Silicon Road: Blitzing out Crazy Leela ideas on Lichess! Storming the solid Queen's Gambit Declined!

In July 2023, the Leela team introduced a feature called WDL (Win/Draw/Loss) Contempt. Behind this austere technical name, there's something amazingly cool! You tell Leela “Look I’m playing White against an opponent rated 400 ELO lower than me. Can you suggest some ideas in the opening to maximise my winning chances against such an opponent?” During analysis, Leela will look to sharpen the play to a degree appropriate to the ELO difference! This new series of videos has tested out completely fresh Leela ideas against unsuspecting Lichess blitz opponents! This video shows how Leela wants to take on the solid, venerable Queen's Gambit Declined! As always, there's a hugely detailed pgn with analysis of my Lichess games by Leela, Stockfish, Dragon and Torch which is available from a chapter of the following Lichess Study: lichess.org/st...
Check out the Leela blog for more technical explanations: lczero.org/blo...
My blog entry "Getting Leela to analyse and play in the style you want! Part 1 - Setting up WDL Contempt" matthewsadler.... explains how to set this feature up in the superb Nibbler GUI.
For more information about how to set up Leela and the Nibbler GUI, take a look at the free supplementary material provided with my book "The Silicon Road to Chess Improvement" (www.newinchess...)
Finally check out the cool new Novelty Grinder tool (github.com/ski... and matthewsadler....) which seeks out Leela opening suggestions in an automated fashion!
I’m grandmaster Matthew Sadler, a 2-times British Champion, and ranked in the world’s top 50 for many years. I’m also a prolific author. My latest book "Re-Engineering the Chess Classics" appeared in May 2023. It uses the techniques described in "The Silicon Road to Chess Improvement" to analyse afresh thirty-five of the most fascinating and complex chess games ever played by World Champions and other top grandmasters.
"Re-Engineering the Chess Classics" is available from here:
www.newinchess... (Paperback English edition)
www.amazon.co.... (Paperback English edition)
"The Silicon Road to Chess Improvement" - which came out in October 2021 is, just like this channel, all about learning from and training with engines. My previous book, the award-winning Game Changer - written together with Natasha Regan - brought the amazing chess games of DeepMind’s AlphaZero to the world.
The Silicon Road to Chess Improvement is available from here:
www.newinchess... (Paperback English edition)
www.amazon.com... (Paperback and Kindle)
forwardchess.c... (Digital)
"Game Changer" came out on 20th January 2019 and won the prestigious ECF Book of the Year and FIDE Book of the Year prizes for 2019! The Game Changer chess book is available in print and digital versions from these links:
newinchess.com/... (Paperback English edition)
forwardchess.c... (Digital)
www.chessable.... (Digital)
www.amazon.com... (Paperback and Kindle)
www.amazon.de/... (Hardback German edition)
#siliconroad
#matthewsadler
#tcec

[@user-gg6df4xr3i]

Leela is my new guilty pleasure

[@SiliconRoadChess]

😂

[@SiliconRoadChess]

This video shows how Leela wants to take on the solid, venerable Queen's Gambit Declined! As always, there's a hugely detailed pgn with analysis of my Lichess games by Leela, Stockfish, Dragon and Torch which is available from a chapter of the following Lichess Study: lichess.org/study/GJ5NRo9a

[@woodpusheralois4896]

Incredible stuff! After watching the Leela semislav video I played 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.g4 in some games - it’s pretty terrible unfortunately (though it did end up working a few times)! This is a much better version though, very happy to see this :) really looking forward to the suggestion against the Ragozin as well! Thanks for this amazing content!!

[@SiliconRoadChess]

Ah great! Yes this works very well with the g-pawn being undefended and the dark-squared bishop already committed to e7. It's a pretty decent line objectively as well in my opinion, quite apart from the shock value!

[@Aji-llo]

This is a very, very interesting idea. I’ll have to try it out! Thank you Matthew

[@SiliconRoadChess]

It's really worth it! Not any worse than the normal (boring) lines in my opinion!

[@ferzanazizoglu4819]

I am a big fan of your channel. I was against computer chess until your books and channel. But now ı follow your videos with great enthusiasm. "open lines, space advantage, initiative, piece activity" seeing engines using these themes while creating masterpieces of attack really sharpened my vision. Even Great Tal would be thrilled to see these attacking schemes. Thank you sir.

[@SiliconRoadChess]

Ah thanks! I do think indeed too that the way engines play chess would be something that would thrill the great attacking players of yesteryear. And I really think that the thrills we get at the lite level nowadays is also due to these great players learning from engines. Hope it continues for a long time!

[@MultiMarcd]

So many crazy lines to bring every men to the party. I'm working a lot on tactics puzzles by this time and it seems to me that this pgn is loaded with crazy (The gmmat tactics pgn) tactics. Thanks Matthew.

[@SiliconRoadChess]

Thanks Marc! 😊😊😊

[@gmenon]

Maestro, this series has been simply sublime. Thank you so much for putting this stuff out there. Ever since the first video I've eagerly explored all the lines you've been playing in blitz in anticipation of what would come next. With that I have a couple of questions: 1. Do you have any plans to cover that Richter Rauzer line you've been playing with 6.Bg5 Qb6 7.Nb3 Ng4!? and 2. Do you have any plans for more white ideas with 1.e4/ is 5.g4 vs the Kan really WDL contempt approved? Thank you so much, it's really been tremendous fun

[@SiliconRoadChess]

Hey thanks! 😊😊 I may do some stuff on my Black repertoire too. That isn't actually Leela's in fact though still somewhat inspired by what I think Leela miught do! That Rauzer line is really pretty dodgy unfortunately though I've been having some fun with it. I am currently doing a lot of stuff on 1.e4 so I'll make a series of vidoes on that as well. A little bit tougher oddly enough: feels like there are more lines to take account of, or maybe I just know 1.d4 better! But I've got some very nice things already!

[@gmenon]

@@SiliconRoadChess Great news!! Thank you so much! Also speaking of the black repertoire I thought it might be interesting to see what Crazy Leela likes vs it's own d4 repertoire. For instance I was curious if the KID with the early a5 or even that interesting Englund Gambit line you've trotted out were suggestions by Crazy Leela. Looks a touch dodgy to put it mildly but also looks like quite a bit of fun!

[@Jaylooker]

A well-time start of a pawn storm where you expect the opponent’s king to castle in the opening can be very dangerous. I wonder if this g4 idea also works against the Queen’s Gambit Declined: Semi-Tarrasch when 4. c5 is played instead of 4.Be7 since black may be play c5 anyway in this line to get counterplay.

[@richardlay8504]

Nice... as in Fast Show's Jazz Club. Literally LOLd. Some absolute filth, Matthew! :)

[@SiliconRoadChess]

😂😂

[@Temiraker]

g4, who would've guessed :)

[@SiliconRoadChess]

😂😂😂

[@magic_hotel]

Incredible! I'll just toss all of my opening books in the bin. No more minority attacks. What will Keith Arkell make of it?

[@SiliconRoadChess]

Well he always says that g4 is his favourite move! 😊Maybe he'll start playing it too! 😉😊