Windows.

Why wouldn't normal engines like rybka/fritz work on a mac?

I won my game vs ganstaman

http://ficsgames.com/cgi-bin/show.cg...97;action=show

Thought was very interesting game, I had definitely overevaluated the position for me a couple times in this game and ganstaman surprised me with a couple goood moves, such as e5 which I basically just overlooked. I was proud of my move d5 in this game, and feel like it helped to start to solve some of my problems though but still had to play accurately.

Here's the pgn if you don't want to click mc4chess's link.

I haven't played an open Sicilian in a long time so I hesitated a bit before going in for it. Not entirely sure of the theory here, but it seems to me that 7. f3 is rather uncommon (unless it normally transposes?).

I missed 12...Bxh2 (I was wondering why you took so long to make your move there, I guess now that you thought I was purposefully gambitting a pawn?), but my computer gives even evals to 14. O-O-O, eventually gaining back the pawn for white (at 16 ply: 14...Ke7 15. Kc2 Bg3 16. c5 d5 17. exd5 Nxd5 18. Nxd5+ exd5 19. Rxd5 a5 20. b5 Be6 21. Rg5).

20...d5 was very nice. Even though you won the exchange and a pawn, this seemed so necessary to free your position and put you clearly ahead. I've tried out a few other moves on the computer, and I'm coming out even after all of them despite the material imbalance.

I was slightly upset that you didn't fall for any of my cheap traps near the end

It surprises me too when I play good moves. No but seriously, when playing better players, this always seems to happen. I get beaten down but make a few tricky plays here and there. I guess that's only natural and probably not a strictly personal experience.

seriously?

At first i wanted to suggest that giving all higher rated players white in round 1 might lead to colour problems in round 2 (but didn't want to interfere with the TD), but so far it doesn't seem to be a problem

I dunno, I've only ever used a mac once...maybe twice actually.

Anyway, I know it's different system and whatever, but isn't like fritz or rybka its own programme, so it can work on any system? I dunno...

sb 1-0 jewbinson

http://www.ficsgames.com/cgi-bin/sho...39;action=show

I think I played something a little inaccurate between moves 8-11. Got a really good attacking position anyway and it crashed through pretty quick. During the game I felt like 6.-c5 was a must for Black (tho Fire says 6.-c5 7.Be3 is just really awful).

Everything seems good to me between moves 8 and 11, what could you do otherwise? It seems quite logical

Good game overall, even though 2... d5 (??) is just horrible IMO, makes white's task fairly easy. I don't understand why people play it to be honest, could someone enlighten me?

and it is nothing personal against you jewbinson, it is just my opinion that it is a really bad line for black

I thought about that as well, but given that almost half the field has no ratings at all yet, it seemed like it would even out. In particular, the bottom pairings are actually giving white to players who are among the lower rated from the group of players that have a rating. Looks like it's working out so far.

Edit: Plus that's how my software is programmed to set it up, and while I *could* override it if I have to, it would be more work than seems worthwhile.

Hm yea I guess I played it fine. Could castle on move 8 but I guess that doesn't make much difference. 11.a3 would have been possible as well. Improvements for Black: 7.- c5 (funnily enough waiting for 7.Bd3 makes this playable) or 8.-0-0 9.0-0 f5 but White should be doing pretty good in both

Seems like 13... f5 is pretty bad compared to 13... g6?

Hiphoprtr 1-0 Cadaz

http://ficsgames.com/cgi-bin/show.cg...98;action=show

Obv blunder on move 36 under time trouble but I was in a mess anyway by then. Would have resigned a few moves earlier than I did if I could find the button :P

Anyway, I think I gave a reasonable account of myself against a stronger player so at least that's something.

Was an interesting game after I played the horrible 11.Ng3 ... I figured I had to try something tactical to justify my unintentional pawn blunder-fice, though 36.Ke8 looks to keep the game alive at first glance (haven't gone to Fritz to check), but swapping into the ending just gave away the point.

Thanks for playing Cadaz ... and mental note for next time ... try to not schedule games for 8am on less than 5 hours sleep! :P

I'm having fun running these games through Rybka/Arena...

Rybka likes black pretty well after 36... Ke8...

A few major errors based on its quick analysis... black would have been way ahead after 22... Qg5... white missed 34. Rh7...

Neat how quick/easy it was to set this tool up -- I haven't used any engines/etc in several years.

I think he still crashed through fairly easily.

I think I played the opening interestingly, with a kind of Alekheine's setup for black but it does look really horrible for black the way white played it.

Unless ther was some way I could arrange castling Qside around move 7/8, it looks pretty dyer already lol. Plus the dude's an FM.

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 d5 is known to be bad. I think it's the Marshall variation or something. It's more like a Gruenfeld than an Alekhine's, except that without Nc3 having been played first, you have to play ...Nb6 instead of ...Nxc3.

Some1 made it for us

http://ficsgames.com/cgi-bin/show.cg...72;action=show

Forgot to mention this, 4.-g6 is "just" a somewhat inferior Grunfeld. 3.-c6 with the idea 4.dxc6 Nxc6 5.Nf3 e5 is also reasonable.

Yeah 13.-f5 straight up loses. Like jewbinson said, 13.-g6 is pretty hopeless as well tho, since as I can keep the dark squared bishop with 14.Bh6 and follow up with 15.Ne4.

Yeah I missed 22. Qg5 which I shouldn't have. I'd looked at it a few moves earlier when I looked at the idea of driving the knight back but then I'd seen the "mating threat" and focused too much on that when it wasn't really there. Inexperience tbh.

Also, looking through immediately afterwards, I think 15.e5 might have made things interesting and punished the ng3 mistake a bit more. Ne5 was ok but didn't really accomplish much except making sure I didn't hang the knight.

Also not sure how valid an idea 16.Bc6 was. I figured my knight was more versatile on d7 and it kept my bishop free whilst pinning the pawn on e4 so seemed reasonably logical to me but computers dont have it near their candidate moves.

How do I get the pgn code btw?

go to ficsgames.com and search for your username

I know that too :P

How do I open the pgn and post it as code as ganstaman did earlier f/ex?

depends how your computer is set up but you should be able to open it in notepad (or similar) and copy and paste it in here. use the [code] and [/code] tags to make it line up like ganstaman's post

22...Qg5 would have hurt. Not exactly sure what I would have tried, but it looks like some sort of attempt to get activity with my pieces would be the way to go ... maybe something like Nc4, though it doesn't look too good.

15...e5 was the move I was most concerned about ... thought Ne5 let me off a bit.

16.Bc6 doesn't seem like such a bad idea, although it does make Qg2 the obvious way to break the pin ... and put the queen in a decent position for some shenanigans on the king-side later.
What alternatives do the engines suggest? Seems like a lot of ideas possible, including b5, Qb6, Qc7, Nc6-b4, Bc6, etc ...