I have found this board set up

1pp1kpp1/pppppppp/pppppppp/pppppppp/1pppppp1/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQ - 0 1

to be extremely good practice for tactics, playing as both white and black against Rybka 2.2, first at 1200 ELO and later at stronger settings.


Post some good positions if you get into it itt.

lol sick gonna try this now

i can't get this to load into rybka3 says, "no legal position in clipboard"

I don't understand what the setup is... could you please post a diagram?

I'm running this in Arena 2.0.1 with Rybka 2.2 and it's fine with the board position.

I think the game runs better if you set it up so that black cannot en passant with his pawns at all, but I have no idea how to do that. It doesn't really matter that much as it's more about defending against the pawn storm (as white) and making space; as black you just gotta make sure you get a real good price on every sacrifice.

34 pawns!!!!???

Did you think this up while high?

If so, which drug did you take and where can I get it!

Have you tried it? I saw the game was an option on a site when I looking for somewhere to play Atomic Chess.

Black isn't just totally winning this position?

No, it's actually really close. I set rybka 2.2 to 1200 ELO and black/white wins bout 50/50 over 20 games. I ran at full strength twice and white won both times, but it takes a lot longer to run obv.

The idea I use with white is to weaken his queenside by sacking my knights and one or two bishops so I can get a rook or my queen on to the a rank behind his pawns, but even then it isn't trivial because the threat of pawn promotion is always very real.

Rubka goes for wayyy more complex patterns. It mostly seems based around forming a hole in the middle of his pawn structure, forcing a ton of moves whilst taking three or four pawns for each piece sac'd.



I imagine that you could tweak the computer's scoring system to improve it's play as black (and white).

So how does this help you improve your real chess skill/ability/understanding/etc?

(not to sound too critical of this fun/interesting chess exercise)

It forces you to think about pawn dynamics and pawn structure as well as playing in very closed positions, playing from either side.

Interesting, thanks.

Can anyone else think of other "variations" that a chess player can try out for learning purposes?

I've played a variant like this somewhere. Might have been MEWIS. White didn't have the row of pawns. Black I imagine had less pawns to compensate, though I don't remember for sure. Black did well in practice, but I suppose part of it is that black's position is simply 'easier' for a human to play, even if it may not be objectively better.

I disagree that black is easier to play for humans. Accurate play is essential otherwise white can simply force you into a ton of one-for-one sacs that weaken your position and eventually lead to a ton of free pawns for white. I certainly didn't find it natural or easy to play black when I first started playing in this game.

If it teaches you nothing else, you'll learn when to advance a pawn is good or not.

This has absolutely nothing to do with real chess, unless I am crazy!

Looks awesome, though.