Daily Chess Puzzle

Today’s problem is from the recently published AlphaZero v Stockfish match.

Since the start of 2018, I have decided to adopt the style of only saying which side is to play: and not giving an idea if the move wins or otherwise, unless on occasion I think signposting would be helpful. Instead, the problems are posed with the instruction to decide what you would play, as in a game.

White to play

AlphaZero v Stockfish

Solution

1 d5!!

1…ed 2 Bd3!!

AlphaZero shows his preference for mobility over material. The opening of the long diagonal, where White’s bishop is unopposed, is worth more than a pawn.

The whole game is beautiful, and has been annotated by several players, e.g. on YouTube.

I have added the game score onto my ChessBase Cloud Database.

And an animated gif is here:

FEN

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