Check out Grant Acedrex, our featured variant for April, 2024.

Enter Your Reply

The Comment You're Replying To
Sam Trenholme wrote on Thu, Oct 8, 2009 06:09 PM UTC:
As noted here, White has, with the Joker80 engine, about an 8% edge, regardless of the time control used. Here is a breakdown of the first move made by White and White’s subsequent win/loss/draw ratio when we play 40-moves-in-4-second games: 
f3    Win: 51.462%  Loss: 35.0877% draw 13.4503% Total 171
c4    Win: 48.5075% Loss: 38.0597% draw 13.4328% Total 134
c3    Win: 47.6923% Loss: 38.4615% draw 13.8462% Total 130
e4    Win: 46.9965% Loss: 40.636%  draw 12.3675% Total 283
f4    Win: 45.6522% Loss: 43.1159% draw 11.2319% Total 276
h3    Win: 41.6667% Loss: 50%      draw 8.33333% Total 12
Total Win: 47.6143% Loss: 39.8608% draw 12.5249% Total 1006
Here is the same chart when we give Joker80 90 seconds to play 40 moves (per side): 
j3    Win: 100%     Loss: 0%       draw 0%       Total 2
f4    Win: 54.7945% Loss: 31.5068% draw 13.6986% Total 73
e3    Win: 53.8462% Loss: 46.1538% draw 0%       Total 13
c4    Win: 48.1663% Loss: 36.6748% draw 15.1589% Total 409
f3    Win: 47.4576% Loss: 45.7627% draw 6.77966% Total 59
e4    Win: 46.9444% Loss: 40.8333% draw 12.2222% Total 360
c3    Win: 42.5926% Loss: 42.5926% draw 14.8148% Total 54
g4    Win: 36.3636% Loss: 63.6364% draw 0%       Total 11
h3    Win: 31.5789% Loss: 52.6316% draw 15.7895% Total 19
b3    Win: 0%       Loss: 100%     draw 0%       Total 1
g3    Win: 0%       Loss: 100%     draw 0%       Total 1
Total Win: 47.505%  Loss: 39.4212% draw 13.0739% Total 1002
So, the question is, can Black equalize if we give him a small opening book?

It would appear he may be able to.

For example, I have had my computer play a lot of 40-moves-in-16-seconds games, starting with either 1. e4 d5 or 1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Nb6 (here, White can not hold on to the pawn). Here are the results: 

e4-d5-exd5-Ad6 Win: 100%     Loss: 0%       draw 0%       Total 1
e4-d5-exd5-f6  Win: 55.6604% Loss: 33.0189% draw 11.3208% Total 106
e4-d5-exd5-f5  Win: 54.1353% Loss: 37.594%  draw 8.27068% Total 133
e4-d5-exd5-Nb6 Win: 45.4765% Loss: 41.9783% draw 12.5452% Total 1658
Total          Win: 46.6807% Loss: 41.1486% draw 12.1707% Total 1898
We can see that, with this defense, we reduce White’s advantage after playing 1. e4 from around 6.5% to around 3.5%, helping equalize the game for Black; Joker80 doesn’t do any reply besides exd5 after 1. e4 d5.

My theory is that we can find equalizing replies for Black to other White first moves in the Schoolbook opening array. For example, preliminary research suggest that the position after 1. f4 c5 strongly favors Black (but I’m putting this line of research on hold because I’m currently playing a Game Courier game with this opening).


Edit Form

Comment on the page Schoolbook

Conduct Guidelines
This is a Chess variants website, not a general forum.
Please limit your comments to Chess variants or the operation of this site.
Keep this website a safe space for Chess variant hobbyists of all stripes.
Because we want people to feel comfortable here no matter what their political or religious beliefs might be, we ask you to avoid discussing politics, religion, or other controversial subjects here. No matter how passionately you feel about any of these subjects, just take it someplace else.
Quick Markdown Guide

By default, new comments may be entered as Markdown, simple markup syntax designed to be readable and not look like markup. Comments stored as Markdown will be converted to HTML by Parsedown before displaying them. This follows the Github Flavored Markdown Spec with support for Markdown Extra. For a good overview of Markdown in general, check out the Markdown Guide. Here is a quick comparison of some commonly used Markdown with the rendered result:

Top level header: <H1>

Block quote

Second paragraph in block quote

First Paragraph of response. Italics, bold, and bold italics.

Second Paragraph after blank line. Here is some HTML code mixed in with the Markdown, and here is the same <U>HTML code</U> enclosed by backticks.

Secondary Header: <H2>

  • Unordered list item
  • Second unordered list item
  • New unordered list
    • Nested list item

Third Level header <H3>

  1. An ordered list item.
  2. A second ordered list item with the same number.
  3. A third ordered list item.
Here is some preformatted text.
  This line begins with some indentation.
    This begins with even more indentation.
And this line has no indentation.

Alt text for a graphic image

A definition list
A list of terms, each with one or more definitions following it.
An HTML construct using the tags <DL>, <DT> and <DD>.
A term
Its definition after a colon.
A second definition.
A third definition.
Another term following a blank line
The definition of that term.