My first draw against SF level 8!

Hi everyone! I have been exclusively playing against level 8 stockfish for the past few weeks. I have come across a few interesting insights along the way that I wanted to share.

I have noted that it is better to play against the engine using a classical time format, where it thinks the longest relative to other time controls (including the option to play without a time control), thus playing higher quality moves. It was also better to play against it on a computer instead of mobile device for similar reasons.

I have only been playing with the white side starting with 1. d4 and have gotten the best opening positions with the Queen's Gambit Declined, Exchange Variation where black castles king side and white develops with Qc2, Bd3, Ne2, f3 and so on. I have gotten into positions with around a +2 advantage in this opening but have failed to successfully deliver a king side attack as stockfish defends and counters brilliantly.

Do you guys here have any other opening recommendations that I should try out against stockfish for either side? Also, I have not come across any human victories against the engine on this site when searching the forum. Has there been any such human victories that I am not aware of?

Many thanks! As I was saying, here is the my first draw against the computer :)

seems legit

Maybe I should have mentioned the number of games I lost earlier, slight blunder on my part :P

@daniel921126 typically my games end up looking like this, on a good day that is.

I am certain strong titled players should be able to beat the machine though, if they choose the right opening and play precisely without falling for the computer's cheap tricks. From the matches I've seen, those guys play blitz time controls against SF, whereas they would have a much better chance if they played longer time controls.

Btw, does anyone reading this know how to display the study board with the annotations in a forum post, thanks :)

In my opinion the best way to have a advantage against the computer is to have a good attack. the only thing the computer can do is to count moves. the computer will do this always better than a human. so we have to find an other way to win.

You're right @EmilGrand204, I've seen strong players using the Hippo defense or KID like structures quite successfully, after locking the center and launching an attacking on the king. I think an attack is the way to go and should still be successful in other less closed positions as well, it's just a lot harder to execute as the engine gets tons of counterplay. Not sure if there is a way to force a closed position in the hippo though, maybe there is some specific move order sequence of it might just a matter of time and luck that the engine decides to lock the position with a central pawn advance. Good point though!