Attack Like AlphaZero: Damaged Kingside 

UPDATE: Hey folks! Thank you for your kind words about my AlphaZero videos! I don't have new AZ videos on this channel but I have created something even bigger: an entire chess course (Attack like a machine!) highly influenced by AlphaZero's play, with the main chapter dedicated to AlphaZero's attacking chess. You can check out the preview video and find out more about the course here: www.chessable.com/anna-1

I play like AlphaZero too, crazy and innovative ideas no one has ever played before, except I lose all the games lol

I love how Anna makes a thriller out of this game. "Three pawns down, what is going to happen?!?!?" I used to watch sports, now it's Anna :-)

Alpha Zero: ''I have the advantage with 2 h-pawns. You only have one. Come at me.''

"What the Chocolate Fudge?!" you're great Anna.

Think positive like Alpha zero. The king with a broken pawn structure is safe and the bishop has a future.

This lady is really good at explaining this. Or I just like her accent.

Holy shit, I had no idea 41 minutes passed. 🤯

Such an angel, AlphaZero I mean. Anna's ok too I guess.

"It's an amazing move. I still don't know why, but it's an amazing move." This video is as hilarious as it is interesting, great work:D

I really love watching Alpha Zero playing. It's much more enjoyable than Stockfish playing. Like not minding at material at all and still everything works is just cool

AlphaZero is the playing variations of the Botez gambit.

Anna, I am mesmerized by your explanations. These are some great stuff here and it gets me all excited about chess.

"What we have learned?" I have learned, that you are the most illustrative chess commenter on the web! Thank you!

Thank you for video and especially I want to thank you for the normal speed of speaking and explaining everything on the board.

I always end up doubling my pawns I guess that makes me the best player of all time.

The way Anna interacts reminds me of Dora the Explorer. Being a total beginner, I appreciate it very much haha

By far this is the best and most useful analysis of this important Alpha Z game. Anna you’re definitive. Fun to listen to and watch as well. Terrific sense of humor.

Thank you very much for this lesson. You explained very good and its interesting listening to you. Very very good

'It looks bad, it feels bad, but sometimes it can be ok' now that's a lesson for life itself :) 38:10

Dear Anna - I just love your analyses . Thank you so much ! (And if, it doesn't sound in any way patronizing, thank you for your beautiful, PERFECT english - much easier to understand than the "english" most English and Americans speak, but yet with your lovely lilting accent ... :-) )

The Danish Chess Federation sends our love to the one, the only Ms. Anna Rudolf!

one detail I really like about this video is you clearly thought out how it would appear on youtube. When the play icon and red line appear, together with the video title, it doesn't block the view of the board.

Learn from the best. Play like that Ai and win every time.

You are the best Anna. Most interesting chess analysis ever encountered.

Anna i love you, I was looking for this specific alpha zero game because of the ringside attack and now you found it. Thanks a lot and once again good and interesting analysis:)

Love learning with you and Alpha Zero Ana

7:23 thanks for teaching me the concept of prophylactic moves. I'm a total nub so this is gold!

Wonderful commentary... better personality! When you speak about chess as it relates to alpha zero, there is an element of excitement, discovery, and innocence as if im watching a child play a game with brilliancy for the first time. Quite refreshing and enjoyable.

Time to wheel out a6 in the Italian.

I came to Anna after looking for AlphaZero, and I really like her mix of irony, clean explanations and smiles! That said, there were some comments asking why after 18…Rf8xf5 (14:50), SF didn’t respond immediately forking the bishop and the knight with …g4, and a good explanation was given by Anna at 39:48 («sometimes even a piece down is ok if you can manage to weaken opponent’s King to such an extent»). I think we shall all agree with her, and infact even SF doesn’t care about this fork: after Rf5 g4 [FEN "1r1q3k/b1p4p/B2p3p/4pr1b/P2P1nP1/2P2N1P/1P1N1P2/R2Q1R1K b - g3 0 1"], the best continuation would not be Rf8 gxh5 but (similarly to what her explained a minute before) Rxb2! (notice Qd1 hasn’t moved to c2 yet), Ne4! Qa8, Rb1 Nxh3, Rxb2 Bxg4, Bb7 Qf8, Ng3 Rxf3, Qb1 h5, Bxf3 Qxf3+, Kh2 h4, game still open but white King is in a cage (I let SF12 and Lc0 play this for 4 hours and Black wins). Nonetheless I think there is something more going on here that Anna didn’t explain: why did AZ move 18…Rf8xf5 (14:35) in the first place? AZ can not trick the opponent so that’s not the case. And AZ thinks in terms of positions, it never cared about pieces, so to take the free f5 pawn losing two tempos seems a poor explanation. Yes it’s a passed pawn but very weak, I don’t really think AZ would mind it. 15:34 Anna says «sometimes you gotta go for the retreating moves», that’s a good advice for a human, but not a justification to why AZ took the pawn on f5 just to retreat the Rook back on the next move. I would be really scared if the reason was to have the White Queen on the c2 square to menace Kb4 forking White’s Queen and Bishop and eventually trap the the Queen as Anna illustrates in the variation (17:44)! And to avoid this variation (19:00) SF not only has to give up its Rook on e3 (like it did), but also has to retreat its Queen back to c1, proving that eventually was SF which lost tempo with Qc1c2-Qc2c1, not AZ with Rf8xf5-Rf5f8! THIS IS REALLY SCARING.

Fascinating and very informative. This is a new era in chess ☺

This content is pure gold. You have the best analysis videos, and I can't wait for the endgame series. Thank you!

Love your AlphaZero videos. Informative, entertaining, and utterly charming. More please.

I really like your simplistic (for us) but same time very accurate summary of the position. WTfudge moments are exactly the WTF moments?! - Thanks for this.

Anna: "I'm a fan of free stuff." AlphaZero: "Nothing is more expensive than a free pawn."

I just love the way she explains,

"what the fudge, chocolate fudge" Very fun and instructive video Anna

As is explained in the first video, most Chess AI make decisions loosely based on the point value of the pieces, where as AlphaZero built up an understanding simply based on the rules. However, in that video there was a move it used that StockFish hadn't considered at all. That makes me believe the more advantageous benefit to the way AlphaZero learned the game is not only that it has developed a complete ground-up understanding of the game and it's patterns, but it also uses that completely unique understanding when deciding how it's opponent is going to move.

AlphaZero playing chess like Mikhail Tal on steroids

Square color choice so soothing I forgot both sides are trying to kill each other...

3:28 Nah, the King ain’t the boss of *you* Anna. Another awesome analytical video> Many thanks.

I could watch you analyze games all day long. Your explanations are soooooo good. I feel like I learned a lot.

The red shoes in the background are the feature of this video

I do so love your channel, Anna! Beauty and Brains, a winning "combination" every time! :-) keep up the good work. I need to check out your course, next! Look forward to more Sub wars With Alexandra! Take care...

AlphaZ seems to think pawns are hinderance.. Luv your analysis vids by the way .. good job!

old skool says A0 is weak position and mistake only a beginner would make ..its thinking is truly groundbreaking ..btw you are HILARIOUS! and the most complete best analysis move by move anywhere i have seen ..how has this changed your game Ana ..that would be truly instructive as well

"Feel free to pause the video and find the winning move for AlphaZero while I give you a couple of seconds."

So one thing strategically I think you can take home from Alpha zeros strategy that it likes it’s bishops it did a move to prophylactically save the black bishop in the first several moves which Miss Rudolf was saying she thought that was a beginner move but clearly in the middle game both of the bishops are sitting on the sidelines with attack diagonals for the white king and I’ve seen several games of Alpha zero do that I think that’s a big take-home.

32:34 ''PAC MAN mode'' Never heard that in chess before XD

The knight move to the edge which is captured by a bishop, thus destroying king side pawns was played by Bobby Fischer vs Spassky, Game 3, 1972: 11. ... Nh5, which Fischer went on to win.

Wow! This match was amazing! And your suggestions are excellent! Definitely a great contribution to our understanding of the game. I will save the video! 👍

I had watched this on other channels, but you are way more knowledgeable about what it's happening on the board. Very competent analysis

Very intelligent, a great sense of humor and stunning looks. A great teacher and a lot of passion! Every man's dream! I love your content, Anna. Keep it up and your channel will grow for sure. Hopefully I'll be a half decent chess player sometime :P

Holy fuck, I thought your comment section would somewhat improve since the soothouse vid! Great content btw!

21:46 AlphaZero sure loves its dragons

This is actually pretty good learning! Gonna watch some more of you :)

I'd like to think that the king on h8 and bishop on a8 were just sitting back talking to one another while everyone else was frantically moving around

Big reasons why this works is very much also simply that black is slightly better developed, with more attacking pieces on the kingside, AND of course, the bishop pair: the black King's bishop is potentially very strong.

Anna, thank you for the wonderfully insightful presentation on Alpha-go.

Oh my god!!!!! Somehow I got this video in my recommendation and just clicked. I don’t know many chess players but somehow I knew that I have seen Anna somewhere before. It is only in the middle of the game that I realized that she is the “Anna”, the “Lip Balm Lady”. I like to watch Agadmator’s chess analysis and in one of his video, he talked about Anna and her lip balm. I also saw the funny answer that Anna commented on Agadmator’s video. What I have learned is that if a girl beats you in chess, you can blame it on her lip balm :)

Stockfish did not take the knight on h6 earlier, doubling and isolating blacks pawns only because black had no way to prevent this. As soon as Kh8 was played, Ng8 was a possible retreating move and only then the knight was taken.

Alpha0 playing chess is like that meme with the dog drinking coffee while the house is on fire

Beautiful lesson and demonstration.Thank you ❤

Second time I see alpha zero showing that his pawns are things that are limiting his rooks power .. always opening up lines for the rooks .. I gotta start studying gambits lol

I like the way you say "hie" at the start of video!

it's a joy to watch your videos. You are so much fun to watch!

My first Anna video - how fun

I tried to subscribe but RU-vid says i have too many subscriptions !!!! I have learned so much in just viewing two of your videos !!!!! Thank you !!!!

Anna has the best AlphaZero content

8:28, Anna explaining to us and all of the sudden the black F pawn moves to f5... how dare it to move without permission!!!

I like how you personify AlphaZero. It gives the impression AlphaZero is plotting and scheming very thoroughly throughout the game.

Great insight! Thanks for taking the time to make something so comprehensive!

Good points said in a funny style... "This is Pacman mode"

Anna's About blurb: "My primary goal, with any video of mine, is to make you smile :)" Good job, Anna! ;^>

Thank You Anna, You are just superb !!! I love to listen to you. I wish many commented games with Alpha-Zero on various openings. Warmest Regards !!!

watching this again, and I see how excellent chess teacher you are :) but, I wished to tell you, though you probably know, that, since then, Stockfish also became an artificial neural network engine; only with a smaller faster net called NNUE, and the same classical alpha-beta search; the only what changed is evaluation function, which is now replaced with a small artificial neural network; so, Stockfish 12, the first Stockfish with NNUE, the latest version is Stockfish 13, has convincingly beaten Leela Chess Zero, which is effectively Alpha Chess Zero; there are now a number of other storing chess engines implementing NNUE, but Stockfish seems still to be the strongest; I too implemented NNUE in my Crafty chess engine clone, called, Vafra chess engine, which is to be released soon :) that's it; all those artificial neural network chess engines, either with bigger and slower nets and MCTS like Alpha Zero, or with smaller and faster nets and alpha-beta search like NNUE Stockfish, play similar sacrificial attacking romantic chess :) P.S. it was always difficult for me to play with black against Giuoco Piano

An issue with black playing a6 is that in this opening, there is a stand-off between white's bishop in e3 and black's bishop on c4. Black wants to retreat the bishop to b6, so that each side capturing leads to an open file for his opponent. With a6, black no longer has this option.

Black king was actually quite safe. White traded the dark squared bishop so there is no check along that long diagonal. It would be bad if that bishop was still on the board

You speak exquisite English and your accent is quite simply adorable. And 'what the chocolate fudge' made my day. One little pedant gripe though - it's fewer squares, not less squares.

Such a pleasant description.

I'm glad you mentioned a3 will likely not become popular. Alpha Zero was an eye-opener but we should remember that this was not a public event and the hardware/time control environment did not suit Stockfish well nor was Alpha Zero trained to full potential. If this game were played by SF11 and Leela at proper time controls and today's hardware, a3 would likely be a blunder difficult to recover from.

What a sweet commentation. It was like listening to a novel. I never felt it was a chess attack lesson...thank you...it was easy to understand for me as Iranian.

Great video, very instructive and fascinating and of course this beautiful and smart teacher keeps the viewer on his toes.

thank you for posting this anna

27:28 Rb2c8 prevents trapping the bishop!

happy to have found this channel!

Couldn't unnotice, if thats a word, the poster on the wall which reminded me of a russian saying: there is no way to happiness, happiness is the way; sounds better than the poster's although possibly with same meaning.

(4:10) h3 for otherwise Nd4 by black will be deadly. Fisher played knights like that.

7:11 > ".. everything is harmonious, natural, beautiful". Just like you Anna. (Yes, yes, I know. Grovel grovel schnivvel...;-) ) Great vids BTW... Keep uploading.

If I remember correctly, on one of the games that Fischer included in his "my 60 memorable games" , he has comments on a variation (did not actually happened in the game) that has a similar case : Fischer was black , small castling , and there was a chance for his white opponent to capture something that would open the g file for Black, and Fischer was giving a variation that he would (as black) move his king to h8 and then bring a rook to g8 , attacking the white king on g1. So he already in the 60ies could think like that.

Thanks GM Anna. Subscribed to your wonderful channel.

Brain works and works and now believe my chess is Halma.... But these super explained chess-situations make me crazy...! Breakfast with you every day.....and a Wine! Thank you!

Came to a point where i realized im not really on the particular game. hmm kept starring, caught myself fascinated with all the movements and suddenly felt delighted. Yeah AlphaZero maybe is amazing, so im gonna watch more.

Great analysis as usual

This is the first Anna Rudolf video I've watched, and it will NOT be the last. Brilliant, funny, and SO perceptive. I'm still not sure we can learn from computer chess, however. We just can't think that deep.

alphazero: i don't believe in fortresses. mangus carlsen: would you like to be my friend?

Beautiful explanation of Black's unconventional game, thank you Anna.

Alpha Zero, like Tal, taught me piece value is relative to position.

Awesome stuff Anna!