possible
move it could be played. For example like
this would end up with a small edge for
White if blacks not careful. Black 
can do better this was just really for
amusement to see if Queen a8 was a playable move under certain
circumstances. But black could equalize
with this kind of thing. A bit more accurately.
Slight edge for white still yeah but
anyway Rd3 so the Queen
does have that possibility of going to
the outer reaches of the position here
touching these guys as I say. 
They are kind of vulnerable they're not
just contained. It's interesting
sometimes we don't really think about
the trappability aspects of contained pieces. We just think they are
contained but they're also kind of
tactically vulnerable in other respects as
well. So we have g5 and this does seem prone to pawn structure
fragmentation by moving pawns which
can't go ever backwards. This is a very
committal decision structurally so in
human chess of course we think very
carefully about how we place our pawns.
Anatoly Karpov once said you know the opening
where your pawn structure is decided you
have to like make your bed and sleep in
it. After you have to be very careful
what you do with your pawns and the
openings often determine the pawn structures. Hence Karpov's quotation.
If King h8 Rcd1 just as an 
example again What if
black didn't do anything then this kind
of thing and you can see c7 a big target
as well as b8 for example like this and
then b8 dropping. Yeah I mean look the b8
knight is if you look at this position
is amusingly is a tactical liability.
It's not just that they are contained.  They are under observation potentially. They are under
scrutiny.  Their very existence is threatened
in some variations. And here if Bishop b7
this is an interesting one where rook
takes f7 is possible unveiling the attack on
b7 so getting a big advantage. And let's
see there was something else
rook d7 here is an amusing example where
actually the move Queen a8 which
Qe4 affords again is harassing
these pieces. So these contained pieces
really do have other aspects of
tactical liability to be kind of
celebrated by white. So for example like
this where Queen b7 and there's a
ridiculous idea from a clinical
perspective here white could just take
on d7 but there's actually just to
emphasize this other aspect of liability
white could actually as well as rook
takes d7 play rook d6 rather amusingly
and kind of checkmate the knight on b8
and this would actually be the top most
clinical way of exploiting White's
position that like being checkmated here
so containment has led to trappability
and actually winning material. Bang! The
knight would go off the board and white
could actually come back to sort out any
counterplay issues with a big advantage
so yeah it shows that the materialism of
black in the opening.  Some of these
variations shows that it's not just that the pieces
are contained they're actually
tactically vulnerable in their own right
so anyway g5 it's kind of an active
looking move and in fact instead of hxg5
which one might expect to try and
celebrate the h-file for example but it
would immediately hit the rook. 
There are immediate tactical issues on
hxg5 but it was all rejected with h5
actually. So that's interesting. Instead
of okay so h5 just have a quick look at
hxg5. So Qxg5 hits the rook on c1. Say the
rook moves it does control the d-file. 
White would still be okay but maybe this
is black's way of trying to generate some
counter play. White still technically
it seems has a small edge here so this
is very interesting. It's more
containment style you could say. h5 and
it's on light squares
it's probing light squares and it's got the
potential for the dreaded "thorn pawn" as
well. h6 as well - the dreaded "thorn pawn"
seems to be a very recurrent theme which
has aspects of containment of
course as well. And in
fact here immediately we see in this
position h6
so if Queen takes h6 there's actually
Qe5 targeting the rook and if
Bishop d8 then bang rook takes d8 and
Queen takes absolutely winning. All three
of these guys are now forked with the
Queen just doing her own thing over here
does not help.  An amusing
position indeed. So we have actually
if rook a seven then Queen takes b8
again. The poor knight can be victimized
in some of the variations of this game
at least.
So Queen f6 but is this a tactical
liability later this h6 pawn. That's the
thing is it a bit double-edged? b3
is played Bishop d7. Here if rook d7 then
rook takes Knight takes Knight c6 and
look at black's position visually. It's
really suffering.
If King h8 Knight takes Queen c6 and
Knight d6 and it's the c8 Bishop which is now the victim of this. So as I say yeah it's
maybe containment - we can think of it may be about containment for its own sake or
containment with a view to sometimes
winning the contained pieces at leisure
as this shows  as well.  The knight
winning the bishop here is quite nasty
so black has to be extremely careful in
this position so Bishop d7. We have Queen
e3. g4 is played. On King h8 as an
example Knight d6 is a very good point
to use in this particular position so
dislocating that c5 pawn. It's no longer
supported and if c5 is won here then White's
getting a big advantage with material
back so g4 is played. Now Rcd1 is
the preferred move here. We have
possibilities of Queen g5 now from black
by playing g4. That g4 square vacated so
maybe trying to win h6 after. So white
plays this move to double the rooks okay
and we have Bishop e8. On another example
King h8 what does white do? Knight e5
Knight takes g4 - that pawn is also a
liability so big advantage for white so
the point is after Be8
but instead of Knight e5 here white
played the move king h2. This does
get really involved. I am only showing a glimpse of some of the variations and some of them
maybe the philosophies behind that. The philosophy we can get for our own games really. If
Instead of Kh2 which looks a bit strange, I thought
initially the idea was rook h1 and King
g1 and I thought maybe there's some issue with
bishop e4.  Before we look at Bishop e4
directly maybe you might think Kg2
and Rh1 is tempting and maybe
something like Rh4 or Rh5 but here
Queen g5. This position f5 tempo gainer
and supports g4 but even so,  White
would still end up with a small
edge in this kind of scenario. Black's got
that bishop pair but white has a lot of
control in this position. So ok King h2
Queen g5 for offering the exchange of
Queens
if King h8 here Knight e5 and this
scenario Knights x g4 is possible showing
that c7 as a liability. That waiting move
King h8 is not so neutral because of the
check and taking here. If we try
something else like Knight d7 then
knight c6 and then taking on e7 and then
Rd6
Once white gets this a6 pawn -  this
is a strong outside passed pawn with its
own perk of this Catalan Bishop
supporting that pawn these scenarios are
very favorable for White generally speaking in the Catalan opening.  The outside passed a-pawn
is especially underlined by the Catalan
Bishop. So big advantage for white there so
anyway Queen g5 Queen f4 just offering
exchange of Queens
so Queen takes f4 was played. If we look
at an alternative to Queen takes.
rook c8  - the rook was attacked
this one is still good. Torture on
the queenside
and you can see actually that the b8 knight is
again a kind of victim here
basically or here rook takes that knight
If it ever moves then bang Bishop takes
and there's a big punishment with Knight
takes f7 check here tactically. So these
variations show that the black
pieces are being targeted behind the
scenes a lot. Queen takes G takes Nd7
knight c6 Bh4 - the King goes back
if f3 that interrupts the c6 Knight
so that could be taken so the King just
goes back.Nf6 we have Ne5
Nh5 e3 g3 and now f3. It
seems as though F takes is an
alternative for example Knight takes
Knight d6 White has a small edge there
as well so f3 we have Bishop e7
Knight d7 yes and now actually black
gives up the light square Bishop. Rook
takes Rfc8 Knight b6 so more
simplification. But now with two pieces
attacked here. So the rook is attacked.
The bishop is attacked. The rook goes
to protect the e7 bishop.
We have Bishop f1 targeting the a6 pawn
Now Knight f6 hitting the rook. Rook b7
and now to respond to the threat of Bishop
takes a counter threat on e3 is played
Nd5 and in fact instead of Knight takes
here we have just the knight coming
back. White it seems has for the pawn at
this point succeeded in encouraging a
weak pawn here but this pawn is weak
especially to bishop F8 so once
these two weaknesses are kind of the
exchange
of prisoners as Aron Nimzovich would say
when both sides exchange off weaknesses
What is the scenery here - what
does it actually represent? Well White
has this rook on the seventh which
nimzowitsch show is also a great fan of
a potentially dangerous passed a pawn
if the a6 pawn is ever taken this is
still a potentially dangerous passed pawn.
More subtly though that c4 square
especially in relation to the rook on
seventh rank and this mass of pawns here can
be used by the bishop to establish
itself on c4 for f5 push which is
thematic against the French defense
structures. And we're about to see that
now. So first - the first episode from here
is the exchange of prisoners episode so
Bishop f8 Kg2 Bishop takes King
takes so now episode 2. The use of the c4
square as a basis for undermining the
pawn chain here with f5 especially with
the rook on the seventh rank these two
guys are the next targets. Bishop goes
back. e4 for kicking in the knight back to e7 shielding also the seventh rank. If
Knight c3 that doesn't shield the 7th rank or
f7 and this scenario if black defends f7
it's a major cost. A big outside passed
pause pawn here.  White has got a big
advantage so shielding that 7th rank.
Knight d6 rook d7 this is pure torture
now this position.  After rook d7 Black
is waiting for things like Bishop
c4 and f5. The Knights kind of virtually
pinned to f7 but f7 is the one to
dismantle black's pawn chain in the
center and expose King safety issues so
ok we have a5
at least the bishop not going to be winning
the a pawn - Bishop c4 but what a
beautiful place for the bishop. So one of
the classic Fisher vs Spassky 1972 games
had a bishop on c4. Really
nice but here you can see the
power of f5 incoming f5 is hugely
powerful now in this position not only
that what is also happened is that King
qualitatively is much stronger than the
black King. It's much more out and about
this King on g3 so blacks pieces are
passive although it's opposite color
bishops this seems very bad for black in
fact we have more simplification knight
c8 the Knights come off and this gives
up the a-pawn potentially so rook a7
Bishop d6 and that pawn is taken so an
outside passed pawn. Now yeah
blacks in big trouble and there is still
this idea of undermining the pawn chain
once white is ready by unpinning the f5
pawn. The f5 push is going to be extremely
dangerous thematically for black and we
see that soon. e5 and now rook takes c5
actually so black volunteered the c5 pawn
here. The bishop didn't go to e7 because rook a7 and F5 is really good. Stuff like that is
really good. If it went to b8
Ra8 is a nasty pen and this scenario for
example that a pawn is winning here with
this kind of scenario. It's
going to be winning material yeah it's
just hopeless for black so we have
Bishop c7
and now takes c5 Ke7
a5  King d8 a6 Bishop b6 rook
b5 Bishop a7 and now finally here we
have the move
f5. So yeah this reflects on black's earlier moves right in the opening. It seems that c4
square is actually useful for something
in a strategic sense in a long-term
strategic sense. Perching the bishop on c4 is a great use of the c4 square sometimes
as well just it's undermining this pawn
chain now and with the King on g3
this is only like a temporary pawn
sacrifice. If white basically ends up
getting two connected passed pawns
that's extremely dangerous and in fact
here rook b8 was played. If exf5 then
the King walks in with King F4 taking
here.  Two connected passed pawns
it's a massive position for white so
rook b8 pleading more exchanges
rook a8 is played. Ra5
exf5 bishop takes yeah this f5 looks
vulnerable now. Bishop b6 Ra2
Rc8 King comes to f4. h5 and we've got now two connected passed pawns here as well as
a passed pawn here. Is black overloaded
despite the opposite colored bishops? We
see Rc7 and this pawn is just
given up basically. Yeah with Rc7.
That's taken and it does seem as
though there's a lot of good options for
white in this position. A lot so yeah
this is rather desperate. Rc7.
that's taken so there's two connected
passed pawns now here and one there so
the opposite colored bishop seem very
unlikely to help. So a6 is exchanged
for b4. 
Two connected passed pawns here as well as
the third pawn over here it's all over
bar the shouting. The great Leela
technique is about to be witnessed for
this end game phase.  So what is the Leela
technique here for this end game?
Well pushing pawns seems fair enough
so far nothing too special there and yep
the pawns are ready to roll. Giving up
b5 there are still two connected passed
pawns and now e7 is going to be the one
supported to push these pawns through. This was desperate from Black Rc7.  White's
still in time now like in a famous
Magnus Carlsen vs Sergey Karjakin game  we once
covered where similar kind of scenario
opposite colored bishops Magnus Carlsen
eventually crashed through despite the
opposite color bishops just about. So
King takes queening and the game at move 103 here carried on
to move 212. It is a particular
version of Leela - maybe with greater
Benny Hill aspects. So okay high level
shuffling and it continued it continued
yes under promoting a knight
okay so Knight came over here and curious
yes it was curious. This is just
for the record it's not the official
version of Leela honest
so Leela really having fun here in
this winning position a kind of
celebration of mockery having a winning
position giving up the Knight.
Eventually the Queen and King kind of
cooperate when they're bothered to
checkmate the black King eventually okay
yeah so it seems even if stockfish is
supercharged in a nutshell this Catalan
variation we can say it seems to be a
bit dodgy in a nutshell. This Catalan
variation we can also say that
containment of pieces also sometimes
that this has this aspect of winning
those pieces that are contained I
believe from variations in the game. If
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