In Stockfish we trust

I’ve had a bit of feedback on my last post so thought I’d better close this subject off before I go back to my normal website activity – fiddling with font sizes etc.

To put this in a bit of context, I have a lot of respect for Chris Ross – I have been duffed up by him on a number of occasions before and since this game which he obviously won fair and square in the end. Clearly his achievements are admirable and, as he suggests in the introduction to this book, he may well be “one of the strongest completely blind chess players in the world and within English history”.

Conversely the Steve Pike that now plays for Bedford D and is about to be relegated from Bedford club division 1 does play “ugly moves”, does put his pieces on “unattractive squares”, doesn’t “consider the consequence of his pawn structure” and all too often does play with “bemused .. desperation” but, I would humbly suggest, not in this game!

I know that Chris likes to explain what he was thinking about at the time, rather than just regurgitating a lot of engine moves in hindsight, which I like, but I think you need to cross check your evaluations, however good you are!

Anyway, you judge: