I'm following game 262, Zahak - StockNemo. This is the reverse game, the previous game was a draw in 45 moves. Both engines are in qualification, StockNemo has a score of -2 and Zahak -1. Zahak has a significant Elo advantage, StockNemo is new to TCEC so its actual strength is unknown.
The game started with an 8-ply book in the Modern defense, played in human chess.
move 11: Zahak castled long, StockNemo hasn't castled and it can't castle short with a white queen on h6. Evals are around 1 without a lot of change. The engines left all Lichess human games. No exchanges so far except a pair of bishops. StockNemo pushed a pawn on the queen side, seems that it won't castle its king at all.
move 15: Zahak thought black would drive the white queen away, StockNemo instead pushed a second pawn forward on the queen side. The engines exchanged bishops again, StockNemo took with its king so no castling is possible. Zahak thought this was a mistake.
move 20: StockNemo moved its king side rook to the queen side, leaving its king side almost abandoned. Zahak pushed a second pawn on the king side, but its eval is not increasing yet. After StockNemo walks with its king to c8 Zahak is more confident. A strange move, trapping the black rooks. StockNemo pushed a pawn to b3, Zahak responded with a pawn push on the king side, not afraid for its king safety.
move 25: Zahak drove the knight on f6 away and captured on h7 with its queen, its eval climbing over 2. StockNemo is reluctant to open the h file, it moved its king to b7 in front of a rook. Zahak now has a passer on h6. StockNemo captured the pawn on a2 and the white king is hiding behind it.
move 31: StockNemo moved its queen to the queen side, it's trying desperately to create an attack but with both evals over 3 I don't think it has a chance. Zahak captured a knight, the black king is trying to hide on a6 behind a white pawn. If the white queen can get back black will have no chance. StockNemo moved its queen to c2 but it was chased away. The white queen breaks to c7 and joins the attack from behind. StockNemo captured two knights but its king is falling.
move 39: While StockNemo is trying to defend its king, Zahak pushed the passer to h7. StockNemo captured it but lost material to avoid mate. In a QR vs RRN position Zahak starts to give mate scores.
move 46: Game over in a tablebase Q vs R position. Zahak easily outplayed StockNemo and kept its hopes alive for qualification.
No comments:
Post a Comment