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Against Stockfish: Game #11: I did it!

19 Jul 20244,217 viewsEnglish (US)

Super Eval - Correspondence Game #04

I worked hard for this in the past few days. And it paid off. I finally held a draw against Stockfish after trying for a long time (not just 10 games!).
Here's the game:
Continuation of the Super Eval saga:
Game #04 Analysis:

https://lichess.org/study/embed/2guM490P/Pyok0g6j

Lessons from this game:
> Mental Stamina is important.
> Hard work is rewarding.
> Learning more positional features might improve the Super Eval.
It felt like in this game luck played a major role. But maybe it's just the way I am looking at it. This was a tiring experience. But it was rewarding in the end. I hope this inspires all the readers to try new things that might seem impossible at first. This was a very special moment for me. And remember,

"Nothing is IMPOSSIBLE. The word itself says I'M POSSIBLE" - Audrey Hepburn

And of course, I am not going to stop here. I am going to keep going until I manage to beat the unbeatable. Now I give you, as usual, the description of the method I used for this game.

Super Eval

Super Eval is a system in which you take in the situational conditions, process them to make a verbal evaluation, and choose the move that best suits your evaluation. Let's go through the steps one by one.

Situational Conditions

Situational Conditions in a tournament game can be divided into 3 main categories. They are:
1. Board Situation - Comparison of No. of Hanging pieces, King Safety, Alignments, Material, Controlled Squares, Mobility, and Pawn Structure
2. Clock Situation - Comparison of Time available per move
3. Psychological Situation - Comparison of Tournament pressure, Spectator pressure, Rating anxiety
Evaluating the situational conditions correctly requires a lot of experience. This is more of an artistic approach to chess rather than a theoretical approach.

Verbal Evaluation

We now make a verbal evaluation of the position based on the situational conditions. Basically what's happening here is that instead of saying white is better by +1.05 after this, this, that, and that so white should be ahead by +1.05 in this position, we use features of the current position to describe why white is better by +1.05. We don't need an exact evaluation like +1.05, we just need to get a rough idea about who's better in the current position based on the previously mentioned situational factors. So a normal verbal evaluation might look like this:

"White has two hanging pieces while black only has only one. But the black king is severely weakened and having the move here really benefits the white side. White has a lot more mobility than black but a slightly weakened structure. Overall, I think white should be a little bit better"

Move Selection

Now that we've got the verbal evaluation, it's time to choose a move. More than anything else, this requires a lot of knowledge and experience. This knowledge should be gained by analyzing chess games and reading annotations. Let's go back to our example verbal evaluation.

"White has two hanging pieces while black only has one. But the black king is severely weakened and having the move here really benefits the white side. White has a lot more mobility than black but a slightly weakened structure. Overall, I think white should be a little bit better"

In a position of this type, we can consider the moves with the following features:
> Moves that defend the hanging pieces.
> Moves that control the squares near the king.
> Moves that check the king.
> Moves that restrict the opponent's pieces.

After you've selected the most likely best move by matching the moves with the positional features, you have to evaluate the complexity of the position. This evaluation differs from one person to another. But the thing is, when you identify the position as complex, you have to start calculating. Otherwise, you can play without using calculations. This way, you'll only be spending time in the necessary situations.

This type of analysis can be perfected through experience. Just knowing the stuff isn't enough. You have to be committed to improving yourself. This isn't math. This is art. And art cannot be taught. It can only be understood. And the key to understanding it is experiencing it through real physical sensual means.

This is how I am going to go forward. I won't stop until I manage to ~~hold or~~ beat the unbeatable computer. I hope this series is instructive to you all and don't forget to share your thoughts in the forum.