20 September 2021

TCEC VSOB Opening Tools

In the previous post on engine competitions, TCEC VSOB 21, CCC Blitz 2021 : Both Still Underway (September 2021), I copied a couple of the TCEC !Commands. Here's the second of them:-

!vsob1 • Before you submit a VSOB opening you can check if it is completely busted at
   https://www.chessdb.cn/queryc_en/
or (if it is more of a fantasy opening) at
   https://lichess.org/analysis/standard/

TCEC VSOB = Viewer Submitted Openings Bonus. Let's turn those two URLs into clickable links for further investigation.

1) Chess Cloud Database Query Interface (chessdb.cn). Its 'Info & Help' page explains,

Chess Cloud Database (aka "CDB") is a massive chess knowledge database, including an opening book and endgame tablebases. In contrast to traditional opening book building from game results, CDB is built entirely from analyzing individual moves using chess engines while overcoming their problems such as aggressive pruning and blind spots. CDB attempts to explore and define new chess opening theories, currently it includes most of the popular opening lines and yet still refining the results.

Further references to the endgame tablebases use the acronym 'EGTB'.

2) Analysis board (lichess.org). It also incorporates a tablebase, which I discussed a few years ago in Seven-piece Tablebase on Lichess (August 2018). I've used it many times since and it's a great tool. For completeness, I should mention another tablebase tool released recently: Chess.com Announces New Tablebase Feature (chess.com).

I started this post with the intention of examining the use of these tools for opening analysis, not for endgame tablebases. Unfortunately, I found nothing worth reporting for opening analysis. Good openings respect chess logic; bad openings don't. It really is that simple, as the tools consistently confirm. Maybe if I give it more time, something unusual will appear.

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