SCID + Stockfish

I was interested in finding open-source chess tools for analysis, study and preparation. Last time I checked, I wasn't too excited, but this time I am happy to find about SCID. SCID is an open-source chess database that has a lot of the options available in commercial databases. It has also a reasonable UI and can run on Windows, Linux and Mac. Running on Linux and Mac is a big advantage in itself, as most commercial database and playing software are only for Windows. This was always a challenge for me, as I prefer Linux or Mac for most of my work, and getting chess software on them required some work-around. Let me first say that the last commercial software I had was Fritz 8 and ChessBase 8, which are quite old now (the current versions are Fritz 13 and ChessBase 12), so any comparison will be based on that.

Doing some research, I found that there's a fork from SCID, called SCID vs. PC, that was recommended as more up-to-date and better maintained. I haven't verified that myself, as I went to SCID vs. PC directly without trying the original SCID. In the downloads, they already have a Mac DMG and once I installed that, it worked directly without the need for any tweaking. I was happy with the easy installation and the UI was also reasonable, although not very intuitive initially and might take some time to get used to it. For example, to save my first game, I had to try several times, initially I got confused by the Clipbase which turned out to be only in memory and not saved to disk. Then, saving to a newly created database didn't work as expected and I had to try different ways. Also, comments and annotations required some trial to figure out.

SCID installed with a few engines that can be used for analysis and also to play against them. One thing I like in SCID compared to ChessBase, is that you can start a game against any of the engines directly. In ChessBase, you had to switch to Fritz interface in order to do that. The engines installed didn't look so strong, so I decided to search for the strongest open-source engine and here I came across Stockfish.

If you follow chess programming or computer chess competitions, Stockfish is known as one of the strongest and highest rated along with Houdini, Komodo and Rybka. After downloading Stockfish engine and its book, it required some work to get it to work with SCID. First step is to compile and build the engine, then putting the generated binary file and the book in the same directory. In my case, I used the 64-bits file as it matches with my Mac. Then from SCID, open the engine analysis window from the menu and select to add a new engine. Enter the directory where you put Stockfish binary and book then save. Now, you should be able to see Stockfish on the list of engines and if you double-click, it should start showing analysis for the position.

The combination of SCID + Stockfish so far looks like a great tool for analysis and you can also add other strong engines to it, as I will present in later posts. Next thing required for this to become a complete preparation tool, is to include a recent opening book and large database of games. I haven't checked how up-to-date the book that comes with Stockfish and other sources of games available online, which will also be a topic for further investigation.

Carlsen new Chess World Champiom

The 2013 World Championship Anand-Carlsen match ended with Magnus Carlsen as the new World Champion winning over Viswanathan Anand 6.5-3.5. The last 2 games saw some fighting chess (that were missing from earlier games!), especially from Anand who was in a must-win situation. 

In game 9, Anand played d4 and the Saemisch variation against Nimzo-Indian getting a strong attack, but then he blundered with 28. Nf1?? and resigned directly. In game 10, Anand played a Sicilian against Carlsen e4, and after a long game that saw mistakes from both sides, Carlsen secured the draw and the title.

Draws in Games 7 and 8

After the two decisive games, we are back again to uneventful draws in games 7 and 8 of the 2013 World Championship Anand-Carlsen match. Anand looked cautious after his two losses and Carlsen seemed satisfied to get closer to the title. Both games were Ruy Lopez, Berlin variation, where both players tried it in black and white!

Carlsen wins Games 5 and 6

After starting with 4 draws, Magnus Carlsen wins two games in a row to take the lead in the 2013 World Championship match. The wins are typical Carlsen play, where he enters the endgame with a minimal advantage, but then keeps digging for his opponent inaccuracies, using his great endgame skills to eventually get the point. The current world champion Viswanathan Anand is now in a tough position to come back with 6 games remaining. Anand will need to find a way to confront this strategy and play more actively to reach positions that he can be more successful at.

Exciting Draws in Games 3 and 4

After the quick draws in the first two games, the 2013 World Championship Anand-Carlsen match is getting more exciting. In game 3, Anand with black took the initiative and had winning chances after pushing Carlsen queen to the corner. The game eventually reached a dead drawn position, but they kept playing till the last pawn, maybe due to fans complaints about the earlier short draws!

In game 4, it was the opposite! Carlsen with black had the winning chance, after a pawn sacrifice from Anand that had little compensation. Anand defended well and was able to come with some smart moves to reach a drawn ending.

Second Game also Quick Draw

The second Anand-Carlsen game in the 2013 World Championship match also ended in a quick 25-move draw. This game started with a sharp opposite-side castling Caro-Kann, but then also ended in repetition. Anand had a chance in move 18 to play for an attack with 18.Qg4, but instead exchanged queens and simplified the position to an equal ending.

This was the critical position of the game, where white could have played for a win.

Quick Draw in First Game

The 2013 World Championship match between Anand and Carlsen started with a quick 16-move draw. Carlsen playing white started with a slow non-theoritical opening and Anand responded effectively, reaching a draw by repetition in a solid position. This is a good start for Anand holding easily with the black pieces.

Anand-Carlsen History

In anticipation of the 2013 World Championship match between Anand and Calsen starting in a couple of days, I was looking at the history of games between the two players.

In chessgames.com, I was able to find 62 games between 2005 and 2013, out of those 29 classical games, with Anand beating Carlsen 6 to 3, and 20 draws. The last year of course saw the shift of results in favor of Carlsen.

Here, I show two games: the first game shown between them in 2005, which seems like a rapid game, and the last game this year in Tal Memorial which was a smooth win for Carlsen. These games show how far Carlsen progressed along those years.

Playing a WGM

Last week, I got a chance to play against WGM Ruan Lufei in a simultaneous at Stanford. Ruan is among the top female chess players. Her best known result is reaching the 2010 Women's World Chess Championship final and losing only to World Champion Hou Yifan.

The game started with a balanced position, but then I had a dubious sacrifice of a knight for three pawns (that turned out to be two only) and spent the rest of the game struggling for drawing chances. After the other games were over, I rushed in the endgame to lose my final chance and the game. It was a good experience though.

Caruana wins Bucharest Kings Tournament

Caruana was also close to enter the 2800 club, but missed it due to his loss to Wang Hao in round nine. We show this complex game, where Caruana achieved a large advantage but then lost it in time trouble. Luckily, he still had enough points to win the tournament even after Hao following final round win.

Svidler wins Russian Super Final

Svidler won the Russian Championship Super Final after defeating Nepomniachtchi in the rapid playoffs. Nepomniachtchi was able to catch Svidler after beating Kramnik in the last round, while Svidler was drawing against Karjakin. We will show the final round draw, which is an instructive game on how to use the extra pawns to compensate for an exchange. 

Aronian wins Bilbao Masters Final

At the time, when the whole chess world seems to be waiting for the Anand-Carlsen world championship match, there are at least three major and exciting tournaments going on. The first is the Bilbao Masters Final, which just ended with Aronian as the winner. Then there's the Russian Super Final with a fierce competition between Kramnik and Svidler. And finally Bucharest with Caruana leading ahead of Ponomariov and Radjabov.

In this post, we show the two decisive games for Aronian victory. The first is a fiery game that has a rook sacrifice and Aronian surviving a devastating attack. The second is his win over the initial leader Adams also with black from an inferior position.

Double Sacrifice!

Kramnik started the Russian Championship with a double sacrifice and spectacular win!

Caruana ties for First, but misses Qualifications

In the last round of Paris FIDE Grand Prix tournament, Caruana had to win in order to qualify to the 2014 World Championship Candidates, but instead he had a short draw by repetition. This result favors Shakhriyar Mamedyarov who would qualify instead.

Some believe he should have avoided repetition in the final position and continued with other move, even it would have been so risky.

Nakamura loses the Lead

It has been an exciting day in Paris! Nakamura lost an exciting game and his lead to Gelfand, and Caruana also won to join in the lead. With only one round to go, Caruana will have a chance to qualify for the 2014 World Championship Candidates tournament. Following are the two critical games.

Topalov winnning Match in Novy Bor

Topalov finished the 6 game match against Laznicka with a nice positional game. The final score is 4-2. Topalov is known for his tactical attacking style, but in this game he showed also great positional skills.

Early Resign?

Yesterday, in the FIDE Grand Prix in Paris, Vassily Ivanchuk resigned in the following position. Black is certainly worse after 33. Ke3, but material is still even. Wasn't it too early to resign?

Carlsen winning Sinquefield Cup

Carlsen only needed a draw today against Aronian to win the first Sinquefield Cup, while Aronian had to win. While pushing hard for a win and getting a good chance towards that, Aronian lost the initiative and ended up losing. 

The interesting move was after Aronian played 30. ... Rd4 offering an exchange and Carlsen responded with the brilliant move 31. Ne1!!. Few moves later Aronian should have repeated moves and taken the draw but instead he was looking for a win, when his position was getting worse.

Sinquefield Cup

Another interesting tournament started yesterday in Saint Louis. This tournament is a round robin that brings together the top two players in the world, Carlsen and Aronian, with the top two US players, Nakamura and Kamsky. It's not very common to have players at the level of Carlsen and Aronian playing in the US.

All games so far have been exciting, although with a lot of mistakes.

Kramnik winning the 2013 FIDE World Cup

After more than 3 weeks in Norway, the 128-player knockout tournament ended with Kramnik as the winner. Although, Kramnik not always playing the most exciting chess compared to current younger players, his experience and consistency prevailed in a match format, where upsets for top players are common and any mis-steps may not provide a chance for a come back!

In his last game, Andreikin was in a must-win situation to tie the match and move to tie-break, but Kramnik defended well and actually reached a winning position before accepting the draw that was sufficient for winning the tournament.