Now it's GO's turn.

Google has announced it has made a breakthrough in programming a computer to play GO. Up until now, programmers hadn't been able to write a decent GO program, at least not compared to human masters. But Google (and perhaps soon, Facebook) has created a program that has beaten the best human player in Europe by a 5-0 margin.

The research has implications beyond an old Chinese board game. The systems used by Facebook and Google were not preprogrammed with specific if-this-then-do-that code or explicitly told the rules. Instead, they learned to play at a very high level by themselves. These techniques can be adapted to any problem "where you have a large amount of data that you have to find insights in," Hassabis said.

One of the programmers also created a similar program for chess:

DeepMind [Google's AI research group] recently hired Matthew Lai, a London researcher who developed a system capable of playing chess at the grandmaster level. His software was able to reason in a way similar to how humans do, a more efficient method than IBM's attempt to crunch every possible outcome before making a move in the 1990s.

Here's more on Lai's prior chess program, Giraffe. Giraffe is impressive, but still not up to snuff with the best "regular" chess programs.

How NOT to play the London System as White

From the Tata Steel Masters Tournament , today in Utrecht instead of the Wijk!

The Gifts Keep on Coming....

The greatest thing about this era of chess is that so much information is given away freely. For example, a week ago IM Johan Salomon tweeted a link to some analysis he had done of a game from 1981 involving Jonathan Tisdall.

My analysis of @GMjtis-G. Lee A beautiful and instructive game! Click to open on phone or in browser! https://t.co/i7GIC5T8kq

— Johan Salomon (@JohanSalomon) January 12, 2016

Older players will remember him for his coverage of various Karpov-Kasparov matches for Chess Life, but he also has the distinction of having not one but two moves included in Tim Krabbé's list of The 110 Greatest Moves Ever Played. The move in question came in at Number 15 on the list. (It should be noted that Krabbé stopped updating his list in, I believe, 1998, so you won't find Kasparov's Rxd4 against Topalov, for example.)

Here's the position in question:

Tisdall - Lee, London 1981

White to move after 14...Qg6

Tisdall remembered this game being played at a weekend tournament. Here's a link to IM Salomon's analysis, displayed using the ViewChess website. And just in case you'd prefer the KnightVision layout I've been using here, I've included that below as well. All analysis is by Salomon, though I have added a text note at the start of the game and made one minor correction in the notes.

Game of the Day: Navara - Giri, Tata Steel Chess Tournament, Wijk aan Zee 2016

Navara played a brilliant attacking game against Giri today, and the Czech GM should have won the game. But on move 40 he seems to have made a wrong turn, and Giri escaped with the draw. Afterwards Giri said, "Generally it's good to be a queen down when you're lost. It's harder usually to convert. With two rooks there are always some chances." The quote, and the game notes below, are from the ChessVibes.com report. Annotations by Peter Doggers. One quick note from me: If Black goes pawn & rook hunting with 20...Bxg2 he gets slaughtered after 21 fxg6 when White is threatening all kinds of nastiness on the f7 square, among other things.

Carlsen - Cauana, Tata Steel Chess Tournament, Wijk aan Zee 2016

Fabiano Caruana explains his interesting game with Magnus Carlsen from today's round at the TATA Steel Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee.

Solution Time for the Christmas Position of the Day

Back on Christmas I posted a position from one of John Nunn's puzzle books. Here it is again:

Kudriashov vs. I Ivanov, USSR 1979

Black to move

5rk1/PP4b1/3p2p1/3P4/1R2P2p/5pp1/4r3/R4NK1 b - - 0 1

Nunn gives the solution as 1...Re1! 2 a8(Q) h3! 3 Ra2 g2! 4 Rf2 Rxf1+ 5 Rxf1 h2+ 6 Kxh2 gxf1(Q), the first two moves of which were played before White resigned. (I'll have this and more in a replayable board below.)

I didn't figure it out. I kept trying to make another move work. It seemed to me that 1...Rg2+ was the way to go, but I couldn't figure it out. When I saw Nunn's solution I figured it was the "correct" sequence, and that I had been off my rocker looking at the other move.

But lo and behold! When I put the position into ChessBase prior to publishing, the computer spit out that 1...Rg2+ was indeed a winning move. The trouble isn't with that move, but the follow-up, which runs 2 Kh1 (forced) Rc2!!, and here White is losing in all lines.

Kudriashov vs. I Ivanov, USSR 1979

White to move

I'm not going to pretend to understand how White is losing by force here, but he is. I've included the main lines from the computer analysis below. Improvements can be found along the way, but it appears only for Black.

Best Games of 2015

Chessbase has picked what they believe are the ten best games of 2015. You can replay them at the Chessbase site. They have chosen the games, but not put them in order - they're going to let people with Chessbase accounts vote for the honors. My personal favorite is Khismatulin – Eljanov, Jerusalem 2015, but it's languishing down in fifth place. The games by Navara and Wei are also quite impressive.

Anyway, have a look at the games, and cast your votes, if you've got one.