If, instead of 25 Qd1, White had played the more obvious 25 Nb5, to save the knight and maintain the three-pawn advantage, Black would really have shown its attacking teeth with 25вЂ¦Bf3!! Stockfish suddenly spotted the greater danger and it would have been a sensational attack by Alpha Zero. This is how the game went and Black won on move 48.

Looking at the position given above it would be hard to imagine the black rook could possibly play a decisive role in a kingside attack, but it doesnвЂ™t take very long at all for it to find a route into the action.Дў5 Qd1 вЂStockfish blinks! It clearly saw something it didnвЂ™t like after 25 Nb5 and decided to bail out bit the resulting position is awful.вЂ™ Indeed, after 25 вЂ¦Qxd1 the queen swap turns out well for Black as 26 Rxd1 Rxa7 wins the knight. But Alpha Zero has one more card to playвЂ¦Дў4 вЂ¦Ra8! We are always told to try the make most of all of our pieces. The attack will also be greatly reduced in strength if the black queen has to retreat from the actionвЂ™s front line, so at first impression it looks like Stockfish is doing everything right.

Stockfish 8 is very strong too вЂ“ but one of them must be misjudging the position.Дў4 h3 which prevents the threatened 24 вЂ¦Qxh2 checkmate and, according the authors, вЂgains the defensive resource of Qd1 followed by Qg4, breaking up the attack.вЂ™ Indeed, if White can force a straightforward exchange of queens then BlackвЂ™s attack will not be worth three pawns. With Alpha Zero in charge of the black pieces we can be sure the attack is worth the sacrificed material. We have probably all experienced вЂ“ many times вЂ“ games against computers in which we think we have a good attack going in return for material, only to find the pure calculating power of the machines has seen far deeper and the attack turns out to be completely insufficient. The black queen and the bishop pair are working so well together, with lots of open lines towards the white king. Yet Alpha Zero has excellent attacking chances by way of compensation.

White is three pawns ahead and at our level of chess that is normally a winning advantage. This time we will see an example of a much more direct attack, with the two bishops proving to be an especially strong team. Last time in our investigation of this fascinating new book, we saw Alpha Zero squeeze the вЂlifeвЂ™ out of Stockfish 8.

Alpha zero vs stockfish chess game