Finding Difference Makers

Using JavaScript tools I recently created, you can determine the square utilization or occupancy for any particular piece, for any given square, across all moves and all games in a PGN database. One potentially useful application is to apply these tools separately to the wins and losses (1-0 versus 0-1) in the database of your choice. As featured in a recent ChessBase article, I have done this to find which piece movements or placements are featured more often in wins versus losses. These are potential difference makers in a chess game.

In this post, I will describe in more detail how I performed these calculations. Although this can be done by hand, I created an Excel spreadsheet to facilitate processing of the data you can get from using the aforementioned tools. This spreadsheet is available for download; select 'Read More' to see the rest of this article to find instructions on how use the excel file, as well tips on how to represent the results using the heatmap tool. Stay tuned for more differential data and analysis in the coming weeks.

As featured on ChessBase

It was very exciting to see this morning that the editors at ChessBase have published the article I wrote that describes the chess tools I have recently posted about. For those who haven't seen it, I encourage you to give it a look.

Some of you may be viewing this blog for the first time due to the ChessBase article. To all of you, I say welcome! Although my updates to this blog are not that frequent (once a week at best), if you found the article interesting you should subscribe or keep your eye on this space. Here is some of what you can come to expect in the near future from Science on the Squares:

• The excel file 'tool' I use for normalizing the data I collect and finding the differential between two data sets, available for download along with instructions
• More information on how I created the heatmaps, and why I used particular settings
• A post concerning what I think the proper use of these tools are. This will expand upon my thoughts from a previous post, in which I argued for a scientific approach to chess.
• Responses to the comments by readers of the ChessBase article.
• More data and analysis of players and openings! In addition to the Sveshnikov Sicilian, I have already looked at the Winawer French, the Ruy Lopez Exchange Variation and Breyer Variation, and the Smith Morra Gambit.

Thanks again to all my readers, and a special thanks to the editors at ChessBase!

Chessboard Heatmap and Updates

In a previous post, I introduced a suite of Javascript tools that can be used to reformat PGN files and determine square utilization (traffic) and square occupancy (parking) for different pieces. Since that post, I have rewritten the code and improved the functionality of each of these tools. I have used these tools to collect data on square utilization or occupancy, which I then process further in an excel file (which I will make available shortly) and generate heatmaps using Plotly. However, Plotly was cumbersome to use, having to reformat the heatmap for each data set.

Here, I am introducing another Javascript tool that can be used to take square utilization or occupancy data and generate customizable heatmaps specifically for chess. This can be found at the following address: http://djcamenares.x10.mx/chess/heatmap.shtml

In the rest of this post, I describe how to use the features on the heatmap program, as well as detailing other updates to the site. Select 'Read More' to view the rest of the article. Please feel free to share your comments regarding this tool, especially if you used it to generate interesting insights!

Tools for Statistics of the Squares

Ever wonder which squares see the most traffic? Or which squares have pieces 'parked' on them for the longest periods of a game? Now, you can answer these questions easily using a series of JavaScript powered tools I have developed. These are based upon the LT-PGN JavaScript viewer, and calls upon that code (which I did not write) for certain functions. In fact, it directly calls upon the LT-PGN PGN2FEN tool, although my adaptation can handle PGN files with multiple games. 

I was inspired to develop these tools after reading some of the chess-visualization articles posted on the ChessBase website, namely, the analysis of square utilization by Seth Kadish earlier last year (analysis which you can also find at Seth's blog). I really liked the approach, and although the source of the game PGNs were made clear, I wasn't sure how he extracted the data. Also, I thought there was potential to observe more than just square utilization, or 'traffic'.

In order to carry out this analysis, I created three separate JavaScript tools. They aren't shining examples of efficient coding, but they get the job done. They are as follows:

Reformatting PGN Text
http://djcamenares.x10.mx/chess/pgnreform.shtml
Although PGN files from 365chess.com can be used directly in the downstream applications, the chess software I use (HIARCS) places line breaks within the game score. This tool will remove them, leaving all other features of the PGN intact.

Move Counting (Determining Square 'Traffic')
http://djcamenares.x10.mx/chess/traffic.shtml
This tool takes a PGN file, with single or multiple games, and can determine the square utilization or traffic of the White player, Black player, or both players. It also reformats the PGN so as to remove the header tags.

Batch Conversion of PGN to FEN, Counting Square Occupancy ('Parking')
http://djcamenares.x10.mx/chess/parking.shtml
This tool takes a PGN file, with single or multiple games, and does several things. First, it removes header tags from the PGN. Then, it converts the PGN first to FEN, then to an expanded version of FEN in which each square, filled or empty, is declared. Finally, the occupancy, or parking, of different pieces (selected by user) on each square is reported.

To see some example results of these tools, which expands upon the aforementioned work by Kadish, please select 'Read More' below. 

Chess Channels on Youtube: A Brief Review

There is a wealth of chess information available now on the internet, and arguably the fastest and most useful repository for chess is now found on YouTube. There are many different channels and videos on YouTube devoted to chess, ranging from coverage of tournaments, instructional lessons and lectures, and even blitz games with live commentary.

Below is a list of some of my favorite channels devoted to Chess. I'm not the first to attempt such a list. For example, OnlineChessLessons.net offers an interesting list. My list focuses more on live blitz games with commentary, with my three favorite channels as follows:

Chessexplained
This channel is my personal favorite, and it is maintained by IM Christof Sielecki. He is a very strong player with a positional style and a great approach to the game. There is a variety of videos at the channel, including instructional lessons on tactics, openings, and endgames, as well as coverage of major tournaments and matches. Best of all, he usually posts three blitz or rapid games with commentary every day. I'm quite surprised that Sielecki's channel is not on OCL's list mentioned above.

Kingscrusher
Another great and active channel by a very strong player. Compared to the positional style of Christof Sielecki, Kingscrusher has stronger focus on aggressive, open, or gambit lines. He also uses a relatively more systematic and sometimes rigid style of commentary, searching for the weakness of the last move and using other interesting decision making devices. He also has an associated website that is useful for navigating his video series. 

Chess.com
This channel contains a wide variety of videos, all of them of great quality. This channel is actively updated and has many live commentary games, mostly by the entertaining and insightful IM Danny Rensch. There are also 'Hack Attack' session by IM Thomas Rendle. If you like the videos, you should consider joining the main chess.com site and subscribing to their premium video service.

Select 'read more' to see the rest of my list. What are your favorite YouTube chess videos and channels? Please feel free to share them in the comments section.

Practical Chances and a Romantic Opening Shootout

In keeping with the new focus of this blog, I decided to carry out a small experiment regarding opening theory. As a way of judging the merits of several romantic opening lines, such as the Pierce Gambit, Frankenstein-Dracula variation, and Halloween Gambit, I have performed a series of Engine-Engine matches using HIARCS (I use a Mac).

In these matches, I varied the time allotted to the engines for making moves, in order to determine in a quantitative fashion if a particular line offers practical chances and pressure, but can be defused with accurate defense. In the complete article below, I explain my motivation, methodology, and my results. This is a preliminary analysis, and future posts will continue this work, for example by looking at engine evaluations and comparing them with the results.

Still, a few interesting results were apparent. In particular, I was interested in several lines in the Pierce gambit, which starts with 1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.f4 exf4 4.Nf3 g5 5.d4 g4 6.Bc4 gxf3 7.O-O Nxd4! (Strongest test against the Pierce) 8.Bxf4 (the Knight is immune due to threats of Qg5 followed by Bc5 or Qg2) Bc5 9.Bxf7?! Kxf7 10.Be3

According to my analysis, the line with 9.Bxf7 Kxf7 10.Be3 is inferior for White, as others have suggested in the past. Notably, Ian Simpson at his excellent blog and site, The Gambiteers Guild, suggests that this might be playable for White, if it wasn't for 10...Qf6 11.Nd5 Qe5 12.Rxf3, when White's compensation falls short. In fact, 12.c3 instead should lead to at least an even game, with some pressure and practical chances for White. Some of the computer lines that I generated from this line are both amusing and instructive.

Select read more to see the complete article, with results, discussion, and my methodology. Think I missed something, or have an opening you'd like analyzed this way? Please feel free to share in the comments below.

Hello to a New Journal, Farewell to a Friend

The Journal of Chess Research is a new scholarly or academic journal that will feature scientific articles and studies centered around chess. In some ways, this project is a more formalized and serious version of this blog itself (with a much more impressive board of editors and potential authors). The journal itself was featured in another chess publication, Chess Life (official magazine of the USCF) in a recent issue. You can also read more about this project at their website or at Susan Polgar’s excellent blog. 

            Speaking of excellent blogs, one of my favorite chess authors and friend, Michael Goeller, is hanging up his hat with regards to the Kenilworthian. You can read about his decision to do so, and a reflection on his amazing blogging journey, at his final post, The End of Chess Blogging. His articles were always interesting, well written, well researched, and very enjoyable to read. For at least one reader (myself), his writing will be sorely missed.

            I may be reaching my own end of chess blogging; work commitments to both teaching and research continue to prevent me from making consistent posts. I will be sacrificing time that could be used for Science on the Squares in order to revive my other blog, Just Me and Eubacteria, which is more in-line with my professional interests. Towards this end, I have removed some of the content from this blog, scrubbing out broken links and images where I can. I may occasionally post a game or analysis here or there, but regretfully these posts will be few and far in-between.