Hi All
I thought I would share this game with you.
It is not common to be faced with computer opposition in a weekend open chess congress, however I found myself drawn against HIARCS 3 in the final round of the open section of the 1994 Bury St Edmunds Open weekend chess congress. A yearly congress that attracted over 200+ chess players.
I was having a very good tournament, (my rating at the time was around 150BCF = 1800elo and there were plenty of players higher rated than myself) with 2 wins and 2 draws and was joint second going into the last round on 3/4.
Hiarcs 3.0 which was running on a very fast hardware at the time, a Pentium 90 I believe was on 4/4.
The operator was than Mark Uniacke himself which made this game even more special to me.
[Event "BURY OPEN RD5"]
[Site "?"]
[Date December 1994]
[Round "?"]
[White HIARCS 3.0 PENTIUM 90Mhz Operator Mark Uniacke]
[Black Darrell Golder]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2450"]
[BlackElo "1800"]
[PlyCount "105"]
[EventDate December 1994]
[EventType Open Weekend Congress]
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 b5
Perhapes a risky opening against a computer opponent, but I was determined to play as I do normally against human players and the Benko was my favorite choice as black.
4. cxb5 a6 5. e3 Bb7 6. Nc3 axb5 7. Bxb5 Qa5 8.Nge2 Nxd5 9. O-O Nf6 10. e4
rn2kb1r/1b1ppppp/5n2/qBp5/4P3/2N5/PP2NPPP/R1BQ1RK1 b kq - 0 10
[fen]rn2kb1r/1b1ppppp/5n2/qBp5/4P3/2N5/PP2NPPP/R1BQ1RK1 b kq - 0 10[/fen]
Here I am out of book and wasted far to long considering the pawn offer, from memory I think I spent over 20 minutes on this, (the time control was 40 moves in 75 min then a final 20 mins) in the end I decided not to risk the capture and the pressure which would follow.
Nc6 11. Bd2 Qb6 12. Qb3 e6 13. Bf4 Be7 14. e5 Nd5 15. Nxd5 exd5 16. a4 d4 17.Qg3 g5 18. Bd2
r3k2r/1b1pbp1p/1qn5/1Bp1P1p1/P2p4/6Q1/1P1BNPPP/R4RK1 b kq - 0 18
[fen]r3k2r/1b1pbp1p/1qn5/1Bp1P1p1/P2p4/6Q1/1P1BNPPP/R4RK1 b kq - 0 18[/fen]
Trying to temp Hiarcs into pinning his bishop to his queen which the loss of which may have been over its horizon.
Nd8 19. Rab1 Bd5 20. b4 c4 21. Rfc1 c3 23. Bxg5
r2nk2r/3pbp1p/1q6/1B1bP1B1/PP1p4/2p3Q1/4NPPP/1RR3K1 b kq - 0 22
[fen]r2nk2r/3pbp1p/1q6/1B1bP1B1/PP1p4/2p3Q1/4NPPP/1RR3K1 b kq - 0 22[/fen]
I recall being confident at this point, pawns rolling down the board, virtually forcing Hiarcs to take on g5 with the threats to g2 from the g file and a8 h1 diagonall
Rg8 23. h4 h6 24. Qg4 Ne6 25. Nf4
r3k1r1/3pbp2/1q2n2p/1B1bP1B1/PP1p1NQP/2p5/5PP1/1RR3K1 b q - 0 25
[fen]r3k1r1/3pbp2/1q2n2p/1B1bP1B1/PP1p1NQP/2p5/5PP1/1RR3K1 b q - 0 25[/fen]
Hiarcs had thought over 5 mins on this move, which seems best. This is a critical postion and i now make the wrong choice, Bc6?
Hiarcs was expecting Bb7 whch is indeed better.
26.Nxe6 dxe6 27. Qxd4 !!
r3k1r1/4bp2/1qb1p2p/1B2P1B1/PP1Q3P/2p5/5PP1/1RR3K1 b q - 0 27
[fen]r3k1r1/4bp2/1qb1p2p/1B2P1B1/PP1Q3P/2p5/5PP1/1RR3K1 b q - 0 27[/fen]
I remeber being completely bowled over by this as I had'nt even considered this reply.
Qxd4 28. Bxc6+ Kf8 29. Bxh6+ Rg7 30. Bxa8 Bxb4 31. h5 Kg8 32. Bxg7 Kxg7 33. Bf3 Bc5 34.Rc2
The dust has settled and the position is unclear (well to me at least!) Fritz 10 gives this postion as slightly better for black. Mark can you remember how Hiarcs viewed its postiion here?
8/5pk1/4p3/2b1P2P/P2q4/2p2B2/2R2PP1/1R4K1 b - - 0 34
[fen]8/5pk1/4p3/2b1P2P/P2q4/2p2B2/2R2PP1/1R4K1 b - - 0 34[/fen]
Qxe5 (I should have played 34.Qxa4 winning the wide passer, because if Rxc3 then Bxf2+.Kxf2. Qa2+ winning the exchange )
35. Ra1 Bd6 36. Rd1 Bb4 37. g4 Qc5 38. Kg2 Qb6 39. Rh1 Kh8
40. Rb1 Qa5 41. Bc6 Qc5 42. f3 Qd4 43. Be4 Qc5 44. Rd1 Kg7 45. Rd7 Qf8 Running short of time and with no real plan of how to hold the position the game slips away from me..... 46. Bg6 Be7 47. Rxc3 Kf6 48. Bxf7 Qxf7 49. Rcc7 Qh7 50. Rxe7 Qd3 51. Rf7+ Kg5 52. Kg3 Qd6+ 53. f4+ 1-0
We had a gathering of spectators which added to the excitement for me.
I had always wanted to face a computer in a real tournament situation, as I for one can not take a game as seriously when playing against my computers at home.
I was a fan of Hiarcs after this game and bought Hiarcs 3 4 5 6. Sorry Mark I did not buy any more after that but H12 MP may be on my shopping list for next year!!
H3 forever Regards
Darrell
Hiarcs 3 at the 1994 Bury St Edmunds open, final round
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Hiarcs 3 at the 1994 Bury St Edmunds open, final round
"The game itself is nothing, the playing of it is everything"
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Mark Uniacke
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Re: Hiarcs 3 at the 1994 Bury St Edmunds open, final round
Hi Darrell,
Yes this must of been one of the wildest games I was ever involved with - it was nervous enough for me to be the operator in this game, never mind actually playing it!
.
I remember we had a fair size crowd watching this last round encounter. You did tremendously well and had real chances despite the incredible complications.
Hiarcs 3.0 was playing on a Pentium 90MHz and searching about 6,000 positions a second. This version was significantly stronger than the version which won the World Championship in Munich against Genius, Fritz etc.
My memories of the game...
I remember you thinking for ages on move 10... to reject the pawn sacrafice. A wise decision in my view.
I started to worry when you cleverly got the pin on the g5 bishop. I think Hiarcs had been showing about +170 a little earlier but that dropped at each move until it reached the low point of -61 after move 25. I know Hiarcs was expecting 25...Qb7 and Hiarcs and I were "happy" to see 25...Bc6 played - well in truth I was still worried but glad to see the eval rise!
It was rather hard as an operator to play 27. Qxd4 since it was such a surprise and I had to look twice before finally putting the Hiarcs queen on a square where it could be captured directly!
Hiarcs was overevaluating its chances at move 34... and the eval was +235. However, here I remember thinking at the time that with best play you could draw but that is just based on instinct and because white is tied down by the c pawn.
Certainly 34...Qxa4 was better and was expected at the time by Hiarcs3.
Anyway thanks for the trip down memory lane. Somehow I think you deserved more than a zero on your score sheet for what must of been the most exciting game of the tournament.
Yes this must of been one of the wildest games I was ever involved with - it was nervous enough for me to be the operator in this game, never mind actually playing it!
. I remember we had a fair size crowd watching this last round encounter. You did tremendously well and had real chances despite the incredible complications.
Hiarcs 3.0 was playing on a Pentium 90MHz and searching about 6,000 positions a second. This version was significantly stronger than the version which won the World Championship in Munich against Genius, Fritz etc.
My memories of the game...
I remember you thinking for ages on move 10... to reject the pawn sacrafice. A wise decision in my view.
I started to worry when you cleverly got the pin on the g5 bishop. I think Hiarcs had been showing about +170 a little earlier but that dropped at each move until it reached the low point of -61 after move 25. I know Hiarcs was expecting 25...Qb7 and Hiarcs and I were "happy" to see 25...Bc6 played - well in truth I was still worried but glad to see the eval rise!
It was rather hard as an operator to play 27. Qxd4 since it was such a surprise and I had to look twice before finally putting the Hiarcs queen on a square where it could be captured directly!
Hiarcs was overevaluating its chances at move 34... and the eval was +235. However, here I remember thinking at the time that with best play you could draw but that is just based on instinct and because white is tied down by the c pawn.
Certainly 34...Qxa4 was better and was expected at the time by Hiarcs3.
Anyway thanks for the trip down memory lane. Somehow I think you deserved more than a zero on your score sheet for what must of been the most exciting game of the tournament.