Against Stockfish: Game #13: Phenomenal!!!!

What's new?
Big shout-out to @joyvuu_dave for gifting me with Patron Wings. Thank you!

I can't believe I just did this. This game was flawless. On move 28, it was +2.4! I was up a pawn in an endgame but somehow Stockfish's defensive skills combined with my not-so-good endgame technique led me only to a draw! In this article, I analyze my game against Stockfish and discuss what I am going to do better the next time.
With all those things to discuss this is going to be a long article so bear with me...

Continuation of the Super Eval saga:
Game #06 Analysis:

Lessons from this game:
> The Catalan is a powerful opening.
> Be practical, not theoretical.
> Super Eval is perfect for the middle game, but the end game requires a different thinking method.

And I know what the new thinking method should be. It is to combine Super Eval with our old friend - Monte Carlo Tree Search. The logic behind this decision was something like this:

"In the endgame, even a slight change of piece placement or pawn structure can shift the battle in a completely different direction. Efficiency matters more in the Endgame than it matters in the Opening or the Middle Game. To judge how the piece placements and pawn structure will change, and to be able to act accordingly as fast as you can, you have to see into the future. In chess, seeing into the future means calculating. The best calculating method I have is the MCTS (I almost held against Stockfish with this in Game #06). So, I will use the Super Eval for the opening and the Middle Game, and the MCTS for the End Game"

Maybe this isn't the perfect method to play the Endgame, but I have a logical reason to do so. This might require some modifications in the future, but for now, this is all I can fix. Now, as usual, I will give you the strategy descriptions.

Monte Carlo Tree Search

> First, we take a list of candidate moves and see which moves are most preferred by our intuition.
> Then we make a play-out (a.k.a roll-out) by applying the same principle from our opponent's side and mark the evaluation when a static position is reached.
> Then we take the average of the so-found leaf positions to assign a value to the calculated candidate move.
> Then we repeat the process for all the candidate moves and compare the move values to come to a final conclusion.

When using this method, it's important to broaden your list of candidate moves rather than going deeply into one line. Going deeply into one line can make you miss simple moves available for your opponent that would give them the advantage. In doing so, you also run the risk of missing moves that would have simply granted you a better position. It's kind of like how you should think in complex positions when using Super Eval. But instead of Glancing at everything, you have to glance at all the intuitional moves. This way, you can narrow down your search tree and focus only on the most promising variations.

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 your hanging pieces.
> Moves that control the squares near the opponent's king.
> Moves that check the opponent's 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 a process where you glance at all the possible options available for you and your opponent and start calculating the moves that look the most promising. This process has to be carried out carefully. A single miss in a complex position can lead to a complete disaster.

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.

External links

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@felew699 (No videos yet. I am still working on it)
Twitter: https://x.com/felew699
Chess.com: https://www.chess.com/member/felew699
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/user/Felew699/
Against Stockfish: https://lichess.org/study/YTek9jaV
Opening Study: https://lichess.org/study/Vfydq0l0

Special Thanks to...

Grammar Editor: https://app.grammarly.com/