23 January 2010

GMs vs. 2100-2200 (I)

Here's a little experiment combining the idea from How Top Players Treat the Same Chess960 Position with Tartakower and Chess960, where I looked at an early round game in an Swiss-style open event between a strong player and a less accomplished player. For this present post I took the games from the top ten boards of the first round of the 2009 Mainz Chess960 Open (see CCM9: Nakamura, Grischuk, and Rybka; in each round of Mainz, all players start with the same position), where some of the world's top GMs faced opponents rated around 2100-2200. The GMs won all of the games.

The following chart shows the first moves by all players. In the notes I've given the names of the GMs, but named their opponents 'NN'. This is not through lack of respect for the lower rated players, but to keep the chart easier to read.

SP242: BNRKQBNR

What does this prove? The GMs were more consistent in their choice of first moves, but I'm not sure if this is a random result. Experiment to be repeated.

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