Game 8/10
The MCGP2024 outsmarts the Maia with the Ruy Lopez!
[Event "Active,Classic Book"]
[Round "8"]
[White "MCGP2024"]
[Black "Maia1900 6 ply"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C63"]
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 f5 4.Nc3 Nf6 5.Qe2 Bc5 6.exf5 {Out of book} O-O 7.Qc4+ d5 8.Qxc5 Bxf5 9.Bxc6 bxc6 10.Qxc6 d4 11.Qc4+ Kh8 12.Ne2 Be4 13.Nxe5 Bxg2 14.Rg1 Bd5 15.Qxd4 Qe7 16.d3 c5 17.Qe3 Rae8 18.Qg5 Qb7 19.Bf4 Bf3 20.Nxf3 h6 21.Qg6 Re7 22.Bd6 Rfe8 23.Bxe7 Rxe7 24.Qf5 Qxb2 25.Kd2 Qb4+ 26.Nc3 c4 27.Ne5 cxd3 28.Ng6+ Kg8 29.Nxe7+ Kh8 30.Ng6+ Kg8 31.Qc8+ Kf7 32.Ne5+ Ke7 33.Rxg7+ Kd6 34.Nf7+ Ke7 35.Ng5+ Kd6 36.Qc7# 1-0
The Maia bot may not blunder pieces in an obvious way now that it has some look-ahead ability but sometimes still makes bad moves. Take the following position from the game:
The MCGP2024 was now out of book and had just taken the f5 pawn with 6.exf5. Black now needs to support the King Pawn that is currently only protected by the Knight on c6 that is itself under attack by White’s Bishop. I don’t know if Maia’s next move can be considered a more human move, I think not at this level of play! Here it somehow decides that castling would be good 6…O-O? It doesn’t require much look ahead to see that Black will lose its Bishop on c5. 7. Qc4+ The MCGP2024 seizes the gift! 7…d5 8. Qxc5 Bxf5 and now Maia is a Bishop down. So soon into the game and Maia is in a bad way.
Play continued 9. Bxc6 bxc6 10. Qxc6 and now Black has lost a Pawn.
A few moves later in the following position:
White had just moved 12. Ne2 and now Black’s Pawn on e5 can be captured with the Knight without worrying about it being pinned by Black's Rook. 12…Be4? Is Maia playing suicide chess!? Better would have been 12…Qd6. Play continued 13. Nxe5 Bxg2 14. Rg1 and White is in a good position with a strong King-side attack mounting:
From here the MCGP2024 cruised to victory in the second shortest game of the match.
The Maia bot has no clue how to play the Ruy Lopez, maybe this indicates the games it was trained with were not good examples or possibly more likely a magnitude higher number of games is required to handle complicated openings. That being said, considering its limited depth of search compared to the MCGPro that was always looking at least 1 extra ply ahead, and 4 or 5 extra in the end games, the Maia has not done too badly and as we have seen, has managed to outplay the MCGP in the least number of moves in this match.
Current score 5 – 3 to the MCGPro2024