Sumerian: Hi Reinhard,

One thing that is very interesting is SMIRF's handling of the opening. It "has no fear" so it plays moves that appear unusual to a human, but as it has verified with its search that material is not lost within its horizon, we (humans) have to be careful about handling these positions!

I found myself down a pawn and in a disorganized retreat, and I had to rely on "tricks" to turn things around. From this I learned a few things:

1. There are tactical opportunities in the opening that I have obviously been overlooking.

2. Just developing "for the sake of developing" is clearly not good enough. In the overall scheme of things, getting more pieces in play is the best choice over 90% of the time, but S.M.I.R.F. was able to make the most of its chances with selective deployment of its pieces.

3. Apparently strong kingside attacks can be carried out with just 2 Knights if the opponent's pawn structure surrounding the castled king has been compromised only slightly. This is something that is virtually impossible in chess that is not only possible as in our game, but could be a theme to underwrite an entire strategy. Aiming long-range pieces at the castled King while "waiting" to push pawns to release their full force (as your e3 and Ae2 moves accomplished) could be an interesting, previously untried strategical motiff.

I will have to figure out how to deal with this in my own home preparation

Thanks for a great game.